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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It’s all basically the rocket equation. To speed up or slow down costs fuel, but fuel itself adds weight. So you wind up carrying more fuel, just to offset the fuel, which adds more weight…
Hitting the atmosphere at a speed that we can design heat resistance for simplifies things as you are no longer having to add more fuel to slow down all the way. Everything in space is about weight because it requires more fuel to move.
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