I'm sure it could, but getting back.......... and having the food.Could the space shuttle fly to the moon if 80% of the cargo bay was used for extra fuel?
I don't think even that would be necessary except for fuel for the return trip. Altering the trajectory from orbital to deep space could allow the shuttle to ';coast'; to the Moon like the Apollo missions. There would have to be a runway with a ramp for it to take off from the Moon though.
From what I have learned from the M.I.T. lecture series about Space Shuttle development extra boosters were never considered. The dynamics of what amounts to a hypersonic vehicle achieving low Earth orbit while attached to and thrusting through the external tank was understood only through thousands of hours of wind tunnel tests. To use it in any way for a Moon flight would also involve lunar orbit insertion fuel if the vehicle was to achieve orbit and then Earth return fuel. Then when it got back to Earth it was not designed for the 25,000.00 mph reentry speed that vehicle returning from the Moon have to be achieved. Nothings impossible but the Shuttle was really on designed for low Earth orbit.
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The shuttle is capable of acheiving a stable orbit, therefore
it could leave earth. However with the limited quantity of fuel
available the trip would be very slow and supplies would
probably run out.stopping at the moon instead of a flyby would also use even more fuel.A better design would be as
light as possible to optimise speed in transit.
Your questions is flawed.
yes it could go from earth to the moon with no problem.
Hell i can throw a stone to the moon.
basically, once you break the force of gravity from earth it will take very little effort to reach the moon. However, getting back, etc etc. will be another problem
That's not an easy question to answer. The shuttle wouldn't make a good moon lander, and what you propose would cost far more money than the orion module they are going to send.
No. Conceivaly you could get enough fuel on board tha tway to reach escape velocity. But not to reach the moon--there would not be enough fuel to land--or even enter lunar orbit.
That's based simply on the available volume in the payload bay. In practice, the design modifications would be impossible--and you would have to bable to restart the Shuttle main engines in flight, which they are very definately NOT designed to do--they would probably explode.
short answer: No.
First, some facts about the space shuttle:
The Shuttle Transit System consists of three parts: the boosters, the external fuel tank, and the orbiter. The system is designed to propel the orbiter in Low Earth Orbit, which is only about 150 miles up.
The orbiter has a mass of 75 metric tons (empty).
The total fuel capacity (including the external tank, which is much much larger than the orbiter itself) is 2,000 metric tons. The cargo bay has a payload of only 30 metric tons.
Lifting 75 metric tons into Low Earth Orbit requires a minimum of 2.2x10^12 Joules of energy. In reality, the shuttle expends quite a bit more energy than this, because the orbiter is not the only thing being lifted. The external fuel tank is lifted partway, as are the solid rocket boosters, and of course a fraction of the fuel itself.
Lifting 75 metric tons to Lunar Orbit requires a minimum of 4.6x10^12 Joules of energy, more than twice as much as LEO.
Getting to orbit is not the same thing as leaving orbit.
By the way, lifting 75 metric tons completely away from Earth and off into outer space (escape velocity) takes only a tiny fraction more energy than getting to the moon. This is because the moon is so far away that by the time you get there you have already left 99.9% of the Earth's gravity. In constrast, Earth's gravity in Low Earth Orbit is still 91% as strong as it is on the surface of the Earth.
Getting back to the question:
I am quite sure that filling the cargo bay with 30 tons of fuel would make no difference at all. That's only an increase of 1.5% in fuel capacity.
Adding 6 more Solid Rocket Boosters is another story. This would be a significant addition to the fuel capacity. However, I still doubt it would be enough, because now you have to expend even MORE energy lifting the extra SRB's off the ground before you burn them and discard them.
Even if the extra fuel was enough to leave orbit and get to the moon, there wouldn't be enough fuel left for a landing and takeoff on the moon, and the orbiter's wings would be useless since the moon has no air.
On the other hand, assuming the extra fuel was enough to make it TO the moon, it might just barely be possible for the orbiter to make it around the moon and slingshot right back to Earth without stopping, then use its wings to land on Earth.
If you ever see a shuttle launch, that big thing on the shuttle's belly is basically the fuel tank for the shuttle. If the Shuttle needs that big tank just to reach low Earth orbit, there is noway that converting 80% of the cargo bay will add much boosting power. Adding booster rockets is not a viable options because it also adds weight. There is no way that the shuttle, in its current configuration, can ever been used as more than a transport between Earth and low Earth Orbit.
P.S., going to the Moon does not require escape velocity. The Moon is orbiting the Earth and therefore still within the Earth's gravity field. Going to Mars requires escape velocity because the spacecraft needs to leave the Earth's gravity field.
you wouldn't really need more fuel
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