Space Flashcards
To learn the content of the space section
What is the difference between mass and weight?
Mass is a measure of the partcles that make an object up. Weight is a force caused by the gravitational field strength of a planet.
What is meant by gravitational field strength?
Force per unit mass
An astronaut has a mass of 50kg. What will happen to the astronauts mass on the Moon?
It stays at 50kg. Mass does not change.
An astronaut has a mass of 50kg. What will happen to the astronauts weight on the Moon?
The weight will decrease as there is a lower gravitaional field strength on the Moon.
What are the possible dangers of space exploration?
- Training accidents
- Fire
- Rocket malfunction
- Vehicle Break-up
- On board explosion
- Depressurisation
- Space suit failure
- Control failures
- Heat shield failure
- Parachute failure
What are the two main challenges of re-entry?
- Angle of re-entry
- High temperatures / heating effect
Explain why the angle of re-entry poses a challenge.
The angle of re-entry to the atmosphere is important
- too steep and the change in kinetic energy being transferred to heat is too fast resulting in overheating and possible rocket break-up
- If the angle is too shallow you will skip off the atmosphere.
Explain why re-entering the atmosphere poses a challenge.
- When a space craft is in space there is no friction as space is a vacuum.
- When you re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere you go from no friction to lots of friction (caused by the atmosphere).
- The result is that the space craft loses kinetic energy and slows down.
- However due to conservation of energy, the energy is not lost but is converted to heat.
- The outside of the space craft becomes incredibly hot.
- This means that the space vehicle requires thermal shielding.
List some benefits of space exploration.
- Satellite communications
- GPS and SatNav technologies
- Weather forecasting / storm tracking
- Improved mapping
- Spin off technologies - hand held drills, portable DVD players, memory foam
Name one man made object that has helped us explore space.
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Voyager Probes
- Cassini - Huygens
What is the ‘observable universe’?
The observable universe is the furthest point that we can ‘see’ or detect. The furthest point that we can ‘see’ is the distance which light must have travelled for the whole age of the universe.
What is meant by a star?
A ball of burning gas
What is meant by a planet?
An object that orbits a star
What is meant by a moon?
An object that orbits a planet
What is a star and it’s orbitting planets called?
Solar system
What would a diagram look like to show the effect of a curved reflector being used as a transmitter?
See diagram
What would a diagram look like to show the effect of a curved reflector being used as a receiver?
See diagram
