Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An O'Neill cylinder (also called an O'Neill colony, or Island Three) is a space settlement concept proposed by American physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. [1] O'Neill proposed the colonization of space for the 21st century, using materials extracted from the Moon and later from asteroids. [2]
A space vehicle's flight is determined by application of Newton's second law of motion: =, where F is the vector sum of all forces exerted on the vehicle, m is its current mass, and a is the acceleration vector, the instantaneous rate of change of velocity (v), which in turn is the instantaneous rate of change of displacement.
A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space. [1] Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo.
When in space, the purpose of a propulsion system is to change the velocity, or v, of a spacecraft. [7] In-space propulsion begins where the upper stage of the launch vehicle leaves off, performing the functions of primary propulsion, reaction control, station keeping, precision pointing, and orbital maneuvering.
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board.Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit.
A low energy transfer, or low energy trajectory, is a route in space which allows spacecraft to change orbits using very little fuel. [10] [11] These routes work in the Earth-Moon system and also in other systems, such as traveling between the satellites of Jupiter.
Spacecraft design was born as a discipline in the 1950s and 60s with the advent of American and Soviet space exploration programs. Since then it has progressed, although typically less than comparable terrestrial technologies.
One "pulse" consist of the injection of a fuel pellet into the combustion chamber, its consumption through a series of fission-fusion reactions, and finally the ejection of the released plasma through a magnetic nozzle, thus generating thrust. A single pulse is expected to take only a fraction of a second to complete.