Warp field question

[Mytran]

What most people think of as the shuttle is more properly referred to as the orbiter. The term shuttle actually refers to the whole package as it stands on the launch pad, rockets, boosters and all.
Anyway, regarding its orbiting capability, I found this:

The orbiter carries astronauts and payload such as satellites or space station parts into low earth orbit, into the Earth's upper atmosphere or thermosphere.

Could the orbiter actually break orbit (ala Armageddon)? I don't know for sure, but such a function was certainly never part of the standard mission profile.

 

[Gagarin]

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

You're confusing "breaking the bonds of Earth's gravity" (going from the launch pad and getting INTO low Earth orbit) with "breaking orbit" (leaving Earth's orbit and going somewhere else in space...like the moon or Mars or in the middle of nowhere). The solid rocket boosters and the liquid fuel tank can't do much but get the shuttle into low earth orbit. There's not much left for it to do anything else once it gets into orbit.

 

[SWHouston]

I think the (our) Moon is in Earth's Orbit at about 250,000 miles (isn't it ?). So, just how far would it be beyond that, to actually "be/break" free, and be "in space" so to speak ?
Or, would you have to get beyond Pluto to actually be "in space" ?

 

[sojourner]

I was just thinking about how current understanding of Ion propulsion could evolve in the future, and be used on starships. Thanks for making me aware of the VASMIR program; I'll look more into it It wouldn't take a vessel months/years to break orbit, the space shuttle's propulsion system does it in a couple of minutes. Future propulsion systems would make the current time seem like a snail who's taken slow potion.

The space shuttle has NEVER left earth orbit, it cannot even make it out of low earth orbit to high orbit. Your comparison is invalid.

In reference to months/years to break orbit I was referring to a large ship like Enterprise trying to do it with Ion drives. Do not take my comments out of context.

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

Please tell me you know the difference between "low earth orbit" and "leaving earth"?

Good job of showing us your knowledge level!

 

[PrimeDirective]

The space shuttle has NEVER left earth orbit, it cannot even make it out of low earth orbit to high orbit. Your comparison is invalid.

In reference to months/years to break orbit I was referring to a large ship like Enterprise trying to do it with Ion drives. Do not take my comments out of context.

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

Please tell me you know the difference between "low earth orbit" and "leaving earth"?

Good job of showing us your knowledge level!

Thank you for being such a patronizing arse, Sojourner I'll bow down to you now; is that okay?

 

[Gagarin]

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

Please tell me you know the difference between "low earth orbit" and "leaving earth"?

Good job of showing us your knowledge level!

Thank you for being such a patronizing arse, Sojourner I'll bow down to you now; is that okay?

Perhaps, or a 'whoops, I was wrong!' would work.
The patronizing came after you were all like "Pshhhh, sha, of course it breaks orbit, how else do they get the shuttle into space, pshhhh, silly"... which was, very patronizing of you. Except you were mistaken.

 

[STR]

If the ship is going to accelerate to Warp 1 in the atmosphere, most likely it will clear the way with the navigational deflectors so it won't be contacting the atmosphere in it's path. Maybe the deflectors push through the flight path before going to warp will create a sonic boom?

I think you are talking about what will happen to the ship, not what surrounds it. The sonic boom will most likely shatter everything around the place where the ship goes to warp, just by the rapid acceleration.

Probably things nearby, yes. But consider that the ship's nav deflectors are actively pushing the air out of its way (perhaps significantly forward of the flight path) that it could be a kinda quiet sonic boom.

Any deflector able to keep Warp 9 protons and random hydrogen atoms from turning Captain Kirk into Ensign Ricky Redshirt, would be capable of pushing away a column of atmosphere to allow a Bird of Prey to quickly accelerate out of said atmosphere. However, given that a sonic boom is caused by a minor variation in air pressure, creating and subsequently collapsing a miles-long vacuum in our air would not be in any way, shape, or form "kinda quiet." Try "giant mid-air explosion" that would be felt for dozens of miles and heard for hundreds.

 

[STR]

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

You're confusing "breaking the bonds of Earth's gravity" (going from the launch pad and getting INTO low Earth orbit) with "breaking orbit" (leaving Earth's orbit and going somewhere else in space...like the moon or Mars or in the middle of nowhere). The solid rocket boosters and the liquid fuel tank can't do much but get the shuttle into low earth orbit. There's not much left for it to do anything else once it gets into orbit.

The shuttle is spec'ed to lift a 65,000 pound load into LEO from a Florida launch site, and 40,000 lbs into a polar orbit from a launch in Vandenberg AFB. Launch a shuttle empty and you could probably make a one-way trip to the moon in a STS. Well, to be accurate, you'd definitely be able to slingshot around the moon and make it back to earth. The issue lies in slowing down for a landing attempt.

Of course, that's just me recalling some stunts back when I messed around with Orbiter. With a light load, it was also pretty easy to get the shuttle to geostationary orbit, though there was never a practical reason to do that since expendable rockets were better at launching commercial satellites.

 

[sojourner]

Then how do astronauts get into space, by a magic pony ride? Lol. Of course the shuttle itself is not capable of breaking the planet's orbit, that's why it's on two giant rocket boosters. Regarding the future of propulsion, you never know what's going to be possible

Please tell me you know the difference between "low earth orbit" and "leaving earth"?

Good job of showing us your knowledge level!

Thank you for being such a patronizing arse, Sojourner I'll bow down to you now; is that okay?

Well, if you are going to continue to throw out tragically bad information......

 

[Unicron]

Can we knock off the personal jabs please?