CREW CABIN
The two to eight person crew occupies a two-level cabin at the forward section of the orbiter. The top deck is used for operating the Shuttle, also know as the flight deck. The Middeck, located under the flight deck is used for living, eating, and sleeping for off-duty crew members. It contains pre-packaged food, a toilet, bunks, and other amenities. A station at the rear of the flight deck over looks the payload bay through two windows, containing the controls a mission specialist uses to operate the Remote Manipulator System Arm, which handles some items in the payload bay. Mission controls are at the right of the flight deck and the payload controls at the left.
The day to day routine for the crew varies according to crew assignments, but each member will follow a detailed schedule each day. Time is given for each person aboard to sleep, personal hygiene, work, meal preparation, and eating as well as routine orbiter clean up. The clean up includes the following: cleaning the waste compartment, dumping excess water, replacing the carbon dioxide scrubbing canisters, purging the fuel cells, giving daily status reports to the ground controllers, and a lining the inertial measurement unit (the device that directs the vehicle attitude in space). A 24-hour time period is normally divided into an eight hour sleep period and a 16-hour awake period for each crewmember.
RETURN TO LIST
HOW IT WORKS
The Space Shuttle is operated completely by four on-board computers. The only problem with these four computers is they do not have enough memory to run the entire mission. So, to get around this little problem, NASA stores the entire mission operations on disk. There can be as many as six disket's used to run the entire mission.
The first disk takes control after the engines are ignited. The computers then proceed to fly the shuttle up ward. After two minutes the solid rocket boosters are released and the Shuttle continues up ward. Once the Shuttle has reached outer space the external fuel tank is jettisoned and the main engines shutdown and the Space Shuttle takes orbit.
To begin the mission the crew must then load the right disket into the computers. The four computers must work together to the complete the mission. If one of the computers does not agree with the rest the mission can continue. If only two of the computers are in agreement the mission must end at that moment and the Shuttle should be flown home for repairs. By any chance that all the computers are not getting a long with each other, there is a fifth computer on a separate power supple that has the program to get the Shuttle back home.
RETURN TO LIST
RE-ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE
For the Shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere. The astronauts load the re-entry program and wait for NASA to tell them where to land the beast. On the computer console at the right of the flight deck there is three buttons, one says Edwards, the second says White Sands, and the third says Kennedy. Which ever button the Astronauts push is where the Space Shuttle will land.
Shortly after one of the three buttons is pushed some little rockets position the Shuttle at just the right angle and heads down to Earth (this is the dangerous part of the mission). While the Shuttle glides down throw the atmosphere the tiles heat up and the Shuttle is engulfed in flames. At this time the astronauts can not see a thing. Around 35,000 feet the Shuttle slows down to about the speed of sound and steering and be done manually if necessary. Once the Shuttle reaches 4,000 feet one of the astronauts needs to push a button a button that will lower the landing gear and the computers will take care of the rest.
RETURN TO LIST
THE CARGO BAY
he Space Shuttle was designed in hopes to help aid Human Kind in the construction of a space station in outer space. To meet this goal the Shuttle had to be built with some where to carry the supplies on board. The Cargo Bay is the answer to this place. The cargo bay is built into the Shuttle and is 60 feet (18.3 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 meters) wide, about the size of school bus. The Cargo Bay is flexible enough to accommodate unmanned space crafts (satellites) in a variety of shapes and sizes. A Shuttle can carry about 50,000 pounds (22,680 kilograms) into orbit.
The Cargo Bay ability gives NASA (etc.) the chance to repair satellites while they are still in orbit, for a fraction of what it would cost to build and launch another satellite into orbit. This also gives scientist a chance to retrieve old satellites bring them back to Earth for a rehaul and launch them back into orbit for further use.
NASA has kind of meet this goal by having the Skylab project in orbit for three years. Over the those years NASA learned a great deal about outer space environment and conditions. Even today NASA is continuing to learn about life in space by having MIR in orbit. Non of this would have been possible without the Shuttle and its Cargo Bay. . .
RETURN TO LIST
SPACE SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINES
The Shuttle's main engine is the most advanced liquid-fueled rocket ever built. Its main features are variable thrust, high performance, reusability, total redundancy, and a fully integrated controller. The performance of the engine is the highest thrust for its weight of any engine developed to date. It also is the first rocket engine to use a built in electronic digital controller. That will except commands from the orbiter to start the engines, shutdown, change in throttle, and will monitor engine operations during the flight. In the event of failure the system will either try and fix it or it will shutdown the engines safely.
