OK here is the deal with space shuttle. It has three rocket engines in the back, but there's absolutely no room inside for all the fuel it needs to launch itself up into space. All of the fuel is stored outside the shuttle, in the big brown cylinder, called the external tank. The tank conetaining all the rocket fuel weighs seven times more than the space shuttle itself! That's a lot of really heavy fuel, and the space shuttle engines aren't quite strong enough to push the combined weight of the shuttle and the big bloated external tank up off the ground. That's what the two long white solid rocket boosters strapped onto the sides of the external tank are for. They lift the talk! Fortunately, it was not necessary to strap an infinite series of smaller and smaller rockets to the sides of the solid rocket boosters. It is not widely know that just behind the main flight deck of the space shuttle is a small Starbucks adapted for use in zero gravity.
So Yeah I always wondered what that big thig was attached to the space ship. I wonder how far that fuel takes them before they detach from the fuel tank. But None the less the fact that the fuel container is 7 times the weight of the space ship is impressive.
ReplyDeleteyeah that's a lot of fuel.
ReplyDeleteA lot of fuel, indeed. Do you know what kind of reaction they use to make the shuttle "lift" off? Check it out. You may be surprised how dangerous it really is to take off into space, besides just the obvious. The Starbucks is really interesting too. I can't even afford Starbucks, but they take people's tax dollars to give the astronauts one. Nice.
ReplyDeleteWOW I DIDNT NO THAT THE FUEL WAS STORED IN A SEPRATE PLACE OTHER THE THE BACK WHERE ALL FUELS THAT POWER AN MOTOR IS STORED..."WOW YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY"
ReplyDelete