• Question: How was space traval made. Would you ever change your job

    Asked by jman2641999 to Arlene, Colin, David, Eugene, Paul on 14 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by ld144, bubble, paddyhayden.
    • Photo: Paul Higgins

      Paul Higgins answered on 14 Nov 2012:


      Space travel started about half a century ago when cosmonauts and astronauts used to ride in little pods on top of giant rockets. Then we moved on to shuttles, and now we are trying to design a space plane that can just take off, like a normal plane, and fly into space. The problem is that you have to get up to a fast enough speed to escape earth’s gravity, and it takes a lot of fuel to give you that much kinetic energy… But fuel is heavy, so there is a balance between how much fuel you need, but not having too much fuel so that you weigh yourself down.
      I might change my job if an exciting one was offered to me, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to change it. I like being a researcher, so far!

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