What is the most asked question about space travel?

Question

I have most interesting questions about space and astronauts. One of them has been asked above, the other are as follows;

1. Why do astronauts go underwater to train for space wlks?
2. How can a satellite be parked in orbit?
3. What is the best way to watch for satellites from the earth?
4. Is it true that it takes the earth a month to orbit the earth, while it takes a shuttle only 90 minutes?
5. Who names the shuttles, e.g. Challenger, Endeavour etc. ?
6. How much does it cost to send a shuttle in space and back?
7. When is the shuttle actually in orbit?
8. Where are astronaut families during launch?
9. Do astronauts drink recycled urine in space?
10. Do astronauts grow taller in space and then back to their original heightonce they are back to earth.

The person to answer most of these question gets ten points!!

Answer 1

The most asked question about space travel, depressingly, seems to be the one about whether or not the Apollo moon landings were real.

1: Contrary to the above answers, being underwater and being in a vacuum are nothing alike at all. The condition being replicated in an underwater training facility is the motion experienced in spacewalks resulting from the lack of gravity. In space you are free-floating in relation to everything you do. If you twist a normal screwdriver on Earth your weight acts to keep you in place so the screw turns. In space you'd turn the screw AND yourself in opposite directions, as there would be nothing to stop the twisting motion in your arm acting on your body as well as the tool. In space you need only push lightly against an object to start floating away from it. In space there is no up or down, and you can float either way up. In an underwater training tank the buoyancy acts as an effective counter to your own weight, hence your body moves and responds in a very similar way to being in zero gravity.

2: A satellite is parked in orbit by inserting it on a launch vehicle. It is termed 'parked' because it is not working to maintain its orbit. Gravity and momentum will keep it going along in the same orbit until it fires a thruster or two to move.

3: Check out www.heavens-above.com for satellite pass times in your location, then just go out at the right time and look at the right bit of sky. Even if you just go out in the early evening after dark and just watch the sky for a while. You'll almost certainly see one or two.

4: Assuming you mean it takes the MOON a month to orbit the Earth, yes, it is true. The Moon's distance, 250,000 miles, means that it takes considerably longer to complete one orbit than the shuttle, a mere 100 miles up.

5: A panel appointed by NASA, I suppose. In the Mercury and Apollo days the spacecraft were named by their crews. The first shuttle, Enterprise, was named by public poll.

6: Millions of dollars, depending on mission length and payload.

7: The shuttle is in orbit once the burn of the main engines is complete and the external tank has been jettisoned.

8: Wherever they want to be. Some are at the cape watching, others watch at home. It's all personal preference.

9: Yes. The water can be reclaimed by various processes, and it saves having to take vast amounts of fresh water up. This is only true of the shuttle and space station crews, however. The early flights dumped urine overboard, in what was described as a surprisingly beautiful event as the urine immediately froze in space to form tiny ice crystals that glittered in the sunlight. Wally Schirra famously described it as 'the constellation Urion'.

10: They do not 'grow' in the strictest sense, however the lack of gravity means that there is no compression on the spinal column as we feel on Earth when standing or sitting upright, so they tend to stretch out a little in space. Once they are back on Earth of course the spinal column gets compressed again.

[Edited to add]
Bizarrely, an article on space toilets is on todays BBC website. It seems that actually astronauts do not recyle urine for drinking purposes but still dump it in space as the old spacecraft used to do.

Answer 2

1.It is because the situation of vaccum and underwater is same.
2. Satellites can be parked by using stabilising propulsions
3. from hill tops or mountain tops with telescopes
4. Yes
5. Panel of members (or the creator )
6. There are several factors where the shuttles are classified from cheap to costly .
7. When it is outside earth's atmosphere and in space
8. At home praising the astronaut while he/she is at the launching place
9. Yes ( Can you believe it ?Well, I can't)
10. Yes .

Answer 3

It's times like this I wish we had a credentialing system in place. For people who ask questions and for people who answer them. It would also be nice to have a filter to sort through this kind of stuff. However I digress.
1) Simulation.
2) Geostationary
3) Microwave Radar
4) the earth orbiting the earth eh :) I wont bother answering
5) Bureaucracy at its finest!! Naming committees FTW!!
6) The Space Shuttle costs somewhere around $600 million dollars per launch in 2005
7) at its apogee
8) depends.
9) yup
10) at first yes spend a few months nope they shrink due to aggressive bone loss

Answer 4

answer for first queston. ARE WE ALONE
1. because the situation of vacum and underwater is same
2. by using stabilising propulsions
3. hill top
4. yes
5. a group of experts (may be panel of members)
6. based on several factors (millions to billions)
7. when it is outside earth's atmosphere
8. watching the launch
9. yes.
10. yes

Answer 5

If they did land on the moon then NASA made a boo boo, They forgot to tell Armstrong to take a photo of the first footprint. It's in standard NASA manual now that if they get to Mars or any other planet that first item on the agenda is photo of first footprint.

Answer 6

1.because underwater like vacuum and suitable for all(maybe)
2.they use decent engine slow down speed and park there.
3.telescope.
4.no.
5.discover,columbia,atlantis and buran(soviet space shuttle)
6.about cost of milllion.
7.when it reach in space
8.depend on them.
9.ya because it save a lot of water
10.yes because their bone relax because no gravity pull.

Answer 7

The most often asked question about space travel is;can we ever exceed the speed of light.

Answer 8

i am happy wit 2 points ...lol