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Subject: 
Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au
Date: 
Tue, 19 Jun 2001 21:48:04 GMT
Viewed: 
143 times
  
"Jesse Alan Long" <joyous4god2@yahoo.com> writes:
> Dave, you are correct in observing a small mistake concerning the rockets.
> There were parachutes that helped the rockets land in the ocean but even so,
> in a unique way, the parachute acted not only with but against the retro
> rockets because air is required to help an object to land safely on the
> ground or, in this instance, the ocean.  The parachute helped the retro
> rockets not burn as much fuel and withstand as much gravitational friction
> as they would if there was not a parachute on the rocket.

There are no retro rockets used in an Apollo re-entry to Earth.  Only
the heat of friction and the parachutes slow the ship down from
orbital speeds to the slow speed required for a safe splashdown.

> The comment about
> the total lack of gravity in a laboratory is that a special type of room has
> to be built in order to not contain any gravity and, at least from the
> perspective of this era, any facility that contains such a quality would
> probably be used for some type of space research lab or a test area by a
> space organization.  The answer to your question, which was a response to a
> question, is that if these objects are able to move through space, then they
> must be moved by some sort of either controlled or internal gravity inside
> their mass.

If there was such a laboratory it would be quite a boon to NASA.
Unfortunately the current theories of physics state that it would be
impossible to create such a room.

To simulate lack of gravity, there are two techniques used.  Both of
these are used by NASA as part of their astronaut training program:
  1. Put astronauts in a big swimming pool, wearing their spacesuits.
The buoyancy in the water acts against gravity so that the effect is
somewhat similar to zero-G.
  2. Fly in the "vomit comet" - an airplane that goes very high up
into the atmosphere, and then dives straight down, so that the
occupants experience free-fall.  This can only continue for about 30
seconds, because otherwise the plane would crash.  They then climb
back up and repeat the cycle several times.

--Bill.

--
William R Ward            bill@wards.net          http://www.wards.net/~bill/
                    (formerly known as hermit@bayview.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Life is too important to take seriously.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
 
(...) [snip] (...) <Chuckle> Well, this is close, but not entirely correct :] The airplane goes into a climb, and then in one fluid motion levels and enters a dive. It's during the arced portion of the flight that the occupants experience zero-G. (...) (25 years ago, 20-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
  Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
 
(...) I think I was possibly referring to the "vomit comet" when I was talking about the laboratory, Bill. I do appreciate the fact that you made me consider an attempt on weightlessness I never thought of in my mind when you mentioned the swimming (...) (25 years ago, 21-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
 
(...) Dave, you are correct in observing a small mistake concerning the rockets. There were parachutes that helped the rockets land in the ocean but even so, in a unique way, the parachute acted not only with but against the retro rockets because (...) (25 years ago, 19-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)

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