Three main engines are mounted on the orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The engines are spaced so that they can move during a flight in conjunction with the two solid rocket boosters, to steer the Shuttle as well as provide lift for launch.
Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen make up the fuel for the Shuttle. The fuel is contained inside the external tank. The fuel is supplied from the fuel tank to the engines at a rate of about 178,000 liters (47,000 gallons) of hydrogen and 64,000 liters (17,000 gallons) of oxygen per minute.
The main engines use a staged combustion cycle, where propellants going into the engines are used to produce thrust. In this cycle the propellants are burned partially at high pressure and low temperature, and then burned completely at high temperature and high pressure in the main combustion chamber. The quick mixing of the fuel under these conditions is so complete that a combustion efficiency of about 99 percent is attainable.
Each engine has three levels of thrust or power-minimum, rated and full power. Engine thrust can be varied throughout the range depending on the needs of the mission.
Shuttle payloads will be sized to be compatible with launch-to-orbit at a maximum of 104 percent of rated power, with each engine developing 2,174,286 Newtons (488,000 pounds) of thrust, 1,734,803 Newtons (390,000 pounds) at sea level. Full power (109 percent of rated power) will be available for emergency situations. During ascent engine thrust will be reduced to insure that an acceleration force of more than three times the Earth's gravity is reached. The lowest thrust throttle setting-minimum power level-equal 65 percent of rated power.
RETURN TO LIST
THE EXTERNAL TANK
The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) is the largest single element and the only major non-reusable piece of the Shuttle system. The tank is 154 feet (47 meters) long and 27.6 feet (8.4 meters) in diameter and carries more than 528,600 gallons (2 million liters) of cryogenic propellants that are fed to the orbiter's three main engines during take-off. The ET is the backbone of the Shuttle system and absorbs the total 6,610,000 pounds of thrust loads generated by the orbiter's three main engines and the two solid rocket boosters. Unfortunately the tank is non-reusable and a new one must be produced for every flight.
The ET is broken into three components all in one: a liquid oxygen tank located at the forward position; a liquid hydrogen tank at the rear; and the intertank assembly connect the two propellant tanks and houses to the forward solid rocket booster attachment points. The tank weighs about 1,655,600 pounds (751,000 kilograms) when filled with propellants and 6,600 pounds (29,900 kilograms) without. The outside of the tank is multilayered with thermal protective coating about one inch (2.5 centimeters.) thick. This lets the ET with stand the extreme tempature and pressure it's exposed to during a mission.
The propellants are supplied from the ET through a 17-inch (43.2 centimeters) diameter feedlines to the orbiter's three main engines. After eight and a half minutes into the flight, the orbiter and the ET have climbed to a height of about 71 miles (144 kilometers), the main engines cut off and the tank is jettisoned. Left over oxygen gas is used to initiate a sloe tumble away from the orbiter and stop the ET from bouncing of the atmosphere. It also helps out in the break-up of the ET in an ocean area.
RETURN TO LIST
SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS
In the center of each booster is the motor, the largest solid rocket ever to be flown and the first designed for reuse. It's made of four factory prepared segments filled with propellant at the manufacturer's facility and assembled at the launch site. The segmented design makes transport, fabrication, and handling easier.
The motor segments are stored in pairs of propellant ingredients to minimize any thrust imbalances between boosters used for a single Shuttle flight. Propellant loading is done in such a manner as to cause the boosters after 55 seconds into the flight to reduce speed and prevent over stressing the Shuttle vehicle during its critical phase of flight. The exhaust nozzle in the aft segment of each motor work with the Shuttles main engines, steers the craft during flight. It can be moved eight degrees by the booster thrust vector control system, which is controlled by the orbiter guidance and control computer.
