I always had the impression that when these space rockets take off, first a load of fire comes out of the rockets; then there's a great woosh of white steam (they have a swimming pool sized tank of water directly beneath the rockets to prevent them setting fire to everything); and a second or two later, the whole thing begins to accelerate vertically.
Not so.
The BBC showed a clip of the shuttle Discovery taking off yesterday (viewable here), and you can see that the thing lurches a few feet upwards right after the countdown gets to "One", hangs in the air for a split second, and then resumes its assent before the impressive jets of fire have even started coming out of the engines.
Is NASA using anti-gravity machines to power these things, with the 'fire coming out' bit just to cover their tracks?
Friday, 25 February 2011
You learn something new every day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
The clue is in your choice of word. It clearly has the assent of the force of gravity to continue its ascent.......... :o))
Mark,
Watch again very carefully.
At the voice over "go for main engine start" there is a momentary blast from the outlets followed by the shuttle rising, and then hanging momentarilt while there is no visible exhaust.
Followed by the continuous blast and takeoff.
(but maybe that "go for main engine" blast was just a pyrotechnic to mask the AG, and they got the timing duration wrong.)
The crew were having a laugh , wheelspinning on the throttle.
All those tales of reverse-engineered UFOs at Area 51 were true after all!
They all do that.
My theory.
They would start the fuel flow and and light the blue touch paper very nearly simultaneously. Combustion would start in the combustion chambers above the nozzles. This would produce a blast of gas ahead of the flame front which would have some propellant force. Then, once the wick has caught fire they must open the throttles wide and whayhay off we go.
Ever watched the start of a motor race as the cars engage the first gear? They all jerk forward a smidge as the gears go into mesh.
Who twiddles the gearstick in the shuttle, then? Must be straight-cut to handle the power... hellish noisy :o))
At T-6 seconds the shuttle's main engines fire, and this lifts the shuttle in its 'straps' to the fuel tank / booster stack, which at that point is still clamped down. At T-0 the boosters fire, the clamps release, and the whole thing goes. And it's not stopping from that point either!
I'm afraid the reason is far more prosaic than all of the above.
You see; the pilot thought he'd left the oven on at home but very quickly remembered that since his mother was over looking after the cat she'd notice the oven light was on (it being next to the cupboard where the cat food is stored, even she couldn't miss an oven light lighting nothing at all) she would then turn the offending appliance off, unless of course she was going to have the quiche for supper in which case it was a fortuitous coincidence with the oven being pre-preheated if you will.
Obviously he's an airforce pilot so can think all of that in the split second you witnessed the shuttle seemingly hang in midair. Once he'd followed the thought process through; he put the foot down again.
Us mere mortals would've had the handbrake back on and our seat belts off before we realised evereything was in fact fine.
Pa_Broon, as I said, I learn something new every day. I knew that pilots have excellent reflexes, but I didn't know they could think that fast!
FT, ah ha someone else who knows something about cars.
The hesitation is because they are just starting to use the whips on the elves whose pedalling powers these jobbies.
Its all a conspiracy anyway. Dont get too excited about it.
Like solving poverty and ending boom busts, getting to the moon is also impossible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvKrOkuX0Yw&feature=related
Youtube of an actual NASA countdown {its used here in a video game..cant locate original.}
The countdown guy says three twice.
About 2.09 in.
BQ, thanks for that. I think that's definitive proof that it's all a vast cover-up. Or possibly that the count down guy suddenly remembered he'd left the oven on...
Post a Comment