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Orbital decay is a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods.These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite, a star and any object orbiting it, or components of any binary system.
Picking up fuel along the way — the ramjet approach — will lose efficiency as the space craft's speed increases relative to the planetary reference. This happens because the fuel must be accelerated to the spaceship's velocity before its energy can be extracted, and that will cut the fuel efficiency dramatically. A related issue is drag. If ...
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
Decomposition or rot is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biosphere.
Although NASA and the United States Air Force now require upper-stage passivation, other launchers – such as the Chinese and Russian space agencies – do not. Lower stages, like the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters or the Apollo program's Saturn IB launch vehicles, do not reach orbit. [81] Examples: Two Japanese H-2A rockets broke up in ...
If that fails, saving an astronaut floating off into space might require several tethers hooked together, a SAFER, and, to be honest, a lot of luck. RELATED: Here's whats happening in space this year:
The Stardust sample-return capsule was the fastest man-made object ever to reenter Earth's atmosphere, at 28,000 mph (ca. 12.5 km/s) at 135 km altitude. This was faster than the Apollo mission capsules and 70% faster than the Shuttle. [1] PICA was critical for the viability of the Stardust mission, which returned to Earth in 2006.
Speculative faster-than-light concepts include the Alcubierre drive, Krasnikov tubes, traversable wormholes, and quantum tunneling. [1] [2] Some of these proposals find loopholes around general relativity, such as by expanding or contracting space to make the object appear to be travelling greater than c.