This one IS rocket science...
Typical spacecrafts orbiting the Earth aren’t extremely far away. They’re only a few hundred miles above our heads. So, when it’s time to return to solid ground, it’s a relatively short trip.
However, spacecrafts and similar objects in orbit are also moving at exceptionally high speeds. We’re talking 17,000 mph for a low-Earth orbit satellite or spacecraft, and even faster for higher orbits. Combined, these two factors create a dilemma — and a whole lot of heat — when bringing spacecrafts back to Earth: How do we decrease an object’s speed from 17,000 mph to 0 mph, within the relatively short distance of a couple hundred miles?Reentering spacecrafts do indeed deploy multiple parachutes to help them slow down — but only for the final stretch of a high-speed journey.
That’s because parachutes work best closer to the ground where the density of air is greater than the thin air at extreme altitudes. Also, supersonic speeds pose, and physicists still struggle to predict and control these dynamics. So, while they’re great for the last leg of a return trip, parachutes are not typical the best at removing the bulk of a spacecraft’s excess velocity.In theory, we could use rockets to slow an aircraft. After all, rockets are great for propelling things up into space in the first place, so why not use them on the descent phase as well?
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