why is atmosphere reentry such an issue? If it is just because of speed hitting the atmosphere why can’t the spacecraft just slow down before and synchronise with earth rotation?
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You know how when you get a jetpack in a video game or whatever, you could be falling at terminal velocity then just tap the jetpack and suddenly you’re not falling anymore? For the space craft to slow down it’s fighting the same gravitational force it to take off because that force doesn’t care about speed, just acceleration. Acceleration from gravity is a constant, all of that to say you’d have to bring all that fuel you had taking off doubled to slow down the descent the same amount. The fuel on a space ship is many factors heavier than everything else combined, so the goal is Always to bring the least amount of it possible. The heavier the space craft is, the harder the engines have to work up and down to manage the speed.
TL;DR the fuel on a spaceship is really heavy, and using the engines as the main way to slow it down would double the amount of fuel needed. Bringing That fuel would be making the vessel heavier, defeating the purpose.
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