Why can’t the space shuttle just go slow enough to not be heated up by friction with earths atmosphere on re-entry?
In: 5
because they only look like aeroplanes, and actually have really crappy aerodynamics. bricks and barn doors fly better than space shuttles. this [very informative and funny presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4prVsXkZU) will explain in detail how does landing look like, and all difficulties that it brings to land the damn thing.
The thing is in order to slow down you need fuel. Now you definitely dont want to carry that fuel when you can use the air to slow you down. Spaceships returning are using the air to slow down. Converting their kinetic energy into heat. (Which is by the way the principle behind almost all brakes. In cars the brake uses friction to convert kinetic energy to heat.) The shield shields the spacecraft from the heat, but its a lot easier to insulate than to use more fuel. They could slow down but its inefficient.
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