ntent115789fullscreen12 41226 View 1 of 1 Automatic Zoom In

ntent/115789/fullscreen/12 41226 View 1 of 1 Automatic Zoom In 1996, the Ansari X prize was offered for the first time for a private venture: a reusable spacecraft. The requirements were for the same vehicle to carry three people into outer space twice in a two- week time period. The competition was won in 2004 by Tier 1, a company led by Burt Rutan. Their concept was to have a mother ship take off and land on a conventional runway carrying Space Ship One. The spacecraft would be launched at 25,000 feet altitude and would reach outer space (an altitude of 100 km), then glide back and land on the same run way. They repeated this within a week, and they won the prize. Assuming that the spacecraft can use all its fuel to achieve a vertical velocity u at 25,000 feet altitude, how much should the value of u be so that the spacecraft can reach the outer space? REMEMBER Do more than just calculate an answer, Prepare a solution which can be easily

Solution

centimetre_inch = 2.54; %centimetre per inch
inch_feet = 12; %inches per feer
metre_centimetre = 1/100; % metres per centimetre
mete_feet = metre_centimetre*centimetre_inch*inch_feet %metres per feet
initHeightFeet = 25000; % initial height given in feet
initHeightMetres = initHeightFeet*mete_feet; % initial height given in inches

g = 9.81; %accelaration constant
finalHeight = 100; %final height given
distTravelled = (finalHeight*1000)-initHeightMetres; % travelled distance om metres
u = sqrt(2*g*distTravelled); %required initial velocity

OUTPUT:
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distTravelled = 92380
u = 1.3463e+003