Space shuttles descent temperatures

[randy23]

Does a planet's atmosphere effect the temperature spacecraft s generate when descending from orbit?

 

[Andre]

Hi Randi and welcome.

Would you think that a pebble thrown in the pond will ripple the water for long? Likewise I don't think that the atmosphere will notice a lot of a descending space craft. Just a little bit, locally and very short.

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

 

[Astronuc]

Does a planet's atmosphere effect the temperature spacecraft s generate when descending from orbit?

Quite possibly is does if the heating generation and dissipation are functions of the mean molecular mass and molecular density of the atmosphere.

The heat is generated because a spacecraft is transfer its kinetic energy to the atmosphere. The energy is dissipated as a momentum transfer to atmosphere but also as heat in the heat shield, which may be primarily by radiation.

Presumably a denser atmosphere can slow a spacecraft more quickly than a thin atmosphere, and perhaps would produce a greater heating rate on the thermal shield. A predominantly CO₂ atmosphere would give a different deceleration than the Earth's atmosphere of N₂ and O₂ all else the same. Unfortunately, I don't have any detailed equations, so I can't answer the question quantitatively. One would have to know how the atmospheric composition and density affect the radiative and conductive heat transfer rates, well as the heat generation rate.

 

[randy23]

Hi Randi and welcome.

Thanks, it's nice to be here.