# All Questions

10,659 questions
98 views

### Does adding a nozzle increase peak pressure in a rocket?

If I had two charges of the same solid propellant both in the same geometry and casing, and added a de laval nozzle to one, while the other would have just a simple hole for an exhaust, upon firing, ...
148 views

### How do astronauts get eye drops into their eyes?

This answer mentions that some astronauts use eye drops to relieve irritation caused by dust and lint in the air. How do they do get the drops in their eyes in microgravity? When I put drops in my ...
185 views
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### What is the largest energy stored in a spring or other mechanical device ever put in space?

The question What is the largest delta-v ever produced in space from mechanically stored energy? asks of course about the delta-v produced, but here I'm asking about the largest amount of stored ...
78 views

### What is this long black tube snaking up to the capsule payload of the Antares rocket?

Scott Manley's video The Antares Rocket - NASA's Less Famous Ride To The Space Station includes some file footage of Antares rocket launches. There is a long black tube or cable snaking its way up to ...
94 views

### Is deformation of the impact attenuation system visible on the surviving Apollo command modules?

As pointed out in this question, the Apollo command module had crushable ribs along one edge of the base of the cone, and crushable struts that suspended the crew couches inside the vehicle. I've ...
190 views

### Why don't the hottest temperatures of a re-entering spacecraft occur near the “bottom”?

The paintings of the Apollo command module and space shuttle below portray the heating effects of re-entry. The whitest parts of the spacecraft get the hottest, with cooler parts in red and darker ...
123 views

### Where would one deploy deep space atomic clocks?

Space.com: NASA IS LAUNCHING A GPS SYSTEM FOR SPACE NASA/JPL news: Five Things to Know about NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock NASA mission pages clock NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock Fact Sheet The first ...
130 views

### Luna 15 - Any official confirmation of objectives?

Russia's Luna 15 crashed into the lunar surface shortly after Apollo 11 landed. It's widely considered a failed sample return mission, but did Russia ever officially announce that sample return was ...
70 views

### Could in situ (in-rocket) evaporative cooling/refrigeration be used for methane or hydrogen cryogenic propellants?

@Uwe's excellent answer to the question Why would sub-cooled LOX tanks need to “topped-off” until the last minute or so? explains that the LOX is sub-cooled in situ within the rocket's tank using ...
72 views

### What orbital mechanics toolkits available today are suitable for a real-time simulator?

I'm a software engineer and I've always loved Orbiter (also here). However I feel that it's growing a bit antiquated, and it would be nice to have a more modern, open source, or otherwise hackable ...
126 views

### Why can’t cryogenic propellants be storable, at least on the ground, via refrigeration?

Cryogenic fuels (liquid hydrogen, liquid methane)1 and oxidisers (liquid oxygen)2 are the rocket propellants of choice where raw performance is the overriding concern, due to the very high performance ...
65 views

### How would off-apsis burn effect the angle and position of new apoapsis

Let's say you have an elliptical orbit, if you burn prograde at the periapsis, you extend the apoapsis by some factor(according to vis-viva equation). But if you burn prograde on somewhere during the ...
2k views

### Does the Long March-11 increase its thrust after clearing the launch tower?

The NASA Spaceflight article China conducts first Sea Launch mission with Long March 11 launch of seven satellites links to the YouTube video China’s first sea launch: Long March-11 launches from a ...
72 views

### Testing of a first stage using dummy upper stages?

The first stage of the Saturn I was tested three times using dummy upper stages filled with ballast water, see Project Highwater and this question. The first two flight tests of the Saturn V (SA-501 ...
31 views

### Tidal locking of celestial bodies [closed]

Generally moon always faces the same side towards the Earth. People say it is tidally locked. How is any body in space tidally locked and is this forever?
45 views

### GLOM of a launch vehicle

What do you mean by GLOM of a launch vehicle? When I googled about it, it says it is a type of mass but I am unclear about it.
96 views

### Was there a history of segmented solid rockets prior to the Shuttle?

The Shuttle famously (perhaps infamously) had its solid rocket boosters built in segments, which were transported to KSC and then joined together. The SLS will similarly have segmented SRBs. Were ...
139 views

### Why did the manned Mercury-Redstone flights carry and use retrorockets?

The Mercury-Redstone programme, a subset of the Mercury human spaceflight programme, used a modified version of the Redstone missile for suborbital flights in space. It culminated in two manned ...
96 views

### How far would the ISS need to be to keep it's attitude with the earth from tidal forces without needing control moment gyroscopes?

I believe the ISS uses control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) to always have the same side facing the earth. How far from the earth does an object the size of the ISS need to be tidally locked with the ...
45 views

### What format is a “TSA Ephemeris?”

I am working on software that needs to parse an ephemeris file for the ISS. However, I cannot find any documentation for the particular format I have. The only mention I found is in this ...
36 views

### Exit pressure for Rocket Lab Curie engine

What do you think the exit pressure for rocket lab curie engine could be?and the area ratio as well? its a kickstage engine and it is said that it has about 25lbf thrust.