Questions tagged [atmospheric-drag]
Questions regarding atmospheric drag which includes the resistance offerd by a moving object in fluid
131 questions
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Is it possible to use a solar sail in low Earth orbit, thanks to a good orientation of the sail?
I was reading this question: What is the closest to Earth you can expect lift from a solar sail? PearsonArtPhoto’s answer states that below 900 km, a solar sail cannot work because the drag on the ...
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Did the QB50 cubesat project actually demonstrate orbit raising via solar sail or solar panels (winning against drag)? If so, at what altitude?
This answer to Could satellite decommissioning be delayed or prevented with the use of solar sail technology? cites a paywalled Economist article. Most of the quote discusses differential drag (i.e. ...
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How much denser could Earth's atmosphere be before rockets wouldn't work?
As the atmosphere gets denser, any rocket trying to fly through it would experience more and more atmospheric drag. How much denser could Earth's atmosphere be before rockets wouldn't work (or would ...
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How does Gen 1 StarTram manage to overcome atmospheric drag at the 4-8 km altitude?
I'm reading about StarTram, and if I understand correctly, the idea of the Generation 1 design is to have a vacuum tube under a mountain slope, exiting into the atmosphere at the altitude of 4 to 8 km....
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Can Maglev trains ever reach escape velocity?
NASA is planing to build a levitating train system on the Moon. For Moon, would it be possible to build a large scale system equivalent to maglev trains, to accelerate (for example) a mining cart of ...
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What is the lowest viable circular orbit around Mars that can last at least one week?
Supposing you wanted to launch a spaceship from the surface of Mars into orbit around Mars. It would stay in orbit for up to one week while you prepared a second rocket that would dock with it to ...
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Has propulsion utilizing solar sail / drag effects of solar panels achieved orbital rendezvous? If yes, is there any utility for clearing space junk?
It has been proposed to use solar panels as solar sails and drag control by alternately feathering panels during different phases of orbit. It is claimed this can alter light pressure and drag enough ...
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Earth re-entry from orbit by a sequence of upper-atmosphere dips to reduce kinetic energy?
There are quite a few questions on this sort of theme here, and I've also read one or two other things, like non-ballistic re-entry. So this might be a duplicate, but I don't think so. To clarify: I'm ...
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How to set a constant density model in STK'S Astrogator
I'm trying to verify a simplifying orbit maintenance strategy obtained from one of my numerical tools using Astrogator as a propagator. My tool uses a constant density value obtained by averaging the ...
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Any place to download ATMOP's DTM-2012 / DTM-2013 models?
Once there were an old "Drag Temperature Models" DTM2012 and DTM2013 at http://www.atmop.eu According to web archive in 2020 they were still available for downloading after registration: ...
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What causes a satellite's orbit to decay?
Why do orbits of satellites orbiting at sufficient speed, far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, decay if there is no atmospheric drag? What drag is applied on the satellites at that altitude?
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What is the reason Starlink satellites took 4 days to re-enter during the accident on February 2022?
I am reviewing the incident that knocked out 39 Starlink satellites earlier this year. As I explain in this thread, there was a modest magnetic storm on the 3rd of February, which increased ...
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1answer
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Does a capsule rotate naturally during atmospheric re-entry?
If during atmospheric re-entry a capsule (with a shifted center of mass to produce lift) does not produce any rcs thrust, will the capsule naturally roll? and why?
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How to compute orbital decay of a cubesat?
I'd like to compute the orbital decay of a cubesat in LEO/VLEO due to atmospheric drag. Here is what I've done: Based on the Satellite Orbital Decay Calculations document coming from the Australian ...
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Is DTM2000 density model expecting adjusted or observed solar flux?
I know two models to calculate the atmosphere density during a satellite orbit propagation. The two models are NRLMSISE-00 and DTM-2000. To feed the models I'm using Space Weather Data provided by ...
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