B
Bdude42
Guest
Whenever NASA goes through with a shuttle launch, they strap on these 1000 ton fuel tanks to take the actual spacecraft out of the atmosphere. Then, they jettison them in the upper earth's atmosphere and they tumble to the Earth, usually burning up in the process. Or here is a different scenario. They jettison them from the space craft and they float off into oblivion. Sending these multi-million dollar fuel tanks into space or "the drink" isn't what I would call "cost-effective". If there was some way to save the drawbacks of this design, it would greatly improve space travel. Since we would not be spending loads of money on spaceship parts we are going to ditch later, wouldn't we be accelerating further technologically towards exploring planets farther away, such as Jupiter. Even if I am completely wrong, you have to admit that the giant fuel tanks hold back the ship while launching (just with their own weight) and affect how often we launch spacecraft because of expenses. I don't have extensive knowledge about this subject but I have my opinions.
What do you think?
What do you think?