Biology Forums - Study Force

Suppose a shuttle were launched from a launchpad on the Moon instead of the Earth's surface. What changes would we observe?Suppose it were launched from a launchpad in space in vacuum. Would it work? What changes would we observe? Explain your answer.

Does gravity have anything to do with the launch?  [?-?]

Yes, it would work. The acceleration would be the native acceleration (thrust/mass) minus the local gravitational acceleration, so it would be greater on the moon and greater again in free space.

In the free space situation, it might be a bit strange. Normally, the shuttle is clamped to the ground until the rocket thrust has built up. If it's clamped to a space station, it would move the space station.

Also, the rocket exhaust is diverted into a water-cooled pit on Earth. On the Moon, there's no water, so there'd have to be some other provision for protecting the launchpad from the hot exhaust gases.
In free space, I presume they would be allowed to blast straight behind unimpeded.

In fact, I'd expect a shuttle to move well away from the station on manouvering jets before firing up anything as potentially destructive as a main engine. You really wouldn't need the solid boosters on the moon or free space, anyway, and for that matter the shuttle main engine would be not be the best design for free space use either.

(I forget whether the shuttle uses the main engine to do a deceleration burn when returning from the ISS, or just the smaller engines. Anyway, that's a real reference for the space station scenario)

It would definitely work in both scenarios. The oxygen is present in he fuel already so it can be fired in vacuum. However, the water used on the launchpad is used to reduce noise. If the water wasn't there it would be ~190db. The water reduces it to 140db so the space shuttle does not shake itself apart. This may be the only problem you would encounter launching it from a lunar surface or in space itself.