How did the Orbiter Vehicle work? (Space Shuttle)
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Some have called this the most complex flying machine ever built. On most missions it had a crew of seven astronauts and stayed in space for one to two weeks. It is 37 meters long and 24 meters wide. For comparison here’s the Apollo Spacecraft which landed astronauts on the moon and here is a Boeing 747. Let’s take a look at the main parts of the orbiter and then I’ll show you more of what’s on the inside. The main body down the center is called the fuselage.
We can break this up into three parts: The forward, mid and the aft fuselage. The aft fuselage has a vertical stabilizer in the middle and three engines on the back. These are called the space shuttle main engines. The two smaller ones up here are called the OMS rocket motors, and OMS stands for Orbital Maneuvering System. The mid fuselage has the wings attached to each side and then in the center is the payload bay. Sometimes called the cargo bay. This is where they would transport large items into space.
Forward fuselage has the nose cone and the full reaction control system module.
These tiny holes are thrusters which can help change the orientation of the shuttle in space. And most importantly the crew compartment. This is where the astronauts spend most of their time. On the bottom is the thermal protection system otherwise known as the heat shield. There are more than 27,000 silica tiles to protect the shuttle from the enormous heat of reentry. There are three doors on the bottom
that contain the landing gear. These open up once the shuttle gets close to the runway. Okay, we’ve seen the outside of the shuttle, now let’s take a look at the inside starting with the crew compartment. There are three levels in here:
The flight deck, the mid deck and the equipment bay. The flight deck has the controls to fly the orbiter. The commander is on the left and the pilot is on the right. There are two more seats directly behind, but these will be stowed away for most of their time in space. At the back of the flight deck there’s more control panels. These two windows look directly into the payload bay. There’s also two windows on top and six in the front. The flight deck has a hole on the floor that leads down to the mid deck. There’s a ladder, but when you’re in space you can just float through. The mid deck is where the crew eats, sleeps and does some of their work.
These are the lockers to store equipment and personal belongings of the astronauts. These are the sleep stations. It can fit three astronauts horizontally. More astronauts sleep in bags attached to the side here.
There’s no gravity in space so sleeping is a bit different than here on earth. This is the galley used to prepare food. Don’t forget about the bathroom in space. This is called the waste collection system. This is the airlock for when astronauts get in their space suits and then go outside to access the payload bay.
Behind this row of lockers is the avionics bay. This holds equipment and computers that can help fly the shuttle.
Several seats can be set up in the mid deck for launch and reentry. The shuttle was designed to fit six to eight astronauts. On most missions there were seven, three on the mid deck and four on the flight deck.
Below the mid deck is the equipment bay which holds the waste management systems, water tanks, pumps, and more storage space. The crew compartment here is the only pressurized part of the orbiter,
which means is the only part that astronauts can be in without a space suit. The side hatch is how they enter and leave the orbiter on earth.
The hatch is not used while theyre in space. If they did it would suck all the air out. Not good. When its time for some of the astronauts to go outside, they'll use the airlock. For now I'm going to skip over the payload bay. Well come back to it. The engines are in the aft fuselage which is in the very back. This is the thrust structure which contains three holes for the space shuttle main engines. These are RS-25 engines which are powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The fuels are stored in the external tank during the launch through the atmosphere. The fuel was fed through the belly of the orbiter and back to the three engines.
The fuel is extremely cold before it is burned. The hydrogen is pumped down the side of each engine
and then back up the inside through many smaller tubes. In this way the fuel was used as the cooling system before it is burned. All three engines can be gimbaled from side to side or up and down. This was done during the launch to steer the orbiter. Right above there’s the orbital maneuvering system rocket motors. These helped give the final push into orbit at the beginning of the mission and also slow the spacecraft down at the end of the mission.
The OMS is actually made of two pods on each side of the vertical stabilizer. These contain their own fuel and oxidizer tanks. You’ll also notice that there are more tiny thrusters out here. There’s even more of them underneath. This is part of the reaction control system or RCS. We saw earlier in the video that there are RCS thrusters in the front as well.
All three RCS modules can work together to change the orientation of the shuttle. The orbiter has several parts which are very similar to what an airplane has. The wings, the eleven’s, the body flap, and the vertical stabilizer with a rudder on the back. This rudder can also function as a speed break. These parts don’t really matter in the vacuum of space, but they will matter once were close to the ground and ready to land. Okay, now let’s take a closer look at the payload bay. Once in orbit around the earth, the payload bay doors are opened up to expose the inside. It’s very important to get these doors open because they have radiator panels on the inside to help get rid of excess heat.
The bay is big enough to fit a payload of up to 18 meters long and 4.6 meters in diameter. This was used to launch many satellites including the Hubble Space Telescope. It was also used to launch modules for the International Space Station. On some missions they carried a module called Spacelab, which has extra working space for science experiments. The astronauts can get in here by floating through the access tunnel. Along the left side of the cargo bay, there’s a robotic arm called the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System also known as the Canadarm.
This was a contribution by Canada. It was operated from the controls at the back of the flight deck. They looked right through this window. The Canadarm was used to grab and move payloads around in space. It was also used to move astronauts around as well. When astronauts put on their space suits and go outside, it’s called an EVA or extravehicular activity. The astronauts put their spacesuits on in the airlock then they can open up the hatch on the other side and go out into the vacuum of space. Later shuttle missions had the airlock in the mid deck removed and another one was installed inside of the payload bay. This whole system is called the orbital docking system.
Here’s the airlock, the supporting thrust structure and this top part is the docking mechanism. This is how the space shuttle was able to dock to the International Space Station. Once its docked the astronauts can freely float to and from the station. The orbiter does not have batteries or solar panels.
All of the electricity is generated underneath the payload bay. You’ll notice several spherical shape tanks for liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Then at the front there are three fuel cells. The hydrogen and oxygen are combined by the fuel cells to generate electricity.
As a side effect this also creates water which can then be used for the cooling system or as drinking water for the astronauts. The technology used in the space shuttle would not have been possible without talented engineers who can solve challenging problems like how to launch a rocket into space or use a giant robotic arm to move things around. Engineers need a strong foundation in math and science. A good place to start learning is with Brilliant. This is a problem solving website and app that teaches you how to think. Just watching or reading isn’t enough to really master these skills.
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