shuttle launch

mike and Judy · Guru

shuttle launch

Cruising Granny · Guru

I never get sick of watching the power it takes to lift all that machinery out of the earth's atmosphere. It's still intriguing to know they're heading out there somewhere to a space station to go to work.
They really are a clever bunch. I can't explain the thrust. It sounds like a "bloke" problem to me.
I was wondering how many litres per 100kms they were consuming, and what NASA pays per litre for fuel.
It's real, but it seems unreal even when we can watch it happing live on TV.

I had an short experience with NASA's technology when they were part of four tracking system tests. They did a night launch which was spectaculare as each booster kicked in and dropped off. They only found the remnants of 1 booster. The rest are pounded into the ground where they crashed to earth.
Cheers Chris

jon7360 · Veteran Member

from NASA site ...

Main Engines burn for approximately 8.24 minutes:
Oxygen: 143,060 gal / 8.24 = 289.24 gal/sec
Hydrogen: 383, 066 gal / 8.24 = 774.80 gal/sec

Solid Rockets burn for approximately 2.00 minutes:
1,100,000 lbs of fuel in each / 2 = 18333 lbs/sec

.. kinda awe-inspiring, eh!

now .. where's my steam engine ..

Wombat 280 · Guru

mike and Judy wrote:

Will one of you aircraft wallas explain to me what is a ----pound of thrust in caravan pulling terms,
Then I can multiply the part that 3 tons of thrust it got to, to escape the earth atmosphere
What a motor to have in the old patrol, eh, eh, eh,

Your question is not that simple. Thrust is a measurement of force while horsepower is a measurement of power ,

Thurst is normally associated with Jet proplusion while horsepwer is associated with reciprocating engines or in the case of aircraft that power produced by a prop .

The cals to allow a comparsion are far to complex to go into on the forum and even If we did I believe it would be of liitle value for your intend purpose . If you really feel the urge to go into this then give me a PM and I'll attempt to work it out or explain how to do it but it will bore you witless believe me

Cruising Granny · Guru

Thanks for those stats Jon. I watched the ignition sparks this morning, and I heard what they were saying about power and time, but it's so huge it's hard to comprehend.
All that power and energy! I love it!
I love machines with oomph! Lots of grunt.
And those rockets have lots of grunt.
So who pays the fuel bill?

mike and Judy · Guru

Thanks Wombat, didnt relise it was that complicated, I think Jon had the idea putting the comparison as he did, thanks anyway fellas

Forrest White · Member

NASA today is looking for collaborators in space exploration, for example, in the Artemis mission, there are really eight countries involved in it. I guess that is why the first stage of the mission is planned to be launched by 2023 because there is a lot of participants. One of the collaborators country is the UK, where the space industry begins to develop rapidly. There is Skyrora company which represents a new breed of private rocket companies developing the next generation of launch vehicles for the burgeoning small satellite market www.skyrora.com/