spaceship one feather

[fatman57]

would the 'feather' system found on spaceship one work on a 'full' re-entry (like the shuttle) or does it only work if they are in partial atmosphere (i.e. they need to be in the atmosphere to whatever degree for it to work)?

 

[GregLocock]

I can't see any fundamental reason why the aero wouldn't work correctly to orient the REV, but of course you'd need a lot more tiles. As solutions go it is rather a bulky one compared with the usual approaches.

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Cheers

Greg Locock

I rarely exceed 1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight

 

[fatman57]

thanks - i was about to make a correction and ask if the system would work on re-entry such as was found on the apollo missions?

I'm guessing it wouldn't as the spaceship would be coming to earth at a terrific speed so might need to fire an engine to slow their approach..............as far as i was aware the feather was to slow the spacecraft down more than simply orientation - this then prevents them burning up on re-entry?

 

[btrueblood]

Yes, the SS1 "feather" mode is done to make the structure more draggy. It also makes it fairly unstable, and the pilot got bounced around quite a bit during re-entry due to the gyrations of the vehicle.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Max speed for this machine is quite a bit less than the 18,000 to 25,000 (Apollo)mph seen by orbital typw missions. I think it is less than 5,000 mph. At 60 miles up - hardly any atmosphere - but there is some. (even at 110 miles - satllites "slow" down due to areodynamic drag)

So the "feather" is using optimim techniques for the situation...

I didn't think the re-entry was violent in any way - it was the burn to altitude when the pilot went past the vertical and got into oscillation problems.

 

[btrueblood]

"I didn't think the re-entry was violent in any way - it was the burn to altitude when the pilot went past the vertical and got into oscillation problems. "

I may have been mistaken, but thought the pilot reported the re-entry was when he got bounced around. Or maybe that was just my surmise after viewing the video, the "shuttlecock" mode may be stable, but there is a fair bit of wobble going on (I know I would be reaching for a spacesickness bag!

 

[fatman57]

IIRC the electronics failed and the pilot had to steer vertical ......got there in the end!

more to the original question it would seem difficult without a 'motor' to slow a craft down enough to prevent burn up inthe atmosphere unless they are prepared to circle the earth a few times to allow 'drag' to take effect.

 

[GregLocock]

That's why manned reentry is through a window, you enter the upper atmosphere with enough downward velocity to get into reasonably dense air and so slow down quickly, rather than just relying on orbital decay due to drag.

Cheers

Greg Locock

I rarely exceed 1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight