How is it that we engineer vehicles in space to travel for millions of miles at absurdly fast speeds? When we can only have vehicles on earth (jets) travel for thousands of miles at lower speeds? Why is the gap SO BIG?

Question

We can send vehicles/rovers to space and have them travel at very high speeds for millions of miles to other planets. But vehicles on earth (jets/planes) have significantly shorter range and speed. Why is this? ELI5

In: Physics

Answer 1

* Space is mostly empty.
* Earth’s atmosphere is packed with air molecules.
* Compared to literally nothing (space) the air molecules create a huge amount of friction against the things trying to move through it.