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A
amedy?ski1-Visitor
1-Visitor
January 20, 2016
Question

lift to drag ratio for an ascending space shuttle ??

  • January 20, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 2592 views

does someone know how much is lift to drag ratio for an ascending space shuttle ??

2 replies

V
VladimirN24-Ruby IV
24-Ruby IV
January 23, 2016

Perhaps these materials will be useful to you (and PDF of article "Variable Angle-of-Attack Profile Entry Guidance for a Crewed Lifting Body" in attachment):

Book "Handbook of Space Technology": http://tinyurl.com/zgjvc4h

Book "Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems: Enabling Technologies for Space Exploration": http://tinyurl.com/h3xzryj

Article from conference "Space Shuttle Technical Conference": http://klabs.org/DEI/Processor/shuttle/shuttle_tech_conf/1985008580.pdf

D
dschenken1-Visitor
1-Visitor
January 23, 2016

On the way up it should be 0. There is no benefit to generating lift during launch and, since lift causes induced drag and drag resists the rocket motors, there is a negative to producing lift. In addition, lift generally requires the production of pitch moment, which would also waste rocket propulsion to overcome.The Shuttle paid a large penalty from the asymmetric nature of the Shuttle and external fuel tank.

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