Heat and space travel essays

Heat and space travel essays Heat and Insulation Methods and Problems in Space Travel Effective heat control in spacecrafts is crucial in ensuring a safe environment for astronauts, from landing, to their orbit in space, and to their final re-entry back to Earth. It allows spacecraft components and systems to operate effectively, without temperatures becoming too extreme. An uneven distribution of heat causes different parts of the spacecraft to heat and contract, causing the spacecraft to warp, and its components to break. Heat sources can be both internal, such as the friction between the spacecraft parts, propulsion and electrical energy, or external, such as that of the sun. Throughout the spacecrafts journey, thermal heat levels must be balanced by ensuring that the amount of heat leaving the ship equals the amount of heat energy entering the ship. This can be achieved through passive and active means. The thermal protection system, or TPS, is one such passive system, which applies a careful arrangement of insulating materials to the outer skin of the spacecraft, in order to maintain spacecraft temperatures. As well as creating the aerodynamics of the craft, it absorbs heat and prevents it from reaching delicate parts of the craft. Materials chosen must perform in temperatures ranging from the extreme cold of space, which can reach -1570C, to temperatures over 1500 0C upon re-entry. Friction caused by plasma flow, as well as the damaging vibrations on re-entry, are also problematic. Varieties of ceramic tiles, which are made from high purity silica, help to overcome these difficulties, as they are light-weight, durable, and dispel heat extremely quickly. Black and white surface coatings affect their degree of insulation. High-temperature surface insulation tiles are used in the underside of the spacecraft, around the windows, and on the edges of the vertical stabiliser. Low-tempe rature surface insulation tiles are used on parts of the fuselage ( ...