Spaceplanes - The Ultimate Journey

this is a vision of the future a launch system that will transport ordinary people to the edge of space and back again this spacecraft will open the universe to all it's a dream of those who will design and build the next generation of space planes in the very near future spaceflight will become an everyday activity the corridors of space will become as busy as the Airways of today the environment surrounding our earth will become the largest construction site ever dozens of space stations will orbit our planet these weightless cities will launch and maintain thousands of communication satellites and provide a stepping stone for deep space exploration a fleet of space planes we transport passengers and cargo quickly and cheaply as more and more space planes ferry components up from Earth for use in space we will build larger and more complex space stations floating gateways to the universe but the future is already here it's amazing what man humming on the awesome power the noise you give me the chance I've got this is our first true spaceship returning from the ultimate journey a six million mile ride around our planet 1.2 G's folks descended through 70 6870 indicated very good hug it's our supreme flier showing the space shuttle the first ever machine equally at home traveling through the vacuum of space are flying through the Earth's heavy atmosphere forget your daddy 3025 with 179 denied RV deploy shoot comin here rotate it has flown over 80 missions and carried over 200 astronauts into space anybody who's got any sense of adventure ought to want to fly the space shuttle the rocket ride is the best ride you'll ever get in your life you go all the way around the world every 90 minutes you get 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every 24 hours corny sound suppression water system activated Alice's computer is now controlling last year t-minus 12 ten nine eight seven we have a go for main engine start and liftoff to break free from the Earth's gravity the shovel must use giant rockets to propel it to a speed of 17,500 miles per hour ten times faster than a bullet once in orbit its engines must operate in an airless void where there is no lift for wings no oxygen to burn the shuttle has to protect its crew from the most hostile surroundings ever explored when it's returned to Florida it crashes through the skies 50 miles above Houston it must shield them from an atmosphere whose friction would burn them to a cinder in seconds the dream of building a space plane like the shuttle has existed almost since the earliest days of aviation as far back as 1929 German carmaker Fritz Von Opel piloted a rocket-propelled glider nearly one mile in a flight that lasted just 75 seconds it was the birth of the rocket plane tries out the first rocket plane in less than four decades this primitive machine would evolve into an aircraft that could take man to the outer edge of the atmosphere by 1967 the x-15 was rocketing its pilots to a height of 300 thousand feet almost 60 miles high halfway to orbit touching the very edge of space these pioneers of aviation were almost the first astronauts but the technology needed for a plane to leave the earth and return safely was still out of reach the urgency of the 60s space race demanded a far less subtle approach massive force in 1969 NASA celebrated its greatest triumph as it landed a manned spacecraft on the moon even as its astronauts explored the lunar surface NASA's giant rocket program was already in danger the giant Saturn 5 wasn't reusable the cost of building a new rocket for each mission was simply too great nASA has continuously experimented with other rocket systems in a quest to find the cheap launch vehicle that could be used over and over again the future of space planes belongs to the descendants of this the first reusable rocket craft the DC XA operated by only a handful of technicians this test craft is one of a number of designs that have paved the way for routine and affordable space travel lifting off under its own power the DC XA has no throwaway boosters or stages like conventional rockets its unique propulsion system allows it to maneuver and fly in any direction constructed from super lightweight materials almost 90% of its launch weight is fuel at the end of each flight this remarkable machine makes a spectacular return landing on its tail in its original takeoff position the DC XA has provided vital information in our search for the space plane for the 21st century its first successor is venture star fully reusable venture star will operate like a normal airplane inside the Earth's atmosphere and like a spaceship in orbit plan to be operational by the year 2004 venture star will begin a new era in commercial space transportation fitted with a new system of thermal protection and a new type of propulsion it will take off and land under its own power each craft will have a turnaround time of only seven days best of all it will operate at one-tenth of the cost of current launch systems another design for the 21st century is the mag lifter it's filled with people and cargo not fuel present launch systems have to carry all their fuel and power with them with the mag lifter the fuel can be left on the ground future space planes like this will use the incredible power of an electromagnetic field to help them accelerate to launch speed but for the moment our only operational space plane is the space shuttle today there are four orbiters in NASA's fleet Columbia discovery endeavour and Atlantis each one can be used numerous times they can't launch on their own but they can glide back to earth Nasus shuttle fleet has flown more than 1 billion miles and has delivered more than 60% of the world's total payloads into orbit hundreds of tons of cargo satellites and communications equipment in Earth orbit