- The Space Shuttle is retired so we will miss those launches from Kennedy Space Center. The Shuttle itself carries 55,000 pounds of fuel At 8 pounds per gallon that is 6,900 gallons of fuel taken aloft. It is not quite enough fuel to carry it to the Moon. It would need 65,000 pounds o fuel to make a one way trip to the Moon. See Review #1270 for a review of “ The Space Shuttle’s Last Flight”.
- The Shuttle is not designed to make a trip to the Moon. It is designed for a low Earth orbit of 236 miles high traveling at 17,180 miles per hour. #1270 Review explains how this orbit is achieved by obtaining a velocity that balances Kinetic Energy ( the energy of motion) with the Gravitational Potential Energy of elevation. Do the math.
- The Shuttle jettisons the main fuel tank used at launch. It gets the Shuttle off the launch pad and to 50 miles altitude. The Launch Fuel Tank is a cylinder 8.4 meters in diameter and 29.6 meters long.
- How many gallons of fuel does the launch tank carry?
-------------- Volume = area of the cylinder cross section * height
-------------- V = pi * r^2 * h
------------- V = 3.14 * ( 4.2)^2 * 29.6
------------ V = 1,600 meters^3
------------ one liter = 1000 cm^3
----------- V = 1,000,000,000 centimeters^3
----------- V = 1,000,000 liters
----------- one liter = 0.26 gallons
--------------- V = 420,000 gallons
- You are part of the launch crew and the flight controllers would like to know after launch when there is only 1/8 of a tank of fuel left. Your job is to place a detector fuel gauge in the tank to give his reading. Where do you put the gauge?
--------------- 1/8 volume left = 1/8 ( 1,600 meters^3) = 200 m^3
--------------- V = pi* r^2 * h
-------------- 200 = 3.14 * (4.2)^2 * height
-------------- height = 3.6 meters.
- You install the fuel gauge 3.6 meters above the bottom of the tank.
- The launch vehicle burns 1000 gallons of fuel per second. How long do we wait to get the fuel gauge to send the signal after blast off?
- The tank will have burned through 7/8th of the volume of fuel.
---------------------- 7/8 * 420,000 gallons = 367,500 gallons
--------------------- 367,500 gallons / 1000 gallons / second = 367.5 seconds.
- The fuel gauge signal should arrive in 6.1 minutes after launch. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Sunday, February 19, 2012
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