Shuttle flight round the moon ?
#31
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: In a house
Posts: 5,153
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yup the moon is there, and all the other planets too. Even got a few bases on the planets too. And there is a Saturn V. You just have to look for it. The webmastrt is a physics prfessor, not an engineer hence why evrything is hidden and not easily accessable.
#32
But a medical physics professor, it would seem
Mind you, there was someone employed as a medical physicist on my astrophysics MSc course (it was a part-time one, so we all had 'proper' jobs too...)
Mind you, there was someone employed as a medical physicist on my astrophysics MSc course (it was a part-time one, so we all had 'proper' jobs too...)
#35
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Plymouth
Posts: 3,079
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for that hotsam, very interesting.
Highlighted it for everyone...
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-2.html
Highlighted it for everyone...
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-2.html
#36
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: In a house
Posts: 5,153
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Space elevators are a bit unfeasible to do at the moment. We don't have the technology to do nano stuff yet. And none of our strongest materials present could hold the amount of stresses involved..
#38
Er, the shuttle is designed to get to low Earth orbit (LEO) -- a few hundred miles. The moon is over a quarter of a million miles. There is no way you could pack enough fuel in the shuttle to get it to the moon. I doubt if the main engines (plus boosters) even produce enough delta-V to escape the Earth's gravity well.
Edit: I knew this was in a FAQ somewhere. From the sci.space.shuttle FAQ:
[Edited by carl - 1/2/2003 1:33:32 PM]
Edit: I knew this was in a FAQ somewhere. From the sci.space.shuttle FAQ:
E6. Why can't the Shuttle go to the Moon?
[mostly written by Henry Spencer for the Real Big FAQ, section 13]
You can't use the shuttle orbiter for missions beyond low Earth orbit because it can't get there. It is big and heavy and does not carry enough fuel, even if you fill part of the cargo bay with tanks. You can't refill the External Tank from outside, either, and the main engines will only light once and can't be restarted in space. The landing gear, once lowered, cannot be retracted.
Furthermore, it is not particularly sensible to do so, because much of that weight is things like wings, which are totally useless except in the immediate vicinity of the Earth. The shuttle orbiter is highly specialized for travel between Earth's surface and low orbit. Taking it higher is enormously costly and wasteful. A much better approach would be to use shuttle subsystems to build a specialized high-orbit spacecraft.
[mostly written by Henry Spencer for the Real Big FAQ, section 13]
You can't use the shuttle orbiter for missions beyond low Earth orbit because it can't get there. It is big and heavy and does not carry enough fuel, even if you fill part of the cargo bay with tanks. You can't refill the External Tank from outside, either, and the main engines will only light once and can't be restarted in space. The landing gear, once lowered, cannot be retracted.
Furthermore, it is not particularly sensible to do so, because much of that weight is things like wings, which are totally useless except in the immediate vicinity of the Earth. The shuttle orbiter is highly specialized for travel between Earth's surface and low orbit. Taking it higher is enormously costly and wasteful. A much better approach would be to use shuttle subsystems to build a specialized high-orbit spacecraft.
#39
I wasn't in any way inferring a moon LANDING, just a few orbits. All this talk of escape velocity and fuel loads, etc is intriuging. For how long did the Apollo missions have their rockets firing to achive the required velocity to reach the moon?
Now take the shuttle -- it weighs something like 90 tons so you'd need something enormous to lift it and boost it into some sort of lunar transfer orbit. Remember that Apollo had the service module engine to do this job, and the shuttle main engines aren't relightable and the fuel's carried in an external tank which is dumped during the launch phase. Then when you get to the moon you have to slow it down to get it into lunar orbit, using the non-relightable engines and the fuel you dumped into the Pacific. Then to get out of lunar orbit you have to do the same thing, and the same thing again back at Earth to drop you back into the atmosphere at a sensible speed.
Edit: For comparison, the Apollo launch mass was about 34 tons, of which 18 tons was propellant. Space shuttle varies (according to which one) between 78 and 82 tons dry, with 22 tons of fuel for the OMS and 3 tons for the RCS. So the shuttle is at least three times heavier than the combined Apollo CSM/LM/escape tower
Not happening.
[Edited by carl - 1/2/2003 2:07:16 PM]
#40
All you need is a strong enough material.
BTW the Space Shuttle does have a propulsion system in addition to the OMS (Orbital Manouevering System) and RCS (Reaction Control System) -- three thumping great Rocketdyne SSMEs. Trouble is, as I said earlier, the fuel tank's external and dumped during the launch phase, and they can't be re-ignited.
super_si -- if this is your 'specialist subject' then I'm surprised you don't (a) know that ISS isn't in geostationary orbit and (b) think that satellites in geostationary orbit would sooner or later 'get wiped out' There are 180 (IIRC) orbital slots in the GEO band (2 degrees separation between each slot), but some people like SES are smart-***** and fit half a dozen Astra satellites into the same slot.
[Edited by carl - 1/2/2003 7:13:35 PM]
#41
I have a printout somewhere, and do know some of the basics of orbital mechanics (wrote my own sim in FORTRAN for my MSc project, but it was just dust particles not spacecraft).
Can't believe that there's no Saturn V/Apollo CSM in there. I'd want to practise putting the stack in a barbecue spin, just like Jim Lovell
Is the Moon in this sim? I'm not really that interested in Earth-orbit stuff, more in the interaction between the Moon and Earth's gravity. Even better if the Sun's in it too (not just position, I mean as a gravitational object). I'd like to do some flying around in the Lagrangian points (both the colinear and sextile ones).
[Edited by carl - 1/2/2003 7:41:33 PM]
Can't believe that there's no Saturn V/Apollo CSM in there. I'd want to practise putting the stack in a barbecue spin, just like Jim Lovell
Is the Moon in this sim? I'm not really that interested in Earth-orbit stuff, more in the interaction between the Moon and Earth's gravity. Even better if the Sun's in it too (not just position, I mean as a gravitational object). I'd like to do some flying around in the Lagrangian points (both the colinear and sextile ones).
[Edited by carl - 1/2/2003 7:41:33 PM]
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Mattybr5@MB Developments
Full Cars Breaking For Spares
28
28 December 2015 11:07 PM
Mattybr5@MB Developments
Full Cars Breaking For Spares
12
18 November 2015 07:03 AM