Kinetic Energy 2. The Space Shuttle orbits the Earth at a speed of some 7750 met
ID: 1950452 • Letter: K
Question
Kinetic Energy 2. The Space Shuttle orbits the Earth at a speed of some 7750 meters per second (which is about 260 times that of a typical highway driving speed). With a typical payload, the Shuttle has a mass of 120,000 kg.a) What is the kinetic energy of the Shuttle in orbit?
b) The Shuttle reaches orbit in some 500 seconds. At what rate of work (power) did the rocket engines perform on the Shuttle to place the craft and its payload into orbit? Compare this to the maximum power output of a typical nuclear electric generating station.
Explanation / Answer
a) KE = 1/2 m v2 = 1/2 (120,000 kg) (7750 m/s)2 = 3.60 x 1012 J = 3.60 TJ
b) P = W / t = 3.60 x 1012 J / 500 s = 7.21 x 109 W = 7.21 GW to produce the necessary kinetic energy, although this neglects the increase in potential energy due to an increase in height.
Today's nuclear reactors are on the order of 1 GW (only barely enough to power Doc Brown's DeLorean!).
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