Space Shuttle Light Year?

[Jonny671]

I've just suggested to someone that the Shuttle could be doing 15,000mph..

They've asked me how long it would take to do a Light Year at 15,000mph.

Now, I wasnt the best at maths so can anyone help out please?

* exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km (about 10 Pm)
* about 5,878,630,000,000 miles
* about 63,241.1 astronomical units
* about 0.306601 parsecs

If that helps?

[Eric Mc]

It's actually doing 17,500 mph. Any slower and it would fall down.

[Jonny671]

Eric Mc said:

It's actually doing 17,500 mph. Any slower and it would fall down.

Oh.. Well I just heard 15,000mph one time and its a simple number for simple people to understand

[croyde]

At 15,000 mph it should take roughly 46,500 years to do a Light Year.

[Simpo Two]

17,500mph

Divide by 3600 = 4.8611mps (miles per second)

Assuming light travels at 186,000mps:

186,000 / 4.8611 = 38,263 years



I think...

[AshVX220]

Those numbers are staggering and puts the distances involved in our galaxy alone into perspective!

[Jonny671]

AshVX220 said:

Those numbers are staggering and puts the distances involved in our galaxy alone into perspective!

I posted this on a different forum..



Bare in mind, a Light-Year is; 5,878,630,000,000 miles.. 5.8 trillion.

Or, 31,039,166,400,000,000 feet in a light year. That's thirty one quadrillion, thirty nine trillion, one hundred and sixty six billion, four hundred million feet.

Thats only 1 light-year, this image is equivalent to 200,000 times that..

[AshVX220]

[Ayahuasca]

If the Shuttle were sent off in a straight line into deep space with a full crew, how far would it get (assuming it didn't hit something)? In 46,000 years at 17,500 mph, would anything be left of it or could it theoretically cover a light year? How long would the various systems function for? Would the crew's corpses rot to nothing or would a closed environment like the shuttle inhibit the normal processes? For how long?

[Caruso]

Ayahuasca said:

If the Shuttle were sent off in a straight line into deep space with a full crew, how far would it get (assuming it didn't hit something)? In 46,000 years at 17,500 mph, would anything be left of it or could it theoretically cover a light year? How long would the various systems function for? Would the crew's corpses rot to nothing or would a closed environment like the shuttle inhibit the normal processes? For how long?

The crew would die first of lack of breathable air. Decomposition would be possible at this point. Some days after that the shuttle would run out of electical power and then get very cold, slowing any decomposition. Then nothing much would happen for a fair amount of time before a seal gave out and the crew compartment woud depressurise. After that even less would happen - the bodies would be extremely well preserved from this point onwards.

[Simpo Two]

That's why you need to invent animated suspension... or is it suspended animation... basically you freeze yourself and hope that the psychopath who stowed aboard doesn't disable the systems...

Either that or you need a much larger ship with everything recycled and enough breeding inhabitants to maintain a healthy gene pool.

[Ayahuasca]

Clones are the way forward - the crew just gets replicated every generation and no need for a huge and unpredictable gene pool.

[Simpo Two]

Ayahuasca said:

Clones are the way forward - the crew just gets replicated every generation and no need for a huge and unpredictable gene pool.

Excellent point.


You still need a way to generate oxygen and food though - 46,000 breakfasts, lunches and dinners for each crew member.



ETA: Or 92,000 if they get to the other end, find it's crap and come home!

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 18th November 21:35

[MOTORVATOR]

Simpo Two said:

Ayahuasca said:

Clones are the way forward - the crew just gets replicated every generation and no need for a huge and unpredictable gene pool.

Excellent point.


You still need a way to generate oxygen and food though - 46,000 breakfasts, lunches and dinners for each crew member.



ETA: Or 92,000 if they get to the other end, find it's crap and come home!

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 18th November 21:35

Think you need to check your calculator before you set off

[Simpo Two]

MOTORVATOR said:

Think you need to check your calculator before you set off

Oh yes, silly me. 16,790,000 breakfasts, lunches and dinners for each crew member.






We're going to need a bigger spaceship

[Eric Mc]

At 17,500 mph, the Shuttle would be unable to leave earth orbit. In order to break free of earth's gravity it needs to accelerate beyond 25,000 mph (as the Apollo/Saturn spacecraft did). This would push the Shuttle into Solar Orbit - which means that it would be still trapped in the Solae System. In order to escape the pull of the sun, it would need tio accelerate beyond 37,000 mph.

The Shuttle (together with its boosters) is designed specifically to reach its earth orbit speed only. It cannot exceed 17,500 so it is a purely low earth orbiting vehicle.

[Ayahuasca]

Eric Mc said:

The Shuttle (together with its boosters) is designed specifically to reach its earth orbit speed only. It cannot exceed 17,500 so it is a purely low earth orbiting vehicle.

v = at so would simply need to burn its engines for a bit longer, so bigger external fuel tanks.

[Eric Mc]

Ayahuasca said:

Eric Mc said:

The Shuttle (together with its boosters) is designed specifically to reach its earth orbit speed only. It cannot exceed 17,500 so it is a purely low earth orbiting vehicle.

v = at so would simply need to burn its engines for a bit longer, so bigger external fuel tanks.

Theoretically, but the whole structure (which is pared to the minimum) would have to be redesigned to take the extra stresses and starins of having to lift a much bigger and heavier tank.

Don't forget, that the CRB/Main Engine combination in itself is JUST enough to limp the orbiter intio an initial very low orbit. Firings of the two Orbital Manoeuvering System (OMS), at the base of the tailfin, are needed to refine and circularise the orbit to the one required for the specific mission.

The Shuttle is an extremely marginal vehicle, operating right at its technical limits.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 19th November 08:50

[Salgar]

According to 'pedia

The fastest unmanned spacecraft was:

Unmanned spacecraft 252 792 km/h (157 078 mph)[6] Helios 2 probe (unmanned) mid 1970s
[6] Relative to the sun


That's a mere 4263 years for a light-year.

Although Apollo 10 went a little slower:

Manned spacecraft 39 896 km/h (24 790 mph) Apollo 10 Thomas Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan May 26, 1969

That's more like 27010 years.


I think until we discover and develop some new means of propulsion (or wormholes), we're not going anywhere fast.

[Jonny671]

Eric.. Other knowledgable members..

Could Nuclear get us there, or get us fast enough to get out of the Low Earth Orbit, easily?