Could massive weather balloons be used to lift a space shuttle up to the edge of the atmosphere before firing much smaller boosters to finish the job?
Scaled Composites used this two-stage idea to launch Spaceship One to a suborbital flight to win the Ansari Xprize in 2004.This used an aircraft (White Knight) instead of balloons, to get to a very high altitude and the then space craft (Space Ship One) launched from beneath and ignited its rockets for the ascent to suborbital altitude or 100km.This became the launch model for Virgin Galactic.Balloons are unlikely to be practical because their payload capacity is too low. Their direction and altitude are not easily controlled, and too influenced by wind and atmospheric conditions.
Why does a rocket need to get to escape velocity to get into space?
The answer is that a rocket doesn’t need to get to escape velocity to reach space. Escape velocity (at the Earth’s surface) is that speed which is required to completely overcome Earth’s gravitational field. You need to reach escape velocity if (say) you want to travel to Mars, but not if you just want to get to the International Space Station.Note that the escape velocity is lower the higher a rocket gets above the Earth’s surface. No rocket will instantly hit escape velocity as it is launched. It will rather speed over time, and by the time it reaches escape velocity that might be somewhat lower than the escape velocity at the Earth’s surface.Space is generally considered to start at about 100km above the Earth’s surface (although that’s a rather arbitrary definition as the, by then, very thin atmosphere continues further). The minimum requirement of a rocket to be considered to have reached space by that definition would be to reach that altitude. The WW II V2 rocket reached almost that altitude and its peak speed was less than 6,000 m/s, or only about 14% of escape velocity.The next step up is to go fast enough to go into orbit, and that’s what is called orbital velocity. If you take the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, that had an orbital speed of about 18,000 km/hr, or rather less than half escape velocity.Satellites travelling in higher orbit (such as the geostationary ones occupied by satellite TV broadcasters) have a lower orbital speed, but it may be necessary (depending exactly on how long the “burns” last and the number of stages) for the rocket to achieve a much higher speed than the eventual orbital speed.NB, I should add and answer to your text as well. You are quite right that, in theory, a rocket which could maintain a constant 1 km/s (which is about the maximum speed of a V2 rocket) would eventually break free of Earth’s gravitational pull (and that would be at the altitude where the escape velocity is 1 km/s). However, it’s not practical to do it that way and that is because the rocket will have to burn fuel for the entire time which, in its turn, means it will be supporting the useless weight of the fuel and not the payload. It’s more efficient to burn off that fuel much faster and accelerate to a higher speed to avoid wasting energy supporting all that weight. There are other tricks, such as using multi-stage rockets to avoid carrying too much “dead weight” into orbit.
Will overdosing on Anti-Depressants kill you?
YES YOU CAN DIE! FYI, in July 2006 (wow, 2 years ago) I took all of my Elavil (amitriptyline), Lithium, Lexapro and Risperdal. If they hadn't of got me to the hospital in time, they (the doctors) said I would have been dead in 30 minutes. I spent 2 weeks in ICU, and then 1 month on the psych ward. Please if you are considering taking all your meds....SEEK HELP! It is not worth the pain I went through. They said they pumped my stomach twice with charcoal, ran tubes in places you don't want to think of, put 3 IV's in my arms and induced bowel movements while I was unconscious. Please don't attempt suicide, talk to a friend, loved one, call a doctor, go to your nearest hospital. Hell call 911 (in the US) I hope this was of some help! Take care! Hugs, Lesli
What happens when someone hits the ground?
im sorry if this offends anyone, i do not mean to offend anyone and i respect 9/11 and i pray for all the families of the victims. but im really curious.... what happend to the people who jumped.. when they hit the ground... what exactly happens to the human body from such a height when impacting the ground. i know that alot of the people died in the air.. or passt out in the air, but what physically occurs when they hit the ground?
If I were able to launch a rocket to the moon from my backyard, what would legally stop me? Would the government shoot it down? Would I get arrested?
If I were able to launch a rocket to the moon from my backyard, what would legally stop me? Would the government shoot it down? Would I get arrested?In the U.S., you would definitely be in big trouble, but it really wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re going into space or trying to get to the moon. That part is perfectly legal.You’d probably never get as far as launching the rocket. Trying to buy all the dangerous, toxic, explosive chemicals that such a rocket probably requires would be enough to attract the attention of officials. You’re not going to be able to “quietly” buy hundreds of thousands of gallons of high explosives and toxic chemicals.You’re not going to be able launch a rocket from your back yard that can carry a human to the moon. Take a look at a Saturn V and all the facilities that were required to launch it. This is just the tip of the iceberg (be sure to notice the cars in these photos for a sense of scale):You would need a huge amount of land. That’s perfectly possible, but I wouldn’t call a hundred square miles or so “my back yard”.Launching a rocket requires all sorts of permits: environmental impact, airspace permissions, and most importantly, safety permits. Remember, rockets headed for space don’t just go up — they go sideways too, and they drop big chunks of hardware as they go …You’re responsible for the safety of the people in the rocket’s flight path, and you have to prove to the authorities that you’re not going to endanger people.With enough work, you can get all these permits and launch your moon rocket legally. On the other hand, if it just suddenly pops up, nobody is going to shoot it down, but when (if) you get back, you’re going to be in a ton of trouble.
Soapberry bugs use needlelike “beaks” to feed on seeds within the fruits of various plants.?
Soapberry bugs use needlelike “beaks” to feed on seeds within the fruits of various plants. Bugs feed most successfully when their beak length matches the size of the fruit on which they are feeding. For 25 years, populations of soapberry bugs in central Florida have been feeding on small goldenrain tree fruits that were introduced to the area, rather than on the larger native balloon vine fruits that serve as food for other soapberry bug populations. Beak lengths of soapberry bugs are variable, but the average beak length is shorter in soapberry bug populations that feed on goldenrain tree fruits than in populations that feed on balloon vine fruits, as shown in the graph. How does natural selection act on beak length in soapberry bug populations?
What is the difference between Diaphragm and Bellow type differential Pressure gauges?
#In gauges intended to sense small pressures or pressure differences, or require that an absolute pressure be measured, the gear train and needle may be driven by an enclosed and sealed bellows chamber, called an aneroid, which means "without liquid". (Early barometers used a column of liquid such as water or the liquid metal mercury suspended by a vacuum.) This bellows configuration is used in aneroid barometers (barometers with an indicating needle and dial card), altimeters, altitude recording barographs, and the altitude telemetry instruments used in weather balloon radiosondes. These devices use the sealed chamber as a reference pressure and are driven by the external pressure. Other sensitive aircraft instruments such as air speed indicators and rate of climb indicators (variometers) have connections both to the internal part of the aneroid chamber and to an external enclosing chamber. #The Diaphragm Pressure Gage uses the elastic deformation of a diaphragm (i.e. membrane) instead of a liquid level to measure the difference between an unknown pressure and a reference pressure. A typical Diaphragm pressure gage contains a capsule divided by a diaphragm, One side of the diaphragm is open to the external targeted pressure, PExt, and the other side is connected to a known pressure, PRef,. The pressure difference, PExt - PRef, mechanically deflects the diaphragm. *Pros: - Much faster frequency response than U tubes. - Accuracy up to ±0.5% of full scale. - Good linearity when the deflection is no larger than the order of the diaphragm thickness.