These already put a lot of strain on the trained astronaut’s body. Not only that, but entering space obviously involves a lot of G-forces. That does not even account for the degree of heat to which the people onboard the aircraft would be exposed to.Įven if your aircraft was somehow shielded enough to not melt as it started to enter the atmosphere, it would nevertheless be far too hot for passengers onboard. Weighing it down with further heat shielding could make that difficult, if not impossible. What about attaching the kind of heat shielding that protects space shuttles?Įven putting aside the fact that those shields are obviously not designed with aircraft in mind, planes already have to strike a delicate balance to be light enough to generate enough lift to remain airborne. An airplane trying to leave the Earth’s atmosphere would, thus, burn up before it got anywhere close to clearing the atmosphere, let alone reentering. Needless to say, your average Boeing 747 is not built to withstand that kind of heat. This orange layer gives way to the whitish Stratosphere and then into the Mesosphere. Editorial Team The orange layer is the troposphere, where all of the weather and clouds which we typically watch and experience are generated and contained. That is hot enough to melt iron and nickel. The crew vehicle of the space shuttle can experience temperatures as hot as 3,400 degrees Fahrenheit. Just how fast are space shuttles going when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere? Think at least 4.7 miles per second, which is good enough to generate as much as 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit. Space shuttles require special heat shielding to be able to withstand the incredible friction that generates the heat that burns up that debris. If you have ever seen a shooting star, that’s actually a meteor or some other type of space debris entering the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up. There is also the fact that entering or exiting our atmosphere generates an incredible amount of heat. In the absence of factors such as wind speed in space, the principles that generate lift beneath an aircraft’s wings simply do not apply. The same holds true for the air friction behind lift and drag. Boeing Boeing Space Planeīecause there is not the same consistent gravitational force pulling the craft downward, the whole concept of battling gravity to keep from dripping does not hold up. Planes are built to compensate for our gravity, but the amount of gravity exerted is particular to Earth as a result of several factors. Forces Are Different in Spaceįor one thing, flight as we know it is dependent on the Earth’s gravity. However, while the careful balance of all of these forces are essential to enabling a plane to take flight, they are not present in the same way when it comes to space travel. ![]() The thrust must be great enough to help keep the air pockets moving past the wing and body of the craft in such a way as to compensate for drag pushing it backward and gravity pulling it downward. ![]() That’s why thrust, drag, and gravity all come into play as well. You can generate as much lift as you want, but if the plane isn’t able to move forward, it won’t matter. However, even that is only half the equation. That’s what causes lift.Īirbus Airbus A330-900neo first flight takeoff It bounces around a curved wing, increasing air pressure beneath the wings while decreasing the amount of air pressure above the wing. When we think about lift, we usually imagine it to be air rushing beneath the bottom of wings, and while that’s technically true, it’s how and why that works that explains how and why planes fly – and what’s missing for the equation in space flight.įor one thing, flight here on Earth is all about how air impacts the wings. When we talk about flight, we usually mean “generating lift,” but what does that actually mean? ![]() How Planes Flyįirst, let’s take a step back and ask how planes fly in the first place. Let’s dive into it, and find out what would happen if a plane were to fly into space. After all, planes can climb tens of thousands of feet into the air, so why can’t they make it into the atmosphere? There are many reasons for that, ranging from the different ways different craft achieve flight to the math and physics not adding up.
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