Why can’t the space shuttle just go slow enough to not be heated up by friction with earths atmosphere on re-entry?
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As I understand it, you COULD, but as others are saying, it would take a LOT of time, a LOT of fuel, or both, and most likely fuel, since the space shuttles aren’t really built for gliding a long way.
There is always going to be a lot of friction when an object going 16,000-20,000 miles per hour hits the atmosphere. You can’t get away from that, and even at military aircraft speeds, the shuttle would have a bad lift-to-glide ratio.
The balance is having it descend fast enough that the heat doesn’t have TIME to work its way though the protective tiles and other heat shields, but NOT descend SO fast that the heat becomes so INTENSE that it OVERCOMES the heat shielding.
Unless you slow it down to a crawl first, that’s the job, more or less. But, if you slow it down TOO much it completely loses the ability to glide, and it would “stall” and then fall straight down. You wouldn’t have any lift, and you’d have very poor control over the ability to steer, level, climb, or drop.
If they redesigned it to glide better at slower speeds, it would be even harder to launch into orbit, use LOTS more fuel, and even more vulnerable to damage, like having the wings ripped off, upon re-entry.
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