you don't feel gravity so shuttle astronauts can perform experiments impossible on earth in this unique weightless laboratory scientists engineers and doctors have learned how to handle zero gravity but to fly to its destination in space this vulnerable space plane no bigger than a small commercial jet must survive extremes that no aircraft in history has experienced booster ignition and liftoff of in pursuit of a Japanese satellite there has never been a flying machine that takes the pounding that the orbiter does little Cessna goes from zero to 150 miles an hour the space shuttle goes from zero to Mach 25 you literally sling it to about 18,000 mile an hour there's some risk associated with that start with a ship either life here waiting to be blasted into space the astronauts in their small space plane are sitting on the most powerful rockets on earth when the main engines fire up searingly hot gases exploded more than 8,000 miles per hour they are so powerful they create giant acoustic shockwaves the vibration caused by the noise is enough to shake the shuttle apart to dampen these acoustic shockwaves at the exact moment the engines reach full thrust 300,000 gallons of water are released into a trench below the shovel the vapor cloud and exhaust fumes blow out more than two miles in either direction as the shuttle accelerates it pushes through the dense air so fast that massive stresses build up on its light aluminum frame to prevent it from disintegrating the main engines are throttled back until the shuttle reaches thinner air in the upper atmosphere when the pressure reduces the shuttle begins accelerating again rocketing towards space at 15,000 miles per hour after discarding its solid rocket boosters the three main engines power the shuttle the remaining 50 miles into orbit never using go at throttle up once the external liquid fuel tank is jettisoned this fragile machine and its crew have survived the first leg of a fantastic journey Haemon aura is very expensive and so your day is past but if you do get a little spare time what came to me anyway is I'm looking down on the earth and I'm looking out the window at this black void of space and the harsh environment that we're in what I hear in the background is the cabin fans of the vehicle everything is just running smoothly and I'm thinking what a fantastic spaceship to work so well you don't think about what it's protecting you from in order to survive the extreme conditions of space a space plane must create a micro environment in which both humans and machinery can function as the astronauts go about their tasks a life-support system automatically provides everything they need to survive on board filters and air conditioners control temperature humidity and air pressure an atmosphere identical to that on the earth is produced and completely replaced every seven minutes the orbiter must also power its huge banks of electronics and computers over a two-week mission onboard hydrogen fuel cells generate as much energy as 10,000 car batteries a byproduct of these mini power stations is large quantities of pure water the crew drinks some of the water but their rest has to be jettisoned it spews harmlessly out into the freezing vacuum of space where it drifts away as tiny particles of ice the shuttle must also carry the power to maneuver itself in this weightless environment it is equipped with 44 small thruster rockets in clusters around the nose and tail they produce tiny amounts of thrust but in space there is no friction no resistance this small injection of gas is enough to give the shuttle a powerful kick but this propulsion system is also highly sensitive firing its thrusters in short bursts the shuttle can move forward or backward and turn one inch at a time current distance is 104 feet this remarkable precision enabled the shuttle to rendezvous and connect with the giant Russian Mir Space Station as they both sped over the earth at 18,000 miles per hour this spectacular meeting was not just a publicity stunt it moved us one step closer to the building of the next generation of space stations in which we will live and work but this wasn't the only instance when the shuttles intricate docking abilities have been put to the test its most spectacular mission was as a breakdown truck to capture and repair the stricken Hubble Space Telescope once it has completed its mission in orbit the shuttle must survive its toughest test a return journey of over 12 thousand miles in less than one hour to begin its perilous journey back home the shuttle first must slow down with one large burst of thrust the shuttle drops into a lower orbit it's on its way home with no engines to regain height there's no turning back the shuttle is position nose up ready for re-entry the crew has just 30 minutes before they hit the upper atmosphere and encounter a wall of fire well the orbiter has to go through is unlike anything that's asked of any other flying machine your feet are literally in a pilot's seat a few inches or not much more from 3,000 degrees or close to it it's like trying to fly a normal airplane through the middle of a volcano and have it come out of the other side in one piece ever since the beginning of manned space flight the danger of reentry has been a constant problem the underside of early capsules used in the Mercury and Apollo programs were covered in a thick heat-resistant resin this protective layer was designed to burn and break away providing just enough protection for the crew to survive reentry but for a reusable space plane to be a success we need a reusable heat shield for the shuttles to survive up to 100 reentry's they're covered in a layer called the thermal protection system early Windtunnel tests showed that during reentry the temperature would very enormous ly across the orbiter surfaces requiring a different type of