How much cargo can be carried by a spacecraft? (tons or lbs.)?

Question

On a spaceship that could possibly going to the I.S.S.

Answer 1

The space shuttle can carry 63,500 lbs to low earth orbit. It's still the most powerful launch vehicle operating today.

The Saturn V could carry 260,000 lbs to low earth orbit.

Answer 2

I assume you mean how much can be launched from Earth into an orbit or into space. Once in space, there is no limit to how much mass of cargo you can move, more cargo simply reduces the accelleration your engines will be able to produce.

So then, the answer depends on (A) the particular spacecraft launch vehicle, and (B) the intended orbit altitude.

The maximum thrust which the vehicle can produce is the limitting factor for how much can be lifted at all, since the weight of the payload, rocket, and fuel all must be significantly less than the thrust of the rocket or else the rocket will not be able to get off the ground and rise high enough above the earth to reach orbit or set off into space.

The altitude that you want to orbit the cargo at also comes into play -- it takes more energy (fuel) to lift a cargo mass into a higher orbit than it does to reach a lower orbit, and even more to reach say a lunar orbit or to go to the other planets or out of the solar system. In orbit even though you are "weightless" you are still well under control of Earth's gravitational field. To get past that and out to the moon or one of the other planets you need enough extra energy (thrust, fuel) to break free of Earth's gravity. And to go clear out into "outer space" (beyond the solar system) you need enough energy to break free even of the sun's gravitational influence, which is huge. For example, note how this article about the Saturn V moon rocket, it could lift 118,000 pounds into Low Earth Orbit but could only lift 47,000 pounds to a lunar orbit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V_rocket


Here is a file which has a nice chart showing the different payload limits that some current rockets can carry to different Low-Earth Orbits:
http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/usa/launch/sr_98_1q.pdf

Answer 3

Tons, when you consider the weight of persons and the weight of equipment etc that gets into tons and aslo pounds when you convert it to such..but a ship or shuttle can carry tons of weight.

Answer 4

Niether it is down to Grams. Everything is weighed down to the final gram.

Space and weight in a space vehicle is the most important think and has to e monitored. The basis really is value for weight and if you want an experiment to go up in space then design it to be as light as possible

Answer 5

Hi. 9,000 lbs for the Shuttle : http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/sts-107/cargo/index.html
Other heavy lift craft will have more capacity. Look up the Saturn rocket for the most powerful.

Answer 6

tons