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Flying the Shuttle - Abort Procedures Overview: Difference between revisions
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Flying the Shuttle - Abort Procedures Overview (view source)
Revision as of 10:16, 26 April 2016
, 26 April 2016→We're going to Africa! - a TAL tutorial
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Take a moment to watch the predictors of the Shuttle future state change to realize what is now happening: There are three things that keep the Shuttle from falling down during all flight phases - a thrust component pointed downward during powered flight, centrifugal force during orbital flight and lift during entry and aerodynamical flight. | Take a moment to watch the predictors of the Shuttle future state change to realize what is now happening: There are three things that keep the Shuttle from falling down during all flight phases - a thrust component pointed downward during powered flight, centrifugal force during orbital flight and lift during entry and aerodynamical flight. | ||
We're nearly outside of the atmosphere, so there's no lift, and we're not fast enough to feel significant centrifugal force - so at this stage only | We're nearly outside of the atmosphere, so there's no lift, and we're not fast enough to feel significant centrifugal force - so at this stage only thrust is keeping us up. Now look at the acceleration - it's actually below 1 g. Even if we'd point all thrust we have downward now, with all the mass of the ET, two engines are not enough to keep the Shuttle from falling down. Well - the ET will get lighter as we keep burning fuel, so eventually we'll be okay, but we need to cope for the next few minutes till this happens. | ||
But - the SRBs gave us a good 1000 m/s upward velocity, so it'll be some time till we actually start falling. Nevertheless, currently guidance assumes we have the thrust of three engines, so if we have only two, we'll have to pitch up and point more thrust downward to get onto the same trajectory. | But - the SRBs gave us a good 1000 m/s upward velocity, so it'll be some time till we actually start falling. Nevertheless, currently guidance assumes we have the thrust of three engines, so if we have only two, we'll have to pitch up and point more thrust downward to get onto the same trajectory. | ||