2007-04-27 04:04:06 · 6 answers · asked by JOHN P 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Space shuttle's top speed is 3,094 mph on it's own acceleration and 17,580 mph in orbit according to the NASA Web site.
A "light-year" expressed as distance is approximately 5,874,589,152,000 miles.
SO, if you took a straight shot out of the earth's atmosphere at 3094 mph, it would take the space shuttle 1,898,703,669 hours, which is equal to 79,112,652 days, which is equal to 216,746 years.
If you whipped the shuttle out of orbit at 17,580 mph, it would take it 334,163,205 hours, which is equal to 13,923,466 days, which is equal to 38,146 years.
Either way, it is going to take A LONG FRIGGIN TIME!!
2007-04-27 04:16:16 · answer #1 · answered by TopherM 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well first of all, the question is a bit senseless, because space shuttles aren't designed to travel through outer space. In fact, they normally reach only to a low orbit (so you could just ask the same thing for cars or trains),
But lets ignore this for a sec.
According to Wikipedia.org Space Shuttles reach a speed of 27,875 km/h and a light year is 9,460,730,472,580.8 km
So you would need just about 38,744 years with a space shuttle.
2007-04-27 04:13:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
The shuttle travels at about 15,000 mph. And light travles at about 186,000 mps. So light travels about 5.879 trillion mpy (a light year) and the shuttle travels (at a constant rate of 15,000 mph) about 131.4 million mpy. Therefore, it would take 44,741.25 years to travel 1 light year in the shuttle.
My shuttle speed is based on SRB's still being attached.
2007-04-27 04:18:10 · answer #3 · answered by Spilamilah 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
3*10^8 m/s *(amount of seconds in one year) =distance of one light year.
Multiply that distance TIMEs the maximum speed of shuttle(in a vacuum) = Number of seconds for a shuttle to go one light year.
You can plug and chug the numbers, or just wait for someone to do the math for you.
2007-04-27 04:09:16 · answer #4 · answered by kennyk 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
38,263 years.
Shuttles orbit at about 17,500 miles per hour, and light goes 186,000 miles per second. Divide 17,500 by 3,600 seconds in an hour to get the shuttle's speed as 4.8611... miles per second. Then divide 186,000 by that number to get 38,263. This means the shuttle moves 38,263 times slower than light and would take 38,263 years to go one light year.
2007-04-27 05:23:22 · answer #5 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
really good question
2007-04-27 04:12:32 · answer #6 · answered by melissa 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