When space shuttle starts coming back to earth. It suffers a significant amount of friction, which produces heat ..plasma trail..etc. Now is there any way we can fly like an aeroplane and get in the atmospheric level with limited amount of friction.
2006-09-27 08:54:16 · 9 answers · asked by eelantra 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
You asked two questions actually.
1) Can we control gravity? This is the holy grail of space travel. If we could control (or at least nullify) gravity, we could out almost anything we want into space. We do not know how to do this. We are not even close.
2) Can we fly like an aeroplane and get in the atmosphere with limited friction? Some studies have been done on this. There really isn't enough air up there to fly in. Once the crew fires the OMS engines, the shuttle falls for some time. The wings and control surfaces are useless until it is well into the upper atmosphere. It hits what little atmosphere there is at Mach 20 and converts it momentum to heat against the atmosphere until it is travelling in air thick enough for the control surfaces to be useful. The attitude control system (reaction thrusters) provide a lot of the control of the re-entry process.
Studies have been done on "skipping" (like skipping a stone on the water). It's the notion of briefly entering the atmosphere to slow down and then pulling up to cool off and then repeating that "skipping" process until the craft has slowed enough.
The computer simulations that I have read about indicate that the heating is actully worse that if you just do it and get it over with.
NOTE: Friction does not heat the shuttle tiles. It is almotst entirely radiant heat. The shuttle is going Mach 20 at the re-entry interface (about 300,000 feet). The air cannot get out of the way. So, a big pile of compressed air builds up "under" the shuttle. It gets very, very hot. That heat is radiated to the shuttle. There is actually a thin laminar flow of cooler air over the tiles.
One of the "failure scenarios" of the TPS (Thermal Protection System) is something called "rough tile". If enough tiles are damages on the underside of shuttle, the laminar flow will turn turbulent. Then, that superheated compressed air will come in direct contact with the tiles and it is more than they can handle. That is why the underside is so carefully inspected and maintained -- even before Columbia disaster.
2006-09-27 10:28:36 · answer #1 · answered by Otis F 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It isn't friction that causes the heat. That's an unfortunate myth. When an object hits something at a high rate of speed, some of its kinetic energy is translated into heat energy. When the shuttle hits air, heat is going to result from that impact. (Similarly, if an asteroid hits the earth, a great deal of heat is produced because the asteroid is going fast. Metal fabricators use this principle to work metal sometimes -- they simply "extrude" or pound a piece of metal so hard and so fast that the metal becomes hot, changes shape, and then cools again.)
Edit: Vigilant Moth wrote a pretty solid response while I was typing mine. You'll find it a bit above mine. So far, that's probably the best one to go with that I see here.
2006-09-27 16:05:43 · answer #2 · answered by Graythebruce 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Not yet. in order to maintain an orbit the shuttle has to keep moving wicked fast. Like 17,000 mph. Any slower and it'll hit the atmosphere and thermalize(burn up). The only way, as of today, to slow anything down in space is through friction, as in re-entry, or reverse thrust. the fact is the amount of fuel it would take to slow the shuttle enough for a nice slow, safe re-entry would cost too much to get up into space with the shuttle.
2006-09-27 16:04:18 · answer #3 · answered by Vigilant Möth 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Amount of friction must occur depending on the materials in contact. I believe the shuttle does fly like an airplane on its way back when it enters the earths thermosphere and the layers below (mesosphere, stratosphere and troposhere).
2006-09-27 16:04:49 · answer #4 · answered by Bob 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't think there's any way of avoiding that. Whatever enters the atmosphere gets burned.
It's doing a great job so far, but we're working
on damaging it.
2006-09-27 16:05:16 · answer #5 · answered by fespinal4444 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question touches on Anti-Gravity. Although we don't have the technology to harness anti-G's, it is theoreticaly possible and with given time and research, I'm sure humankind will master it.
2006-09-27 15:58:14 · answer #6 · answered by T F 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i saw a machine on discovery channel that could levitate anything with water in it using super magnets. they levitated a frog and it took an entire cities worth of electric to do it.
2006-09-27 21:26:08 · answer #7 · answered by hondacobra 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SpaceShipOne came pretty close to doing what you suggested.
2006-09-27 16:32:27 · answer #8 · answered by Serving Jesus 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
leave you body, go where ever you want to see and return before your body beguins to rot.
2006-09-27 16:04:21 · answer #9 · answered by yehoshooa adam 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