* Flight Control *

Introduction to Flight Control

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly a space ship? It would be completely different than flying an airplane.

When we talk about flight we are usually referring to gliders or propeller or jet propelled airplanes. The thrust applied by the atmosphere or of a propulsive thrust applied to air is what makes it possible for us to fly. Without that thrust / air interaction we are not going anywhere.

In the vacuum of space the air element is absent so we must develop alternative mechanisms that replace the air element in order to achieve “space flight”. However, before achieving space flight we must first pass through the atmosphere so any space vehicle generally requires two types of flight control mechanisms, aeronautical and space.

A star  ship being launched is boosted into orbit by a rocket platform which is usually guided by a computer or preset flight program. The space shuttle had some aeronautical ability for re-entry but was mostly designed for space maneuverability for docking purposes.

In this series of posts we first learn a bit about aviation flight control and then a few examples of possible star ship flight controls are presented. When we traverse through space to an interplanetary colony we would hope that a trained flight crew is part of the journey and the average colonists should not have to worry about flying the star ship or maintaining its systems. This series of posts is therefore an exercise in logic and intuition.

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