Questions tagged [spacecraft]
Questions regarding the craft that house humans or equipment during space exploration.
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Can I drive Elon Musk's Tesla after it's been in space for 100 Years?
We know that the the payload of the maiden Falcon Heavy flight will be... Elon Musks's Tesla Which will be placed in "Mars Orbit"
Assuming it is serviced and road ready when launched with the keys in ...
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How did people know how to build the first space ship?
How did the early designers of spacecrafts have any idea what space was actually like?
How was a vessel ever constructed that actually flew through Earth's atmosphere without burning up, and then ...
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How was New Horizons able to direct data so precisely back to Earth?
The New Horizons space probe is sending back images of Ultima Thule, 6.4 billion kilometres away.
Barring having a very large power to send information back on a very large angle, it seems to me ...
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Why are there no spacecraft rotating for artificial gravity?
Spacecraft rotating to generate artificial gravity through "centrifugal force" are commonplace in science fiction but not in reality. Considering the problems in long missions (among others: bone loss,...
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Why was Venus rather than Mars targeted for the first interplanetary landings?
This is a question about early planetary missions. It looks like there was only one early (unsuccessful) landing mission to Mars and that subsequently Venus became the target for interplanetary ...
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Why haven't more spacecraft/satellites been hit by debris?
It is touted by the media that space is becoming more dangerous and risky due to an increase in space debris. Why haven't more craft been hit by the debris? I presume that it is not at a critical ...
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Is the software running on any existing or decommissioned space probes available for download?
I was wondering if it was possible to download the software that runs any of the computers on existing or decommissioned space probes, landers, etc.
For example, could one download the software that ...
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Why do we not fly to space with helicopters? What are the practical altitude limits?
People will tell that there is no air, and this is why we cannot. But if I read on the internet, there is air in space, much less, but still something.
For example:
100 km: $6\ \cdot 10^{-7}$ times ...
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Why do exploration spacecraft like Voyager 1 and 2 go through the asteroid belt, and not over or below it?
I understand the risk of hitting an asteroid is small, but I'm wondering if there's a reason spacecraft usually stay on the main Solar System orbital plane.
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Why does the ascent stage of Apollo 11's lunar module look like it's made of paper?
Here's an image (AS11-40-5922) from Apollo 11 that NASA describes as:
View of the ascent stage from the northeast. Note the wrinkled surface of the RCS plume deflector and the warping of the rear ...
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Why wasn't the Mars Climate Orbiter's fatal error caught prior to launch?
The Mars Climate Orbiter failed in 1999 due to:
ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound (force)-seconds (lbf·s) instead of the SI units of newton-seconds (N·s) ...
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Why is there a large wooden ball on Mariner 3's magnetometer?
Wood is good for certain niche space exploration applications, but the one below is not for spaceflight. According to the documentation for the archived photo:
Several spacecraft were built for the ...
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What is the total mass sent into orbit over all history?
I would like to find a good estimate of the sum total amount of payload that humans have put into space, that is, over all years, all space programs, and all types of payload that reached orbit. ...
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Why were early Soviet spacecraft spherical?
Sputnik's ball shape is instantly recognizable to most of us:
I was looking at the Wikipedia page for Luna 1, and saw it was also a ball-shaped spacecraft:
Why do these spacecraft have a spherical ...
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When will we send floating probes to Venus?
Recent plans on human missions to Mars have sparked many discussions, one of which is about if we should colonize Venusian upper atmosphere with Zeppelin like floating ships and cities first.
NASA ...
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What are the chances that a spacecraft is hit by space junk?
If a rocket flies into space there is a possibility that it will encounter a piece of space garbage; even a small screw can be fatal.
What are the chances that such a collision really takes place? ...
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Would a grinding machine be a simple and workable propulsion system for an interplanetary spacecraft?
I am wondering if any space agency has ever considered using a grinding machine as a propulsion system for an interplanetary spacecraft. This system would not be used to lift the spacecraft off of a ...
user28781
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Why are spaceship capsules frustum shaped?
Why do spaceships have a frustum (portion of a cone) shape like e.g. the pressure capsule of the SpaceX Dragon on the image below?
I think there is some engineering stuff behind ...
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Puzzler - which spacecraft(s) incorporated real wood structural elements?
Not a trick question, but a real puzzler - which spacecraft or spacecrafts incorporated real wood structural elements?
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Why does data transfer rate decrease with distance
I read that the New Horizon's probe will send data to back to Earth at 3000 bits per second by the time it reaches Pluto.
I don't understand why a spacecraft has to have a lower data tranfer rate ...
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What is the fastest speed ever reached in space travel as measured from the point in space from which it was launched to its current/final position?
Answers.com lists the New Horizons to have the fastest rocket. Is this info still valid? 7 light hours in 11 years at 50,000 km/h?
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Gliding into the atmosphere
The recent question about Cessna reentering from ISS got the answers that all imply a rapid drop.
But from what I know, air drag is proportional:
to square of airspeed
to air density
to attack ...
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Assuming a spacecraft is traveling in a constant rate and our Astronaut will exit it to a space walk, will she be "left behind" by the spacecraft?
Lets say our Spacecraft is traveling to a remote Galaxy at a constant speed of 1/X of the speed of light.
A brave Astronaut is leaving the spacecraft to a space walk, while not being attached to the ...
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Does anybody work on a "spacecraft linux"?
There are quite many industrial Linux adaptions around, like in your router's firmware or the Android OS.
On long term, probably any spacecraft will need to run more or less standard profiles of ...
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Do spacecraft have similar structural integrity requirements as submarines?
When a spacecraft performs a splashdown maneuver, a recovery team is standing by to retrieve the capsule and its human contents quickly. A flotation collar is deployed to increase buoyancy and ...
