At what point can an astronaut take off their helmet and why do they need to wear one for take off? (Asked by an actual 5 year old)
In: Physics
The short answer is when it is safe. The first leg of the launch is super dangerous. Once you are in space, there isn’t really a whole lot to go wrong.
While the engines are burning, something could fail. These things are crazy hot, and crazy complicated. One little thing going wrong can cause an explosion in the blink of an eye.
Challenger is an unfortunate example. There was a piece of rubber (an o-ring) that froze, and so it didnt seal properly. 73 seconds after launch the shuttle disintegrated.
Additionally, the atmosphere gets really thin really quickly. Once you are in space there’s not a whole lot of forces on the rocket. But going through the atmosphere you have to push all the air out of the way.
Columbia is an unfortunate example of this. On launch a piece of foam broke a panel of the shuttle. On reentry, since the panel was cracked the force of the air ripped it open and the entire shuttle got destroyed.
Both of these things end at about the same time. The lower stage(s) disconnect pretty soon after it is out of the atmosphere. Once in space, the capsule keeps moving along since there is nothing to stop it. Also theres really not a whole lot of force on it, so there’s really just not anything left to go wrong.
Edited: The Challenger disintegrated, it didnt explode
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