Astronomy: Space Shuttle Landing

by Luis Lugo

Submitted : Fall 2010

With the growing computer technology scientists have been able to simulate outer space expeditions with computer programs. This allows the scientists to plan for missions in advance to foresee probable flaws or to see what is needed like fuel or supplies to complete and to make the mission a success. Given that the planet’s mass is 4.5 * 10²⁵ Kg, the Mean Radius is 12,000 km, and the space shuttle mass is 1,100 Kg. The purpose of this project is to calculate the require forces to land on a planet, launch off a planet, and orbit around a planet. To calculate these unknown forces I used Galileo and Newton’s equations from physics to figure out the different components required for takeoff, landing, and orbiting the planet. The conclusions that I drew from the results were that it takes a force of 191.2 kN from the thrusters to landed the shuttle, it needs an escape speed of 22.4 km/s with a force of 39330.4 kN to take off from the planet, and a force of 357.77 N to orbit the planet.

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