protection for each area captured by infrared cameras during a night landing the nose cone and leading edges of the wings were seen to glow a temperatures hotter than molten lava to resist these extremes these surfaces are made of a solid block of reinforced carbon capable of withstanding temperatures of 3,000 degrees the upper surfaces of the fuselage don't experience such high temperatures they are covered in soft cloth blankets made from 90% glass and made in a sewing shop at NASA over 2,000 blankets are used on each orbiter but it's the belly of the shuttle that is the largest area in need of special protection provided by over 25,000 silica tiles no two tiles are alike each one is designed and measured to fit exactly the contour of the shuttle skin one by one the tiles are painstakingly glued into position this special silicon based adhesive remains flexible from 0 to 3,000 degrees if it became too brittle the tiles would break off these tiles are so efficient at removing heat that they can be taken from an oven at 2,000 degrees and held by bare hands after only a few seconds in the first shuttle flight a few of these tiles fell off it caused some damage but the shovel got safely back to earth each tile weighs just a few ounces and has a soft foam like structure inside this fragile outer skin of tiles and blankets is all the shuttle has to protect it through its fiery return to earth the shuttle drops from a height of 120 miles down to 75 miles where it slams into the atmosphere at nearly 16,000 miles per hour the crew is strapped into their seats in pressurized suits just in case anything goes wrong outside just a few feet away their machine begins to take the ultimate punishment as the space plane screams down into the thicker atmosphere and collides with trillions and trillions of tiny gas molecules it hits them so hard that it creates a glowing plasma of electrically charged gas particles around the shovel and I can see the plant just building and collapsing in a bright white flash down the middle of the vehicle that's crazy it's like little pieces of equal flying off and father they're within the plasma the shuttle is traveling in a fireball as hot as the surface of the Sun to survive reentry the orbiter must have slowed down even more it utilizes the drag of the upper atmosphere to reduce its speed by flying a series of giant s-shaped turns 20 minutes from touchdown the friction on the shovel skin reaches maximum scorching the protective tiles to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit when it finally emerges from its fiery cocoon the shuttle is on the final leg of its journey still over 500 miles from the runway it will cover this distance in less than 10 meets 1.2 G's folks is sending through 76 thousand feet of 270 indicated have a good hood as the shuttles computer is cents an increase in external air pressure they transfer flight control from the thrusters to the wings as the wings bite into the dense air the space plane becomes an airplane forty-five thousand feet range 23 miles without any power from its engines the orbiter glides to earth at 3,000 miles per hour it's still travelling faster than the speed of sound and 2 sonic booms are triggered by shockwaves from the nose and wings sit before to get a wake-up call virgin land the shuttle is descending 20 times faster than a conventional aircraft five minutes before touchdown the commander takes over from the computers they trained for hundreds of hours for this single moment the orbiter hits the runway at over 200 miles per hour the space plane has returned home the shuttle program is by far NASA's longest commitment to manned flight it is the world's most successful spacecraft but the road to orbit was far from smooth four years after the last astronauts left the moon NASA unveiled the space shuttle ten years of design and two years of construction had one into building it and it cost twenty billion dollars this was the first space vehicle designed to carry both the crew and a payload into orbit and fly back again NASA hoped the shuttle would change Space Exploration forever it did the shuttles unique design combined three systems in one to ensure maximum reusability first was a delta wing space plane the orbiter with built in rocket engines it could carry a maximum of eight crew and over 30 tons of cargo the orbiter weighs 100 tons and is the same length as a dc9 airplane the second component of the shuttle system was a giant external liquid fuel tank containing half a million gallons of liquid propellant to feed the orbiters engines this fuel tank would be the only component of the shuttle that would be destroyed during launch but the orbiters engines weren't sufficiently powerful to launch this monster into space on their own it needed the third system a pair of solid rocket boosters mounted either side of the liquid fuel tank they're enormous thrust would lift the entire 2,000 ton package off the launch pad these three elements had never been tested together the shuttles first flight could be its last it was crewed by two men commander John Young NASA's most experienced astronaut and first time space flier Bob Crippen on April 12 1981 the world held its breath for the maiden voyage of space shuttle Columbia this was to be the first time a new launch vehicle had been tested with Mary for the white room in which they will be prepared for entry into the orbiter t-minus ten nine eight seven six five four we've gone for main engine start we have a space shuttle speeding into space Columbia carried the hopes for the space program the shuttle was to prove so successful that even America's biggest rival in space decided to copy it this is the Soviet shuttle it's name is borin meaning Blizzard Boren was developed in the early 1980s to give the USSR its own space plane it contained design concepts almost identical