Would a parachute work in space to slow a spaceship? much like it does on a drag racing car.?

Answer 1

Nope, no air, so no air resistence.

Answer 2

Parachutes work by building up air inside them, but there's no air in space, so it wouldn't slow a spaceship unless it was in Earth's atmosphere. However, if a parachute was deployed in the vacuum of space, it might possibly speed up the spaceship if it was big enough, because it would catch the 'solar wind' (particles thrown off by the sun), and could, in theory, build up enough speed to leave the solar system and head for other stars!

Answer 3

Parachutes work by building up air inside them, but there's no air in space, so it wouldn't slow a spaceship unless it was in Earth's atmosphere. However, if a parachute was deployed in the vacuum of space, it might possibly speed up the spaceship if it was big enough, because it would catch the 'solar wind' (particles thrown off by the sun), and could, in theory, build up enough speed to leave the solar system and head for other stars!

Answer 4

It depends on what you're talking about... If you mean "thrust" as in the technical definition, then yes. But there is no reason a larger spaceship couldn't go just as fast as a smaller one. Explanation: On Earth, things have a certain "top speed" because of drag. In reality, things work by force and ACCELERATION. Acceleration is change in speed over time, like for example, 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, is 20 mph per second. For each second, you gain 20 mph. The reason many things on Earth have a maximum speed is because of drag. It takes a certain amount of force to move air or water out of your way. Let's imagine a jet flying through the air. The Jet Engines put out a certain amount of thrust, which is a force. This accelerates the jet forwards, so it's gaining speed. The air in front of it, however, creates drag. Drag is a force that tries to slow the jet down. Drag gets stronger the faster you go. At a few hundred mph, the jet engines have far more force than drag does, so it continues to accelerate forward, gaining speed. However, because it's gaining speed, the drag gets stronger and stronger, until it's pushing the jet back with the same force the engines are pushing it forward. The two forces, the thrust, and the drag, are equally strong, so the jet is no longer gaining speed, but is staying at what we'd call the "maximum speed". This same thing happens with your car, boats, anything that moves through air, water, or any fluid. Space, however, is a vacuum. Okay, not a perfect vacuum. As other people here have pointed out - there is SOME material in space, but it's so incredibly, unimaginably thin and weak, for any practical purposes (say, landing on the Moon), we can ignore it, and say space is a vacuum, which means NO fluid, which means NO drag! That means, as your rocket engines accelerate the spaceship forward, there's no drag to give it a "maximum speed". So, although less thrust force means less acceleration, there is no "maximum speed" based on thrust alone. No matter how much thrust you have, you'll eventually run out of propellant. When you do, the speed you're going will depend on how much propellant you had, not on your thrust. Because although a greater thrust will reach a greater speed sooner, it will also burn all your propellant sooner (for an engine of the same efficiency). A spaceship with less inertia, but the same amount of thrust, will reach it's "max speed" more quickly. But, it will also run out of propellant more quickly, so it will not have a "max speed" any greater than the larger spaceship. A spaceship will have a greater "maximum speed" if a greater percentage of it's mass is propellant, or if it's engines are more efficient. However, it's only possible to make engines SO efficient using chemical propellants, so, most rockets have a huge percentage of mass to go the speeds they need to go. See the second source! I HIGHLY recommend the first source to learn more, It's a wonderful site! ^.^

Answer 5

There is nothing for a standard parachute to drag against in space. The drag racing car parachute is trying to pull all the atmosphere that is in the chute and that acts like an anchor.

Answer 6

It would if you were traveling towards the sun. The solar winds blow away from the sun, so if you were going towards it the winds would catch your parachute and slow you down. How much would depend on your mass and speed, and the size of the chute.

Answer 7

No, a parachute works on the air resistance. In space there is no air so no slowing...;

Answer 8

No. A parachute works on air resistance. In space: no air.

Answer 9

No of course not you need air to use a parachute which is why they use small rockets so slow and steer space ships

Answer 10

if you were travelling towards a sun then you may be slowed by the solar wind. the only place a drag chute would function properly would be in low orbit of a planet. see the film 2010.

Answer 11

space pretty much means space like in ur closet cept without and laws of gravity or air like on earth so no because there is nothing there its just space, so if u were to flick an airplane in space it could possibly travel at 5000mph