After the two minute burn of the boosters they separate from the external tank by pyrotechnic (explosive) devices and moved away from the Shuttle vehicle by eight separation motors-four housed in the forward compartment and the other four mounted on the aft skirt. The separation motors are fired by a command given from the orbiter's computers. In the nose cone of the booster is a homing single and parachutes to control decent of the boosters. The boosters enter the water aft end first, by entering the water this way the air is compressed and forced to the top of the booster causing it to float with the nose cone out of the water. Then all divers have to do is insert a nozzle closure and force the water out the aft end using pumps, then the booster is towed to a shore. After the boosters are recovered and dissembled for refurbished. The motors segments are shipped back to the manufacturer for reloading, so they can be used for another Shuttle mission. Other systems are refurbished either at the launch site or at the respective manufactures' locations.
The boosters are each 149.1 feet (45.4 meters) high and 12.2 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter and weigh 1,300,000 pounds (589,670 kilograms). The solid propellant used in the boosters is a mixture of aluminum powder, aluminum perchlorate powder, and a pinch of iron oxide catalyst, held together with a polymer binder. Both boosters produce about 3.1 million pounds (13.8 million Newtons) of thrust for the first few seconds after ignition. As the Shuttle moves upward the thrust in the engines mellows at a given rate till the two minute burn is done. All engines together on the orbiter provides a total thrust of 7.3 million pounds (32.5 million Newtons) at liftoff.
That my friends is little information on the basic composites of the Shuttle and how they work. After reading this I'm sure it seems like the astronauts have nothing to do while their up there. Well, who cares if that's the case? The astronauts have to put up with endless tests and simulations to prepare for a single flight. To learn about the tests a person had to go through to become an astronaut.Click Here
RETURN TO LIST
GO TO TEAMQUEST '96 HOMEPAGE
RETURN TO THE TEAMQUEST '96 LINKPAGE HERE
GO TO TEAMQUEST '96 SPACE SHUTTLE LINKS PAGE
GO TO OTHER SPACE SHUTTLE SITES ON THE WEB
This page was constructed for the THINKQUEST project and is the fruit our many labors. The text and some images included in these HTML files are © copyright protected and property of TeamQuest '96. To see
the list of people that assisted us in this project please visit the
TEAMQUEST '96 THANK YOU PAGE.
We really want to know what you think of this site, and welcome your feedback at the
or if your viewer does not support forms you may send us e-mail at
The two to eight person crew occupies a two-level cabin at the forward section of the orbiter. The top deck is used for operating the Shuttle, also know as the flight deck. The Middeck, located under the flight deck is used for living, eating, and sleeping for off-duty crew members. It contains pre-packaged food, a toilet, bunks, and other amenities. A station at the rear of the flight deck over looks the payload bay through two windows, containing the controls a mission specialist uses to operate the Remote Manipulator System Arm, which handles some items in the payload bay. Mission controls are at the right of the flight deck and the payload controls at the left.
The day to day routine for the crew varies according to crew assignments, but each member will follow a detailed schedule each day. Time is given for each person aboard to sleep, personal hygiene, work, meal preparation, and eating as well as routine orbiter clean up. The clean up includes the following: cleaning the waste compartment, dumping excess water, replacing the carbon dioxide scrubbing canisters, purging the fuel cells, giving daily status reports to the ground controllers, and a lining the inertial measurement unit (the device that directs the vehicle attitude in space). A 24-hour time period is normally divided into an eight hour sleep period and a 16-hour awake period for each crewmember.
RETURN TO LIST
HOW IT WORKS
The Space Shuttle is operated completely by four on-board computers. The only problem with these four computers is they do not have enough memory to run the entire mission. So, to get around this little problem, NASA stores the entire mission operations on disk. There can be as many as six disket's used to run the entire mission.
The first disk takes control after the engines are ignited. The computers then proceed to fly the shuttle up ward. After two minutes the solid rocket boosters are released and the Shuttle continues up ward. Once the Shuttle has reached outer space the external fuel tank is jettisoned and the main engines shutdown and the Space Shuttle takes orbit.
To begin the mission the crew must then load the right disket into the computers. The four computers must work together to the complete the mission. If one of the computers does not agree with the rest the mission can continue. If only two of the computers are in agreement the mission must end at that moment and the Shuttle should be flown home for repairs. By any chance that all the computers are not getting a long with each other, there is a fifth computer on a separate power supple that has the program to get the Shuttle back home.
RETURN TO LIST
RE-ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE
For the Shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere. The astronauts load the re-entry program and wait for NASA to tell them where to land the beast. On the computer console at the right of the flight deck there is three buttons, one says Edwards, the second says White Sands, and the third says Kennedy. Which ever button the Astronauts push is where the Space Shuttle will land.