to NASA's shuttle its designers later admitted borrowing the American blueprints Bertrand was designed to be launched simply as a payload it's strapped to the side of the world's most powerful rocket the Giants and their gear in 1988 LaRon made its first and only flight after completing this faultless test flight in three hours Boren touched down to the cheers of the Soviet space administration unmanned Garang had orbited twice around the world its whole mission had been entirely controlled by computers with the breakup of the Soviet Union and a cash-strapped Russian economy the project has been shelved once the pride of its space program Russia's space plane borin is going nowhere but it had proved that computers as well as astronauts can command the world's future space planes when I first started flying it was sticks and cables and pulleys and things and then you get to this thing and and you're totally dependent upon the computers and so you just have to put your trust and confidence in them you have to you have no choice and everything depends on those computers launch day and another flight of NASA's space plane is about to begin as the liftoff approaches three miles away in a reinforced bunker called the firing room more than 300 engineers and technicians are preparing themselves for the most critical moment of the mission the orbiter is literally loaded with liquid oxygen hydrogen potential explosions an extremely dynamic situation for us there are hundreds and hundreds of things that must monitor hundreds of things that could go wrong you have to know extensive information about each and every system onboard with 20 seconds remaining to lift off the launch becomes too complex for humans to handle t-minus 15 seconds 12 11 10 9 8 we have a go for engine start as it fires its main engines deep in the bowels of the world's most complex machine the shuttles computers make over 4 million decisions every second the destiny of the crew is totally dependent on whether those decisions are right or wrong mr. ignition and liftoff oven percent of Japanese satellite ever the shuttle is designed to operate at the very limits of performance without its computers this highly unstable space plane would lose control in seconds and crash computers must fly it from launch to landing with absolute precision although well over 20 years old the shuttles computer systems are even now unequaled in complexity and reliability each orbiter carries five identical computers they're responsible for the simultaneous control of millions of components one of the most remarkable things about the shuttle is that in addition to monitoring all of the systems onboard the shuttle for normal operation simultaneously it has to consider literally an infinite number of scenarios that might occur in the face of failures or unexpected events and take the right action with split-second accuracy for every one of those situations it has to do it right every time because you don't get a second chance during every moment of the orbiters journey over 10 million sensors and instruments located throughout its structure are feeding its computers vital flight information along 2,000 miles of wires ruthlessly searching for errors any problems they detect are dealt with in a most unusual fashion like an electronic jury it's computers discuss the problem then vote for the best solution the computers collaborate and solve life-threatening problems before the crew even know they exist anybody to activate the sound suppression water system t-minus 10 deny over 8 7 go for main engines up and burning 3 we have a cut-off in over 80 flights there have been only 5 aborted launches where the computers shut off the main engines with less than 3 seconds to liftoff motor access arm now attack and finish off discovery is now in the safe configuration crews in no danger the computers have worked perfectly every time successful space exploration depends upon an obsession with safety there is no error that's acceptable there's no room for error there's no opportunity for failure that we can allow the software on Shuttle missions human lives depend on it the hands those lives depend on are those of more than 300 specialist programmers who spend three years creating instructions unique to each mission symbol by symbol character by character these programmers write more than 420 thousand lines of numbers and letters that will control the shuttle during every second of its mission they are creating an electronic brain with the lives of the crew at stake there is no room for error to make sure it's foolproof the code is put through the most rigorous testing process in the world creating every problem imaginable the entire mission is rehearsed by the computers more than ten times before it even takes place we have a go for engine start mr. ignition and lift but once the computers have ignited the solid rocket boosters there's no turning back no other machine on earth possesses quite so much muscle in order to liftoff the Space Shuttle uses two systems of propulsion its twin solid rocket boosters and three liquid rocket engines located in the orbiter designed to last for fifty five flights the three main engines built into the orbiter are the only reusable liquid rockets ever built compact and lightweight they are the most powerful and sophisticated rocket engines of their size pound-for-pound these engines are extremely powerful of course they need to be powerful if you're going to kick an orbiter into low Earth orbit in a and a half minutes fueled by a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen each engine develops over 12 million horsepower more power than 64,000 v8 car engines to achieve this power they must operate at extremes of temperature and pressure we ignite this engine what you're seeing is probably one of the most dramatic cold starts of