For 19 years, space shuttle Endeavour traveled more than 196 million kilometers and tallied 299 days in space in 25 missions. Now the decommissioned shuttle sits at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, awaiting its final journey to a science center in Los Angeles on the back of a specially adapted Boeing 747 later this year.
On Monday, May 7, all power into Endeavour’s cockpit will be cut off forever. "And it's the last shuttle that will ever get turned on," says science journalist Ken Kremer, who visited the powered-up shuttle on Thursday and snapped a photo of the flight deck (the commander's seat is on the left, the pilot's on the right). "It was like being on the bridge of the starship Enterprise," Kremer says. "Those blue screens are real and they were moving. The gauges were active. The only thing better is being in orbit." But it will probably be almost a decade before the next generation of NASA-built spacecraft carries anyone into space.
—Sarah Fecht
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7 Comments
Add CommentWow, if you can figure out the shuttle flew 196 million clicks, when will someone figure out its equivalent MPG's. And don't forgot like buses, there are 7 people, so do the miles per passenger calc. as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have to remember most of that time and distance was in orbit, which, once you are there, does not require any fuel at all. Just imagine the MPG for the moon, with all that mass, and zero gallons of petroleum consumed. However, no work done either.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes and no. Remember W = F*d, work = force times distance. The force is earth's gravity, however since the force of gravity is perpendicular to the motion of the Shuttle in orbit, W = 0.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, in going to the moon, there would be work because of the need to escape from earth's gravity, and the moon's force of gravity would be parallel to the spacecraft's direction of motion.
NASA will be terminated within a year....I believe
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe shuttles are definitely something to see but are also old technology so it is a good thing they are have been retired.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is too bad the politicians are spending trillion in waste lining their own pockets and the pockets of their various special interest groups or whomever and NOT allocating some of that money to the build of a new spacecraft. The shame is on them for handing over space leadership to the Chinese, europeans and the rest of the world. They should have allocated the few billion out of the 4 trillion they take to ensure the shuttle replacement was ready to go within months of retiring the last shuttle.
We can estimate this easy if we are not looking for perfection. Each solid rocket contains 1.1 million lbs of fuel (2.2 million total), the LOX tank, 1.4 million lbs, and the hydrogen tank 0.2 ,million lbs for a total of 3.8 million lbs per mission. There was 25 Endeavor missions for a total of 98 million lbs for all missions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConverting 196 million kilometers to miles (1.852 kilometers per mile) yields 105.8 million miles traveled.
105.8 millions miles / 98 million lbs of fuel = 1.11 mile per lbs of fuel.
Gasoline weighs 6.07 lbs per gallon. So 1.11 mile per lbs * 6.07 lbs per gallon yields 6.7 MILES PER GALLON.
Of course converting solid fuel, LOX, and H2 into lbs and then converting the lbs into equivalent gasoline isn't correct but with everything in science back-of-the-envelop answers are still valuable even if not precise or correct.
You have to start the mission from the ground vice a space based outpost. From the ground we have zero potential energy and zero kinetic. If get the moon we need to increase both by a very large amount - i.e. perform large amounts of work. We never really escape from the Earth gravity....at some point in the journey to the moon the influence for it's gravity becomes stronger than the Earths and pulls the ship to it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo for all this work we did to gain potential energy and speed we throw it all away in heat and drag on reentry.