84. What kind of technical problems could happen going to and coming from space? (A K2S Question)

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The biggest worry is that one of the rockets will fail. In the case of the Shuttle, the three main engines are powerful enough that one could fail and the other two still take the Shuttle to orbit, or perhaps to an abort site in Africa or Europe, or even back to the launch site. But if one of the solid rocket boosters should fail, there would be a disaster. Most of the other systems are redundant, meaning there are one or more backups that would allow a successful mission even if one part should fail. Coming in from space presents other risks, primarily associated with the extremely high re-entry speed. Failure of the heat shield would be intolerable. NASA recognizes all these risks and takes care to provide design margins and redundant equipment wherever feasible.

Answer provided by Jon H. Brown


Image:K2S logosmall.jpg Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer


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