Why do we need such dangerous rockets to launch shuttles?

Question

If you watch high altitude balooons, they just float into the upper atmosphere. Gravity does not hold them back. Can't we use a slower, gentler means of thrust to lift satellites and space shuttles into orbit? Just trying to think outside the box here... What would keep a ship from breaking out of orbit at a very slow speed? It seems this would be much safer than strapping a highly explosive fuel tank to the capsule.

Answer 1

how about a really deep hole and a really big spring?

Answer 2

Good question.

We can't use a much slower, less powerful rocket. the reason is that it would take extra fuel. That's because the longer it takes to get to orbit, the more fuel you have to use to hold the spacecraft up against Earth's gravity. And spacraft carry mostly fuel as it is--there's simply no margin, not if you want to carry a payload (and if you don't do that, not much point in launching a rocket!).

But that's not the real problem. We can develop safer rockets--an many people are trying to do do just that. A "core technology," though--a major advanced system, like the Shuttle was when it was first built--will require a lot of work and money. NASA can do it--in fact they've tried to twice (the "Delta Clipper" and th e"VentureStar"). Congress cut the funds for both programs--and so far, the politicians wont fund the kind of research and development needed.

Answer 3

The problem is, the shuttle weighs 100 tons. To loft that into orbit takes tremendous energy. Balloons, on the other hand, are lighter than air. And, they don't achieve orbit (they have neither the speed nor the altitude.)

To loft a 100 tons into orbit "slower and gentler" means you have to burn a LOT of fuel. For a LONG time. Or, more volatile fuel for a long time. That doesn't sound any safer to me.

Likewise - "reentry" is necessary because a ship coming back from space is basically without fuel - it burned it all just getting into orbit. In order for a ship to decelerate *before* reentering the atmosphere means you have to loft almost as much fuel as it took to get the ship into orbit - which means burning *more* fuel.

Answer 4

Would you prefer a giant slingshot? Just kidding.

High altitude balloons don't go into orbit and they don't carry dozens of tons of equipment. At a certain altitude, balloons don't work. They simply expand and stop rising or they explode.

There's a little something called "escape velocity". It must be achieved in order to avoid being sucked right back down to the surface of the Earth.

Artificial satellites orbiting the Earth travel at roughly 17,000 miles per hour but they aren't free of the Earth's gravity. The very act of "orbiting", in the case of most artificial satellites, is actually an act of falling back down towards the Earth but doing it very quickly in a forward motion and very slowly in a downward motion. Their forward velocity is enough to keep them from coming crashing down. But even at that speed and withou any additional thrust, the orbiting body will eventually encounter Earth's atmosphere and be burned up (most likely).

Answer 5

To reach orbit, a vehicle must achieve orbital velocity (~17,300mph). Thus far, chemical rocket propellants are the only things capable of moving a machine that fast.
Although balloons appear to be floating in the upper atmosphere, they are nowhere close to being in orbit.
To reach escape velocity, a ship has to travel faster than ~23,500mph (from Earth).

Answer 6

Ideally yes. If you have sufficient power to overcome gravity it is possible to achieve space. Unfortunately currently rockets are the cheapest way. If you didn't care about deadly radioactive pollution, the orion system which uses nuclear explosions under a massive plate could work. But thats really a very bad idea unless you don't mind polluting the earth to death. If there were a cheaper, more efficient method, we would be using it. Our rocket scientists arent dumb. Our best chance is constructing a space elevator, but the challenges of that are of a very high level, pun intended.

Answer 7

A high altitude balloon would only work inside the atmosphere, which pretty much thins out to nothing above 60 miles. Above that, the balloon would have nothing to buoy against. Sure, you could get to the edge of space, but to get into orbit requires speed -- that's one thing a payload on a balloon would not have.

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Answer 8

It's a ratio of thrust to mass to gravity.

You want the least amount of fuel that delivers the most amount of thrust to escape the pull of gravity.

The less thrust you have the more fuel and size of fuel tank it takes to put that ship into orbit.

Answer 9

Check out the JP Aerospace web site in the source. They are actually planning to send airships to space. It sounds crazy, but they say they can do it. And they seem to know what they are doing. But they are also being secretive about a couple key new technologies they say they are working on. See the source.

Answer 10

the gap holiday software became into no longer a failure in any way. It became into in no way meant to be an option to rockets. the completed ingredient of the gap holiday software became into to income the EARTH AS A PLANET from Low Earth Orbit. the gap holiday software became right into a convincing fulfillment for 20 years.

Answer 11

The definition of orbit is that you are going at least 17,000 miles an our so that you overcome the pull of gravity