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Why did Apollo spacecraft use both AC and DC equipment? Still used in present and future designs?
Why did the Apollo spacecraft use both DC and AC power, requiring heavy inverters? Was it impractical to design everything to run on DC power only? Why?
Are both AC and DC power still used in present ...
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Can you really use Arduino for a small spacecraft?
A group of Russian geeks intends to shoot a small vehicle to the moon, which is supposed to photograph the places of the Apollo landings. This will be the ultimate proof that people actually visited ...
user3049
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What is the general shape and size of a space probe, and how are they launched?
I am totally blind, and I haven't felt any models of space probes, so I have no idea how big they are, what their general shapes are, or what kind of launch systems they use.
I'm assuming space probes ...
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Do windows in space stations, the space shuttle, other spacecraft have practical usage?
As we know, cars need a front window because drivers need to see the road to control the car, but how about the windows in space shuttles? As far as I know, the orbits of ISS or other space devices ...
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Cost-effective Space Shuttle: was it feasible?
As far as I understand, NASA's Space Shuttle was initially conceived as a cheap way of launching people and cargo into orbit, with one-week vehicle turnaround time and dozens of missions per year. ...
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What would be necessary in order for us to achieve a single stage to orbit, reusable rocket?
I have read articles and seen videos explaining why an SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) rocket* is not possible. But I was wondering... What would be required to achieve this? Answers can be literally ...
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Do exploration spacecraft enter Mars atmosphere against Mars rotation, or on the same direction?
I can't find information on which side of mars do probes usually enter.
I suppose that probes do not enter perpendicular to the surface. They are usually represented as entering somewhat tangentially ...
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Why did Soyuz TMA-18M take two days to reach the ISS?
Typically, a Soyuz crew vehicle takes 4 orbits to reach the ISS, but the Soyuz TMA-18M took 34 orbits or 2 days to reach it. Why is there so much variation from typical missions?
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How did astronauts traverse from module to module in the Apollo craft?
I was looking at some diagrams for the Apollo spacecraft, which I found to be interesting. It's clear that there's two separate enclosures that astronauts could reside in (the lunar module and command ...
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What is the rarest launch window?
What situation would make a launch window rare? What is the rarest known launch window?
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Why is it not possible to deorbit in a shallow glidepath?
The fiery re-entry of spacecraft has been a staple of spaceflight since the beginning, making ablative heat shielding a necessary component of any craft wishing to return to Earth intact. This is the ...
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Reason for different "cone angles" of different space capsules?
Here is the Cargo Dragon:
And here is the Orion:
The "cone" that orion makes has a large opening angle - perhaps about 70 degrees. Meanwhile, the Dragon is almost cylindrical - the opening angle is ...
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How much does it cost to return 1 kg from the ISS to the Earth? What are the parameters influencing this price?
I heard in a few places downmass is a limiting factor in the ISS national lab capacity. Is that true?
According to NASA's pricing plan, it actually costs more to get downmass than upmass. Why is that?
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How does a Spacecraft change its orbit?
I am a high school student. I saw the latest Indian spacecraft "CHANDRYAANN 2", which was in orbit around the Earth for 14 days.....
I am so curious to know how a spacecraft changes its orbit. I ...
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Is there any way that real stars would move like they do in the classic Windows 3.x screensaver if traveling through space at extreme speed?
In old versions of Windows, such as 3.1, there was this screensaver called "Starfield". It looked like this:
However, in movies and TV series, it usually looks like ...
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Is the overall mortality rate for being in a spacecraft in space or bound for space about 4%?
I just read this answer in astronomy.stackexchange, where a sobering point was made that the overall to-date chance of losing ones life in a spacecraft is about 4%.
While I don't want to dwell on ...
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Why can't they just drop a solar winch down from a shuttle and have planes fly up and clip things on?
Why can't they just drop a solar winch down from a shuttle and have planes fly up and clip things on?
I know of the idea to have a space lift but the cable necessary is too expensive.
Why can't we ...
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If the Earth spun clockwise, how would that affect Space Exploration?
If viewed from the North Pole, the Earth spins counter-clockwise.
Because of this, many satellites also orbit in the same direction as you can take advantage of the Earth's rotation and essentially ...
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Can we set up an orbiting transporter between Earth and the Moon?
I will give an example with the moon.
If some spacecraft is put either in orbit around both earth and moon or in highly eccentric orbit that intersects with the moon orbit, some other spacecraft can ...
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Why aren't there any space tugs in use?
Ion thrusters are capable of providing the same amount of delta-V for far less fuel (e.g. Falcon 9 v1.1 second stage specific impulse is 340 seconds, while some ion-thrusters have a specific impulse ...
user6738
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Can magnets be used to launch spacecraft?
I assume there is some reason we don't use magnets to launch off Earth.
Are they not strong enough? Isn't magnetic force technically stronger than gravity??
Would either of these work:
A tube tunnel ...
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What are quaternions and how are they used to represent spacecraft dynamics?
The title says it all. Quaternions are widely used to represent the orientation of a spacecraft. Why is that, and how do quaternions compare to other alternatives?
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Which parts of a spacecraft are joined by adhesives?
Where in a spacecraft are adhesives most commonly or routinely used?
Are there specific spacecraft components or assemblies that are regularly built by using adhesives rather than other methods of ...
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Which crewed spacecraft provides the gentlest descent and/or landing?
Landing with a Soyuz capsule is often compared to being in a car accident1, it's pretty violent on touch-down. On the other hand, I imagine the Space Shuttle's touch-down to be a little like a rough ...
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How did NASA avoid a repeat of the Mars Polar Lander failure?
One of the most likely causes of the MPL (Mars Polar Lander) crash landing on Mars was the deployment of the legs being mistaken by the onboard computer as touchdown. Phoenix (and later InSight) ...
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