Subject:
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Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Tue, 19 Jun 2001 19:54:00 GMT
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Viewed:
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7020 times
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"Jesse Alan Long" <joyous4god2@yahoo.com> writes:
[...]
> The second question is where are the wings on your space craft? I apologize
> for not being able to appreciate some of the larger space craft but I was
> one of those people who thought that the Star Destroyer and the Super Star
> Destroyer in the Star Wars saga resembled a hybrid of a battleship and a
> wedge of cheese. Almost every builder has millions of attennas and tons of
> bulky areas on these ships and none of these people realize that there is
> friction in outer space and were these systems to be really existent in
> space that about half of the ship would disintegrate while travelling in
> space. I am simply saying that you need some wings on your space craft.
[...]
Actually, this is false. Space is a vacuum - there is no air, only a
few stray molecules of gas or cosmic dust. As a result, there is no
friction and thus no need for wings or streamlined shapes on space
craft. Also, there is very little gravitational pull, so the lifting
power of wings is useless.
Wings are necessary for vehicles that travel in an atmosphere. The
air pressure difference in air flowing above and below the wing
generates lift, which keeps the vehicle from crashing into the ground
due to the pull of gravity. However this is not relevant or required
in outer space. For example, the Space Shuttle has wings only becuase
it is needed for re-entry. If you look at the Apollo spacecraft that
went to the moon and back in the late 1960's and early 1970's, they
have no streamlining or wings, and did not disintegrate.
You may find that wings are good from a visual point of view, and I
won't argue with that. Also, they provide useful mounting points for
weapons or for maneuvering jets. However, the purpose of wings on
aircraft is to provide lift - to use the flow of air over and under
the wings in order to fight the pull of gravity. However, in outer
space there is neither air nor gravity to fight, so it is not
necessary to put wings on space-only ships. Of course, like the Space
Shuttle, it may be desirable to allow your ships to land on Earth, in
which case wings would be useful.
--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.
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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| (...) The Apollo space craft were essentially rockets that allowed for humans to live inside of them in a small compartment and your fuel was primarily used for sending you into outer space and not necessarily down from space. The fuel that was left (...) (23 years ago, 19-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
| | | Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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| (...) Actually, if you're travelling at near-light velocities, the density of the interstellar medium becomes high enough (especially within solar systems, so I guess that would be intrastellar medium) that a streamlined shaped would become (...) (23 years ago, 20-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
| | | Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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| (...) My spacecraft have wings if they're intended to enter the atmosphere, such as my Sparrow, (URL) . If they are strictly space (no atmospheric travel), they won't have wings, but they will have things that look like wings, but are field vanes. I (...) (23 years ago, 20-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Building big
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| (...) real picture available of your ship and not a picture drawn on the computer? The second question is where are the wings on your space craft? I apologize for not being able to appreciate some of the larger space craft but I was one of those (...) (23 years ago, 19-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
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