Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Space shuttle question?

How much fuel does the normal space shuttle take into space. I would imagine space being a vacuum meaning no resistance so does that show in lets say MPGs?



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The space shuttle does not require fuel to remain in orbit. However, the RCS thrusters need fuel to orient the vehicle and the OMS engines use fuel for the burn that brings the shuttle out of its orbit. The total amount carried is 923 pounds of fuel and 1,464 pounds of oxidizer.



The shuttle also carries three hydrazine tanks to run the Auxilary Power Units, which are high-speed turbines that power hydraulic pumps. The hydraulic system is used to move the main engines during ascent and it powers the aerosurfaces and landing gear during re-entry. The three tanks carry about 325 pounds of fuel each for a total of 975 pounds. All together, the fuel load is about 1,900 pounds.



For comparison purposes, a car with a 20 gallon tank carries about 120 pounds of fuel, so 1,900 pounds of gasoline would be about 320 gallons, which is very close to the amount of fuel carried by an 18-wheeler.



Giz



P.S. The space station does require fuel to stay in orbit. All satellites do because their orbit decays due to atmospheric drag. The orbit needs to be reboosted a couple of times per year. In this case, it is possible to calculate an MPG but since you didn't ask, I didn't make the calculation.



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Let's not say Miles Per Gallon. It's more like Tons Per Inch... the space shuttle burns an INCREDIBLY large amount of fuel to get into orbit. It has to burn practically nothing once achieving orbit (with the occasional course correction or orbit transfer) and then it fires it engines to slow down enough for re-entry...



The external tank alone burns about 1.1 million gallons of fuel in about 8 minutes during liftoff...



Definitely not a hybrid, green-conscious vehicle...
take into space? zero. its a glider once it reaches space. a little fuel is around for positioning, but not for the big engines in the back.
The Space Shuttle burns up a half a ton of fuel per second during the 510 second journey into orbit. it drains enough liquid propellant from it's external tank that is equivilant to draining an average sized swimming pool in 25 seconds.



meanwhile it burns 1 million pounds of Solid rocket propellant that is in each solid rocket booster (so 2 million pounds all together), in 2 minutes 5 seconds from launch.
My neighbor son's is a astronaut, probably is going out to space this year, he told me, the amount of fuel that the space shuttle just to jump out to space is 10,000 tons of fuel, if you can multiply, that will be 10,000 x 4=liters= 160, 000 gallons of fuel x liters = almost 400,000 liters of unleaded gas (am kidding on the last part!) so you answer should be 160,000 galons of fuel! just for the push to the out side space!...i don't know how much do that thing spends on the way back?
you could use miles per gallon but the equation would allways be open ended due to inertia and how long you coast. all thrust sytems use burn time given that they know the amonut of fuel being burnt in 1 second. while burning you will never go faser then the speed of your exhaust but yo can go equal to it.

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