Shortly after one of the three buttons is pushed some little rockets position the Shuttle at just the right angle and heads down to Earth (this is the dangerous part of the mission). While the Shuttle glides down throw the atmosphere the tiles heat up and the Shuttle is engulfed in flames. At this time the astronauts can not see a thing. Around 35,000 feet the Shuttle slows down to about the speed of sound and steering and be done manually if necessary. Once the Shuttle reaches 4,000 feet one of the astronauts needs to push a button a button that will lower the landing gear and the computers will take care of the rest.
RETURN TO LIST
THE CARGO BAY
he Space Shuttle was designed in hopes to help aid Human Kind in the construction of a space station in outer space. To meet this goal the Shuttle had to be built with some where to carry the supplies on board. The Cargo Bay is the answer to this place. The cargo bay is built into the Shuttle and is 60 feet (18.3 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 meters) wide, about the size of school bus. The Cargo Bay is flexible enough to accommodate unmanned space crafts (satellites) in a variety of shapes and sizes. A Shuttle can carry about 50,000 pounds (22,680 kilograms) into orbit.
The Cargo Bay ability gives NASA (etc.) the chance to repair satellites while they are still in orbit, for a fraction of what it would cost to build and launch another satellite into orbit. This also gives scientist a chance to retrieve old satellites bring them back to Earth for a rehaul and launch them back into orbit for further use.
NASA has kind of meet this goal by having the Skylab project in orbit for three years. Over the those years NASA learned a great deal about outer space environment and conditions. Even today NASA is continuing to learn about life in space by having MIR in orbit. Non of this would have been possible without the Shuttle and its Cargo Bay. . .
RETURN TO LIST
SPACE SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINES
The Shuttle's main engine is the most advanced liquid-fueled rocket ever built. Its main features are variable thrust, high performance, reusability, total redundancy, and a fully integrated controller. The performance of the engine is the highest thrust for its weight of any engine developed to date. It also is the first rocket engine to use a built in electronic digital controller. That will except commands from the orbiter to start the engines, shutdown, change in throttle, and will monitor engine operations during the flight. In the event of failure the system will either try and fix it or it will shutdown the engines safely.
Three main engines are mounted on the orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The engines are spaced so that they can move during a flight in conjunction with the two solid rocket boosters, to steer the Shuttle as well as provide lift for launch.
Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen make up the fuel for the Shuttle. The fuel is contained inside the external tank. The fuel is supplied from the fuel tank to the engines at a rate of about 178,000 liters (47,000 gallons) of hydrogen and 64,000 liters (17,000 gallons) of oxygen per minute.
The main engines use a staged combustion cycle, where propellants going into the engines are used to produce thrust. In this cycle the propellants are burned partially at high pressure and low temperature, and then burned completely at high temperature and high pressure in the main combustion chamber. The quick mixing of the fuel under these conditions is so complete that a combustion efficiency of about 99 percent is attainable.
Each engine has three levels of thrust or power-minimum, rated and full power. Engine thrust can be varied throughout the range depending on the needs of the mission.
Shuttle payloads will be sized to be compatible with launch-to-orbit at a maximum of 104 percent of rated power, with each engine developing 2,174,286 Newtons (488,000 pounds) of thrust, 1,734,803 Newtons (390,000 pounds) at sea level. Full power (109 percent of rated power) will be available for emergency situations. During ascent engine thrust will be reduced to insure that an acceleration force of more than three times the Earth's gravity is reached. The lowest thrust throttle setting-minimum power level-equal 65 percent of rated power.
RETURN TO LIST
THE EXTERNAL TANK
The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) is the largest single element and the only major non-reusable piece of the Shuttle system. The tank is 154 feet (47 meters) long and 27.6 feet (8.4 meters) in diameter and carries more than 528,600 gallons (2 million liters) of cryogenic propellants that are fed to the orbiter's three main engines during take-off. The ET is the backbone of the Shuttle system and absorbs the total 6,610,000 pounds of thrust loads generated by the orbiter's three main engines and the two solid rocket boosters. Unfortunately the tank is non-reusable and a new one must be produced for every flight.
