The crawler-transporter above shuttles the shuttle (pun intended) from its barn to the launch pad, burning 150 gallons of diesel per mile. The shuttle’s engines are fed liquid hydrogen and oxygen by a combined 94,000 horsepower-worth of pumps. Each engine produces 12,000,000 horsepower, and there are three of them. Pratt & Whitney, the maker, says it is the most reliable re-usable large rocket engine ever made, with a 100% reliability record.What an awesome amount of power! By contrast a big diesel locomotive has a 6,000-horsepower engine. The average car in America runs on 130 horsepower. An in-shape human can produce 1 horsepower for a brief period.
Which comes down to this—It would take the power produced by the entire population of California to put the shuttle into orbit, and that’s only if everyone’s in shape and can find a place to stand without smashing everyone else’s toes.
Photo: NASA
2 comments:
150 gallons/mile is 0.007 miles/gallon. That's low enough to qualify for the "Cash For Clunkers" program.
I recently read that the M1 Abrams tank uses up ten gallons of fuel just to start the engine. After that it is reasonably frugal, using 1 gallon per mile (which is approximately 1 mile per gallon).
I hear the M1 tank is also used by the Saudis, Kuwaitis, and Egyptians. Normally it has a turbine engine. The Arabs converted it to a turban engine.
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