Current opinion

, Volume: 11( 8) DOI: 10.37532/2319-9822.2022.11 (8).230.

• View PDF
• Download PDF

A device or vessel designed for space travel is a spacecraft.

*Correspondence:

Angela Guerrero Managing Editor,Journal of Space Exploration, United Kingdom, E-mail: spaceexploration@scholarres.org

Abstract

 A spacecraft is a machine it may or may not be intended to return to the Earth, even though it is by definition constructed to journey into space. Communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration, and space tourism are just a few of the uses for which spacecraft are utilised. The crew and passengers on board human spaceship are all humans. Robotic spacecraft either operate autonomously or via tele robotics. Space probes are autonomous spacecraft that travel beyond a planetary body. Artificial satellites are robotic spacecraft that continue to circle a planet. Starships that were designed for interstellar travel are still merely theories. Science fiction frequently features spacecraft and the extremities of space travel.

Introduction

Depending on the mission profile, a spacecraft has a range of subsystems. ADAC, ADC, ACS, Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC or GN&C), Communications (COMS), Command and Data Handling (CDH or C&DH), power (EPS), thermal control (TCS), propulsion, structures, and payload are a few examples of these subsystems.

Life support

The crew's life support system must be included in every spacecraft designed for human travel. This can include a variety of oxygen systems, such as the one that burst and nearly killed the crew in the 1995 film Apollo 13.

Command and data handling

The CDH subsystem distributes the commands to the appropriate spacecraft subsystems and components after performing command validation and decoding. The communications subsystem issues orders to the CDH subsystem. Additionally, the CDH gathers housekeeping and science data from other subsystems and parts of the spacecraft and bundles it for storage on a solid state recorder or transmission to the ground via the communications subsystem. The CDH also oversees the upkeep of the spacecraft's clock and state-of-health monitoring.

Power

For the purpose of powering the various spacecraft subsystems, spaceships require an electrical power generating and distribution subsystem. Solar panels are widely used to generate electricity for spacecraft near the Sun. A Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) could be used by a spacecraft to make electricity in more remote areas, like Jupiter. Before it is distributed to other spacecraft components across an electrical bus, electrical power is delivered through power conditioning equipment. A battery charge regulator is often used to link batteries to the bus. Batteries are used to supply electricity when primary power is unavailable, such as when a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) spacecraft is eclipsed by the Earth.

Thermal control

The engineering of spacecraft must be able to sustain transit through both the space environment and the Earth's atmosphere. They have to function in plasma-filled environments and at temperatures that could reach hundreds of degrees Celsius in a vacuum (if they are going to be subject to reentry). Materials with low density and high melting points, such as Be and CC, or (perhaps because of the reduced thickness requirements despite its high density) W or ablative C-C composites, are employed when the material requirements call for them. Spacecraft may also need to operate on the surface of another planetary body, depending on the mission profile.

Propulsion

Whether or not the mission profile asks for propulsion will determine whether or not a spacecraft has a propulsion subsystem. An example of a spacecraft without a propulsion subsystem is the Swift spacecraft. However, LEO spacecraft (like Terra (EOS AM-1)) typically have a propulsion component for inclination adjustment movements and altitude modifications (referred to as drag make-up man oeuvres). Additionally, spacecraft that engage in momentum management man oeuvres require a propulsion system. A typical propulsion subsystem consists of fuel, tanks, valves, pipes, and thrusters. By keeping track of the components' temperatures and preheating tanks and thrusters in advance of a spacecraft man oeuvre, the TCS interacts with the propulsion subsystem.

Structures

The engineering of the spacecraft must be such that it can survive the launch loads that the launch vehicle imparts and that it has a point of attachment for all other subsystems. Depending on the mission profile, the structural subsystem may need to endure loads caused by entrance into another planetary body's atmosphere and landing on that body's surface.

Reusable spacecraft

On July 19, 1963, the X-15 was air-launched into space on a suborbital trajectory, becoming the first reusable spacecraft. On April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's journey, the United States launched the Space Shuttle, the first orbital vehicle that could be partially reused. Six orbiters were constructed during the Shuttle period, all of which have completed flights in the atmosphere, and five of which have completed flights in space. The Enterprise launched from the tail of a Boeing 747 and glided to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB in California. Only approach and landing tests were conducted using it. The Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour were all later Space Shuttles that entered space after the Columbia, which was the first. The Buran (Snowstorm), launched by the USSR on November 15, 1988, was the first autonomous largely reusable spacecraft, albeit it only completed one mission. Although its drop-off boosters used liquid propellants and its main engines were situated at the base of what would be the external tank of the American Shuttle, this spaceplane was made for a crew and remarkably resembled the U.S. Space Shuttle. Buran was unable to fly any further due to a lack of finance made more difficult by the fall of the USSR.

Conclusion

As a result of the addition of a control cable that runs from the control cabin to the mid-deck, the Space Shuttle has since been modified to enable autonomous re-entry. This modification would enable the automated deployment of the landing gear in the event that an unmanned re-entry was necessary after abandonment due to damage at the ISS.