The ET is broken into three components all in one: a liquid oxygen tank located at the forward position; a liquid hydrogen tank at the rear; and the intertank assembly connect the two propellant tanks and houses to the forward solid rocket booster attachment points. The tank weighs about 1,655,600 pounds (751,000 kilograms) when filled with propellants and 6,600 pounds (29,900 kilograms) without. The outside of the tank is multilayered with thermal protective coating about one inch (2.5 centimeters.) thick. This lets the ET with stand the extreme tempature and pressure it's exposed to during a mission.
The propellants are supplied from the ET through a 17-inch (43.2 centimeters) diameter feedlines to the orbiter's three main engines. After eight and a half minutes into the flight, the orbiter and the ET have climbed to a height of about 71 miles (144 kilometers), the main engines cut off and the tank is jettisoned. Left over oxygen gas is used to initiate a sloe tumble away from the orbiter and stop the ET from bouncing of the atmosphere. It also helps out in the break-up of the ET in an ocean area.
RETURN TO LIST
SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS
In the center of each booster is the motor, the largest solid rocket ever to be flown and the first designed for reuse. It's made of four factory prepared segments filled with propellant at the manufacturer's facility and assembled at the launch site. The segmented design makes transport, fabrication, and handling easier.
The motor segments are stored in pairs of propellant ingredients to minimize any thrust imbalances between boosters used for a single Shuttle flight. Propellant loading is done in such a manner as to cause the boosters after 55 seconds into the flight to reduce speed and prevent over stressing the Shuttle vehicle during its critical phase of flight. The exhaust nozzle in the aft segment of each motor work with the Shuttles main engines, steers the craft during flight. It can be moved eight degrees by the booster thrust vector control system, which is controlled by the orbiter guidance and control computer.
After the two minute burn of the boosters they separate from the external tank by pyrotechnic (explosive) devices and moved away from the Shuttle vehicle by eight separation motors-four housed in the forward compartment and the other four mounted on the aft skirt. The separation motors are fired by a command given from the orbiter's computers. In the nose cone of the booster is a homing single and parachutes to control decent of the boosters. The boosters enter the water aft end first, by entering the water this way the air is compressed and forced to the top of the booster causing it to float with the nose cone out of the water. Then all divers have to do is insert a nozzle closure and force the water out the aft end using pumps, then the booster is towed to a shore. After the boosters are recovered and dissembled for refurbished. The motors segments are shipped back to the manufacturer for reloading, so they can be used for another Shuttle mission. Other systems are refurbished either at the launch site or at the respective manufactures' locations.
The boosters are each 149.1 feet (45.4 meters) high and 12.2 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter and weigh 1,300,000 pounds (589,670 kilograms). The solid propellant used in the boosters is a mixture of aluminum powder, aluminum perchlorate powder, and a pinch of iron oxide catalyst, held together with a polymer binder. Both boosters produce about 3.1 million pounds (13.8 million Newtons) of thrust for the first few seconds after ignition. As the Shuttle moves upward the thrust in the engines mellows at a given rate till the two minute burn is done. All engines together on the orbiter provides a total thrust of 7.3 million pounds (32.5 million Newtons) at liftoff.
That my friends is little information on the basic composites of the Shuttle and how they work. After reading this I'm sure it seems like the astronauts have nothing to do while their up there. Well, who cares if that's the case? The astronauts have to put up with endless tests and simulations to prepare for a single flight. To learn about the tests a person had to go through to become an astronaut.Click Here
RETURN TO LIST
GO TO TEAMQUEST '96 HOMEPAGE
RETURN TO THE TEAMQUEST '96 LINKPAGE HERE
GO TO TEAMQUEST '96 SPACE SHUTTLE LINKS PAGE
GO TO OTHER SPACE SHUTTLE SITES ON THE WEB
This page was constructed for the THINKQUEST project and is the fruit our many labors. The text and some images included in these HTML files are © copyright protected and property of TeamQuest '96. To see
the list of people that assisted us in this project please visit the
TEAMQUEST '96 THANK YOU PAGE.
We really want to know what you think of this site, and welcome your feedback at the
or if your viewer does not support forms you may send us e-mail at
TeamQuest c/o hotshots@ix.netcom.com
Last Updated by TeamQuest '96 c/o hotshots@ix.netcom.com on August 15th 1996 at 20:59:59 PDT