any engine in the world prior to ignition this engine is literally frozen by liquid hydrogen as the engine fires its temperature instantly jumps from below zero to 6,000 degrees and it reaches full power in just one thousandth of a second but these Rockets provide only one quarter of the shuttles total thrust just feet away from the astronauts cabin are the most powerful rockets in the world the solid rocket boosters standing as high as the Washington Monument they are loaded with 500 tons of dry rocket fuel in less than two minutes they rocket the shuttle to an altitude of 30 miles at nine times the speed of sound but the amazing power of solid rockets as one disadvantage once started they can't be stopped as the crew of challenger discovered on January 28 1986 it was the worst accident Tula NASA's history 7:6 we have main engine start clears the tower trigger they'd be used callosity 2257 feet-per-second help dude 4.3 nautical miles downrange distance 3 nautical miles engine struggling up three into the other poor person challenger go at throttle up my controllers here looking very carefully at the situation obviously a major malfunction man's finest machine had failed but how why do you say we had negative contact lost fairly soon after liftoff the right solid rocket booster developed a serious leak of red hot gases from its lower joint a bright flame can be seen licking the side of its external tank as the flight continued the gas is burned away the Boosters lower strut eventually causing it to tilt into and puncture the external tank half a million gallons of hydrogen ignited in a giant fireball but it wasn't the explosion that killed the Challenger crew the tiny compartment containing the crew remained intact clearly visible as it plummeted to the ocean beneath many experts believe that inside some of the crew were still conscious until the fatal impact with the water over two minutes later NASA recovered slowly from the tragedy after taking the remaining fleet out of service for two years it redesigned the solid boosters and developed new escape systems and safety drills in more than 50 missions since challengers tragic loss there have been no further problems but man's most amazing machine still has one major problem it's getting old and out-of-date the shuttle is a beautiful machine it does everything we ask it to do but it was designed in the 70s and has old technology and is very expensive it's got an external tank that we throw away every time it's got solid rocket motors that need to be refurbed every time takes a lot of people a lot of infrastructure to go do that as we move toward the year 2000 our current generation of space planes faces a serious problem they consume huge amounts of money they are pricing themselves out of business maintaining NASA's fleet of four shuttles requires the full-time attention of nearly 30,000 people it costs several hundred million dollars to send each astronaut into space the cost of just one launch has been estimated at 1 billion dollars so the race is on to design and build a far more cost-effective launch system the need to have a fleet of commercial space planes is greater than ever before as we consume and demand more and more information faster and cheaper space planes are needed to deliver thousands of satellites into orbit a new breed of space plane is already on the way the Japanese space agency NASA is developing a small space plane called hope designed to ferry astronauts and cargo to the international space station hope could be an operation early next century the French have a different concept named Hermes their space plane is designed to be launched on top of an Ariane 5 rocket carrying up to four tons in payload chemists will carry astronauts and materials to and from the International Space Station the future is within our grasp what we're trying to do is take advantage of technology and have a vehicle that flies more like an airplane that you take off and land you don't have to throw things away you don't have to refer but as much it takes advantage of things that we've learned for last 25 years if we do that we can have greater access to space explore the universe and do some really great science in the foreseeable future space planes will be a part of everyday life but what will their destinations be some will literally be superfast transporters to other countries traveling at a height of 70 miles space plane passengers will fly from New York to Tokyo in 30 minutes others will dock at the International Space Station already under construction as fleets of space planes bring equipment and materials from Earth we will build new space stations for future travelers ordinary citizens will travel to luxury hotels and orbiting universities where the problems of prolonged weightlessness of the human body have been solved a new breed of spacefarers will commute daily into orbit a later generation of space planes will even allow us to voyage to manned bases on the moon and one day space planes will provide the springboard for deep space exploration man's most extreme machine would have turned his most extreme dreams into reality you

Channel: Naked Science

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Keywords: spaceplanes, space, plane, spacecraft, flight, spaceflight, orbital, travel, aeroplane, rocket, airplane, exploration, venturestar, takeoff, gravity, atmosphere, nasa, shuttle, velocity, future, vision, maglifter, concept, tourism, american, astronaut, adventure, ride, tourists, thermal, protection, station, propulsion, buran, virgin, galactic, spaceshiptwo, orbit, landing, accident, russia, galaxy, lift, off, lunar, private, launch, vehicle, delta, clipper, experimental, craft, prototype, startram, colombia, discovery, endeavour, atlantis

Id: I7s8c4aQQSg

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 04 2015