Astronautics, and related astronautical

engineering, is the theory and practice of

navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. In
other words, it is the science and technology
of space flight.
The term astronautics was coined by analogy
withaeronautics. As there is a certain degree of
technology overlapping between the two fields,
the term aerospace is often used to describe them
both.
As with aeronautics, the restrictions of mass,
temperatures, and external forces require that
applications in space survive extreme conditions:
high-grade vacuum, the radiation bombardment
of interplanetary space, the magnetic belts of low
Earth orbit. Space launch vehicles must withstand
titanic forces, while satellites can experience
huge variations in temperature in very brief
periods.[1] Extreme constraints on mass cause
astronautical engineers to face the constant need
to save mass in the design in order to maximize
the actual payload that reaches orbit.
Astronautical engineering
The engineering aspects of flight and navigation
in space, also known as astronautics.
Astronautical engineering deals with vehicles,
instruments, and other equipment used in space,
but not with the sociological or economic aspects
of space flight, except as they influence the
equipment.
There is a lack of parallelism between astronautic
and aeronautic vehicle terminology. An aircraft is
a self-contained vehicle, having within its
structure essentially all the equipment required to
transport its payload from one place to another. A
spacecraft, in the more restricted sense, is the
container for the payload. Sometimes the word is
used to denote the container and payload. Most
spacecraft, to date, have had either very limited
propulsion or none at all. Since enormous speeds
are the hallmark of all astronautic missions,
unpowered spacecraft require a “booster,” or
“launch vehicle,” usually a rocket many times as
large as the spacecraft. The weight of the
spacecraft, in fact, seldom exceeds 5% of the total
launch vehicle weight.
It is extremely expensive to put a pound of
payload into Earth orbit. Thus designers have
been justified in going to great lengths to convert
a pound of structure into a pound of payload.
Great improvement appears possible in this
respect; only the cost of the propellant seems to
be irreducible. In view of the high cost of space
operations, it is especially important that space
vehicles operate long enough to successfully
fulfill their missions. A severe reliability
requirement is thus imposed upon vehicles and
equipment intended for missions, such as
journeys to the planets, which may require up to a
year or more to accomplish. For complex
equipment in space vehicles, operating lifetimes
of this order of magnitude are difficult to attain.
The requirements for high reliability and low
weight add tremendously to the cost of the
payloads themselves, to the extent that their cost
approaches that of the launch vehicle. All space
missions through 1975 used expendable launch
vehicles. The space shuttle, a reusable launch
vehicle, is expected to reduce the costs of Earth-
to-orbit transportation.
Gravity is a dominating influence in the design of
space launch vehicles. Despite the fact that the
pull of gravity extends to infinity, it is nonetheless
possible to escape permanently from the Earth's
gravity in the sense of never being drawn back to
the ground. The key is speed. Circular velocity is
the minimum at which a space vehicle can remain
permanently above the Earth. At low altitudes, this
velocity is about 25,000 ft/s (7.9 km/s). As the
speed is increased above the circular velocity, the
path of a vehicle becomes a larger circle or an
elongated ellipse. When the speed reaches 37,000
ft/s, or about 7 mi/s (11.2 km/s), the path becomes
a parabola and the vehicle will travel along one of
the legs to infinity without further propulsion.
These velocities are tremendous by any previous
standard. To reach them, a vehicle must carry the
corresponding amount of energy in the form of
propellant.
Even with the most energetic propellants and the
lightest structures, it has not yet been possible to
reach orbital velocity with a single rocket. To
overcome this seemingly insurmountable
obstacle, one rocket is carried as the payload of a
larger one. When the larger burns out, the second
is ignited and adds its velocity to that of the first.
This is known as the step-rocket or staging
technique. For lunar and planetary missions,
lightweight vehicles, powerful propellants, and
many stages are used. The lunar orbit rendezvous
method required a total of six stages to take the
Apollo astronauts to the Moon and
back. See Rocket staging
Although propulsion is the key to space flight,
other elements are essential and present
numerous new problems. One such element is
guidance and control. For the ascent phase of
space vehicle flight, guidance systems similar to
those used for ballistic missiles are employed.
Another control requirement of many types of
space vehicles is that of maintaining the desired
vehicle attitude over long periods of time.
Displacement gyroscopes, even excellent ones
with very low drift rates, cannot provide an
accurate reference for days or weeks. Such
devices must be corrected frequently by an
external reference.
At least two such references are available:
sources of electromagnetic radiation, and the
gravitational gradient. The first might be used by
such devices as a Sun seeker, a star tracker, or a
horizon scanner. In the vicinity of the Earth (or
any large celestial body) the difference in the pull
of gravity between points on the craft having
different distances from the Earth can be usefully
employed.
Reaction wheels or other devices capable of
storing angular momentum may be used to
provide the torque to effect or maintain a given
orientation. Such devices are very efficient, both
from a weight and an energy standpoint, where
disturbing torques on the spacecraft are small,
random, and long continued. At the opposite end
of the torque spectrum, torques that are large and
uncompensating, rocket engines are the most
suitable.
Vehicle and payload equipment require electric
power. For small amounts of energy, chemical
sources, such as batteries or chemically fueled
generators, may be used. A great deal more
energy can be obtained from a nuclear reactor.
Energy also comes continuously from the Sun but
at a fairly low density at Earth's distance.
Communications equipment comprises an
essential item of nearly all space vehicles. This
equipment is designed for light weight, low power
consumption, and, usually, long life.
Although a large percentage of the problems of
space flight are associated with the vehicles, it
would be a mistake to assume that these
constitute even a major fraction of the total
operating system. Indeed, the cost of overcoming
the Earth's gravity is so great that any portion of
the total operation which can be performed on the
ground should be done there. The supporting
ground equipment consists of the preparation and
launching equipment, and the tracking,
communications, and payload-oriented equipment
for turning the received data into usable form. For
missions which involve return of space vehicles
or booster rockets, recovery equipment may also
be required.
In their interaction with the terrestrial and
atmospheric environment during reentry, space
vehicles resemble ballistic missiles. However,
although ballistic reentry techniques have been
proved successful, the use of winged vehicles
also has certain attractive aspects. There is a
basic difference in these two methods in respect
to the way atmospheric heat is handled. The
ballistic approach absorbs the heat in the reentry
body or rejects it back to the air by mass transfer.
The winged vehicle dissipates the heat by
radiation. Considerable research has been done
on compromise reentry vehicles, such as the
lifting body approach. The orbital stage of the
shuttle is a winged craft designed to land like an
airplane. It utilizes a combination of techniques to
overcome the reentry heating problems: lift,
temperature-resistant materials, and local ablative
cooling.
Astronautical engineering must contend with the
unique environment of space outside the Earth's
atmosphere. Although gravity is present in space,
whenever a vehicle is coasting unpropelled, the
shell and everything in it are acted on equally by
gravity and therefore appear weightless. Fluids do
not flow naturally, but must be confined and
extruded. Liquids exposed to the vacuum of
space evaporate or freeze. External transfer of
heat takes place only by radiation. Metals
exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the Sun emit
electrons. Small particles of cosmic dust strike
external surfaces at fantastic velocities and
gradually erode them. Cosmic radiation creates a
spectrum of secondary radiation that may reach
levels damaging to equipment or personnel.