2007-04-04 19:04:10 · 12 answers · asked by Muhil 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Friction. It's the same process you feel when you stick your head out the window of a moving car. At 60 mph, the air pushes your hair back and waters your eyes, even if the wind itself is zero. At 15000 mph, friction heats up the shuttle tiles to thousands of degrees. Only very efficient heat transfer and very low thermal conductivity through the tiles prevent the shuttle from burning upon reentry - which is exactly what happened to Columbia due to a breech in the tile integrity.
2007-04-04 19:12:55 · answer #1 · answered by ZenPenguin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of FRICTION.
Space Ships (shuttles, capsules, whatever) hurtling through space are traveling in a vacuum (no atmosphere). So they can travel at fantastic speeds without encountering resistance from the air they might encounter on Earth.
As those flying objects move closer to Earth, they do begin to fly into the fringe of the Earth's atmosphere, and friction with the molecules of gases in the upper atmosphere begin to heat up the exterior of the flying object.
To simulate the effect of this friction you might rub your hands together with firm pressure very fast. Soon the places of contact between your hands will become warm, even hot. It is the same idea, only it happens on a much larger scale. There are certain optimum angles for re-entry which permit a gradual buildup of those heating effects from friction. Steeper angles of re-entry are doomed to excessive heating (destruction) before any type of natural speed reduction (breaking) can occur. Failure to reduce velocity to within certain limits will result in disintegration of the space craft, capsule, or object. Meteors encounter this problem almost every night.
2007-04-04 19:33:33 · answer #2 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The high speed of decent into the Earth's atmosphere and the friction of the air on the craft. I always wondered why they couldn't slow down enough to not get so much friction, but it is because it would require WAY too much fuel - it is easier to deal with the heat. You should check out the interesting way that the private space craft dealt with the problem last year - it had a wing that pivoted back and forth between speed (downward) and slowing with friction
2007-04-04 19:15:53 · answer #3 · answered by TahoeT 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Astronauts sometimes get so excited that they sometimes forget to turn off the cooker on re-entry.
They have to get used to eating a lot of burnt toast.
On some missions the ground crew were so incompetent that the astronauts became burnt toast!
On the other hand I think that you will find that the FRICTION caused by the shuttle hitting the atmosphere causes immense heat , much of which is deflected by special heat shields.
Without the shields the shuttle would disintegrate on re-entry
...........oh yes one already did!
2007-04-04 19:21:02 · answer #4 · answered by Gent 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The friction of the atmosphere colliding with the ship at great speeds creates a lot of heat.
2007-04-04 20:42:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
displacement of the air molecules against the outer "skin" of the shuttle. Generally called FRICTION!
2007-04-04 19:15:50 · answer #6 · answered by robert e 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The atmosphere creates friction.
2007-04-04 19:07:04 · answer #7 · answered by Ben 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Friction with the atmosphere.
2007-04-04 19:07:02 · answer #8 · answered by tranquility_base3@yahoo.com 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Friction...
2007-04-04 19:40:14 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
friction with air.the friction aicreases as the acceleration increase.F=ma.the velocity increases because of gravity
2007-04-04 20:47:41 · answer #10 · answered by mr.maths 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