• Question: How many tonnes of thrust would you need to send the average sized space shuttle into space?

    Asked by mattiosmmm to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      You need to produce about 13 million newtons of thrust to get the space shuttle into orbit. As 10 newtons is about a kilogram, and there are 1,000kg in a ton (metric!), that’s about 1300 tons of thust.

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I copied this answer from another question because it is similar 🙂

      Power is the ratio of work done over time, or a measure of energy conversion.
      Power is calculated by force times velocity.
      Because a shuttle launches as a rocket, you can use the thrust of a rocket to work out the power.
      Thrust equals the change in mass times the velocity.
      Thrust at zero speed is zero power. Power requires work to be done, so zero velocity indicates zero work and zero power. Therefore the power of a rocket or aircraft engine is thrust times forward speed.
      power (watts) = thrust (newtons) x speed (metres/second)

      This website explains thrust a bit more:
      http://science.howstuffworks.com/rocket2.htm

    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      It takes over 500 tonnes of thrust (over 1 million pounds), or so says NASA http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/system/system_SSME.html

    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      According to the NASA website: After the solid rockets are jettisoned, the main engines provide thrust which accelerates the Shuttle from 4,828 kilometers per hour (3,000 mph) to over 27,358 kilometers per hour (17,000 mph) in just six minutes to reach orbit. They create a combined maximum thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds.

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