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How astronauts control the spaceship's speed & position in space without any medium & no frictional force ?

  • When we apply breaks to stop/control the vehicle on road, frictional force is applied by calipers on discs. Also there is friction between vehicle's tyres & road's surface. Air in the atmosphere also helps to reduce the vehicle's speed (though very negligible resistance due to vehicle's aerodynamically improved designs). Likewise, when we accelerate the vehicle to get more speed, frictional force is applied between vehicle's tyres & road surface. Vehicle's spinning tyres actually pushes the road surface to opposite direction & vehicle gets the speed. Also, when jet planes lands, due to it's high speed it becomes difficult to control/stop the plane within a limited surface area. Thus, parachutes are opened from the planes's tail & due to the high resistance (frictional force maybe) between air & parachute, speed can be controlled. Thus, I think there must be some medium to control (speed & stop) any moving object. There must be frictional force. But in space, there's no medium for frictional force. Just wondering, what is the technology used that controls the spaceship's speed & position in vacuum/space ? Suppose, the spaceship in it's highest speed in vacuum, how it can be controlled/stop OR how to speed up the spaceship without frictional force (or any medium) ?

  • Answer:

    Isaac Newton's third law basically says that if you shoot out stuff in one direction, you will move in the other direction. This is how rockets work in a vacuum. They have a source of fuel which is heated up so that it expands and is pushed out of the rocket. Nothing needs to push against anything to move. Rockets send gasses backward, moving the vehicle forward. Newtons third law is tricky. A shuttle is pushing against it's own exhaust, essentially. The combustion of the fuel pushes the exhaust backwards and the ship forwards.

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Issac Newton is the answer. Any moving object tends to remain moving and any object at rest tends to remain at rest, unless an outside force such as friction is applied. Also for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, any force such as propulsion that is applied can change speed and direction. A planets gravity is a force that affects the speed and direction of a spaceship. There are forces that affect movement and any can be used to change the equation.

Garron

Small, Thruster Rockets.

Point rockets in the opposite direction of the way you are going yo slow and stop and also use stabilizing boosters for control etc....all done with rockets.

magicninja

Small jets or rockets positioned around the outside of the vehicle control maneuverability adjustments allowing the ship to be rotated or positioned however necessary.

GeneL

Issac Newton is the answer. Any moving object tends to remain moving and any object at rest tends to remain at rest, unless an outside force such as friction is applied. Also for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, any force such as propulsion that is applied can change speed and direction. A planets gravity is a force that affects the speed and direction of a spaceship. There are forces that affect movement and any can be used to change the equation.

Garron

If you break it down to its basic parts, you get Newton's laws of motion. The first law states that any object will continue to move with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force. It does not matter if that force comes from friction with the road, air resistance or whatever. Clearly in space there is no air to produce lift, or drag, or to use the flow over wings to change direction. That does not mean you cannot apply a force to your vehicle, however. Newton's theird law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is the principle upon which rocket engines work: hurl large volumes of fast-moving exhaust out one way, the vehicle moves the other way. To alter speed and direction in space, all spacecraft have an array of small rocket engines mounted around them pointing in various directions, usually along the three axes of motion. Firing these briefly in certain combinations can turn, slow or speed up the vehicle, as the rocket motor applies a force to it. This principle works just as well down here on Earth. It's just unnecessarily complicated to build in a bunch of little rockets to mass-produced vehicles such as cars and planes. The reason cars and planes use friction and drag to change their speed and direction is not because you need to use those forces to do it, but because those are the easiest ones to use when presented with a surface to move over or a fluid to move through.

Jason T

If you break it down to its basic parts, you get Newton's laws of motion. The first law states that any object will continue to move with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force. It does not matter if that force comes from friction with the road, air resistance or whatever. Clearly in space there is no air to produce lift, or drag, or to use the flow over wings to change direction. That does not mean you cannot apply a force to your vehicle, however. Newton's theird law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is the principle upon which rocket engines work: hurl large volumes of fast-moving exhaust out one way, the vehicle moves the other way. To alter speed and direction in space, all spacecraft have an array of small rocket engines mounted around them pointing in various directions, usually along the three axes of motion. Firing these briefly in certain combinations can turn, slow or speed up the vehicle, as the rocket motor applies a force to it. This principle works just as well down here on Earth. It's just unnecessarily complicated to build in a bunch of little rockets to mass-produced vehicles such as cars and planes. The reason cars and planes use friction and drag to change their speed and direction is not because you need to use those forces to do it, but because those are the easiest ones to use when presented with a surface to move over or a fluid to move through.

Jason T

Small, Thruster Rockets.

Bill

Point rockets in the opposite direction of the way you are going yo slow and stop and also use stabilizing boosters for control etc....all done with rockets.

magicninja

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