How does the space shuttle slow down to land?

A: For starters, the air in the atmosphere acts like a buffer and creates drag, slowing the spacecraft down. The shuttle will then do very special ‘S turn’ maneuvers to slow itself down. Finally, to finish off the landing, a Space Shuttle uses brakes and parachute to increase the drag and help slow the massive vehicle.

How does reentry vehicle work?

A re-entry vehicle is the part of a spacecraft that is designed to return through Earth’s atmosphere. It is built to survive intense heating during high-velocity flight through the atmosphere and to protect the crew and/or instruments until it brings them safely to Earth.

What is the space shuttle reentry speed?

17,500 miles per hour
It is usually moving parallel to the ground, at a speed of about 7 km/sec or 17,500 miles per hour. The reentry can occur at any time of the day.

What two methods did the shuttle use to slow down on landing?

The orbiter landed like a glider. While in orbit, it fired its engines to slow down. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, it glided in for a landing on a runway. When the orbiter touched down on the runway, a parachute opened to help slow it down.

Which forces help to slow down the space shuttle when it lands?

The astronauts slow down by firing some thrusters and gravity begins to pull the shuttle to a lower orbit. As the shuttle gets lower, it eventually begins to plow through the Earth’s atmosphere at initial speed of about 17,000 miles per hour!

What happens during reentry?

During reentry, free stream air is compressed to high temperature and pressure by the entry vehicle’s shock wave. Non-equilibrium air in the shock layer is then transported past the entry vehicle’s leading side into a region of rapidly expanding flow that causes freezing.

What are reentry vehicles made of?

After studying several different vehicle shapes by 1962, NASA engineers decided upon a large cone-shaped vehicle with a large rear heatshield that was made of a stainless steel honeycomb with an outer layer of phenolic epoxy resin as an ablative material.

Why do things burn on reentry?

The answer is velocity and compression. Incoming objects are moving at incredible speeds, and as they do they’re compressing the air in front of them. According to the gas laws of chemistry, compressing a gas heats it up, and there’s a whole lot of compressing going on during reentry.

What is the angle of reentry?

In order to reenter Earth’s atmosphere safely, Apollo 13 had to approach at an inclination no shallower than 5.3 degrees, and no steeper than 7.7 degrees.

Why do space shuttles burn on reentry?

During re-entry, the shuttle is going so fast, it compresses the air ahead of it. The compression of the air layers near the leading edges of the shuttle is quick, causing the temperature of the air to rise to as high as 3000 degrees Fahrenheit! Being in contact with the shuttle, it heats the shuttle’s surface.

How did spacecraft designers choose the shape for their reentry vehicles?

The spacecraft designers studied the alternative shapes for reentry vehicles and made their choices based upon standards established within their own programs. The Soviets, under the leadership of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, chief designer of spacecraft, reviewed the different possibilities and chose the sphere for their reentry configuration.

Will Earth’s atmospheric reentry speed increase for return to Mars?

Future Earth atmospheric reentry speeds might substantially increase for return missions to Mars, with entry speeds in the 15-21 km/s range, depending on trajectory and time of launch (source: A simple atmosphere reentry guidance scheme for return from the manned Mars mission, Henry C. Lessing and Robert E. Coate, 1966, NASA Ames Research Center).

How does the ISS kill off speed during re-entry?

It executes hypersonic “S-turn” maneuvers to kill off speed during re-entry. The lift of the wings is only important in the final flare maneuver at touchdown. The Soyuz, Shenzhou, and all of the early Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury spacecraft used a thermal protection system that is different than the Space Shuttle.

What are the characteristics of reentry aerodynamics?

The chief characteristic of re-entry aerodynamics is that the temperature of the flow is so great that the chemical bonds of the diatomic molecules of the air are broken. The molecules break apart producing an electrically charged plasma around the aircraft.