Descriptive Essay – Inside the Space Ship

Scientific and technological progress has allowed humankind to explore outer space and to gain new opportunities and knowledge about the universe. People have made tremendous progress in the development of technologies of space exploration, advancing from an uncontrolled launch of a small rocket to the present level of utilization of multiple orbital stations and space expeditions. Space vehicles can now be inhabited or uninhabited.

Spaceship consist of many parts, and the most well-known part is called the mid-deck. This is a location where the astronauts sleep, go to the bathroom, and have a meal. There is a sleeping compartment in this location, where the astronauts sleep in bags attached to the wall. The crew cabin is in the form of a truncated cone in which the crew, the life support system, the electrical system, and various equipment are located. It is contained in a pressurized shell formed of a double wall consisting of thick titanium sheets welded together. This shell is covered with an insulator and an outer shell made of a nickel alloy. Each astronaut lies with his or her legs bent in a molded bunk and has a hatch in front that can be opened manually.

The re-entry module is designed to withstand the aerodynamic forces and heat of the atmospheric reentry (Alwes and Sdunnus p. 1265). The flanks of the module are protected from heat by overlapping metal plates whose composition varies with location. The widest end of the cone, which is the most exposed to heat, is protected by a disk-shaped heat shield consisting of a honeycomb structure filled with ablative material. The reentry module consists of three sections: the rendezvous and landing containing the radar used for rendezvous maneuvers in orbit with another vessel and the parachutes, the section containing the attitude control engines, and the crew cabin (Alwes and Sdunnus p. 1265).

The service module is essentially built around a modified capsule. It is equipped with solar panels and the mooring system with the space station. It will house all the equipment needed to support life on-board crews and tanks (fuel, oxygen, water).

Concerning the landing phase, each spaceship has multiple variants and modalities for landing, depending on specific mission profiles. The standard mission profile is the conventional landing system that has proven itself time and time again. The spaceship typically uses a system of three open parachutes and several small engines that would be lit before landing. This system must allow the craft to land less than 1 kilometer around the intended place on the mainland. It is necessary that the ship equips an airbag system to reduce the impact on the ground and authorize a landing (Oers et al., p. 34). The spacecraft may or may not have a propulsion subset, depending on whether or not the mission profile requires propulsion. The propulsion system is also necessary for the shuttle, which undertakes momentum maneuvers. The elements of a conventional propulsion subassembly contain fuel, tankage, valves, and ejectors which connect to the propulsion subassembly by monitoring the temperature of these components and preheating the tanks and ejectors for maneuvering the spacecraft.

The spacecraft must be built to withstand the passage into the atmosphere and the space environment. It must operate under vacuum with temperatures extending over a wide range (hundreds of degrees Celsius, positive and negative). The thermal control subassembly can be passive, depending on the choice of materials with specific radiating properties (Feiveson and Kulkarni p. 332).

Active thermal control uses electric heaters and specific triggers such as awnings to control ambient temperatures specific to equipment limits. A space vehicle system has various subsets, depending on the profile of the mission.

A spacecraft requires a subsystem of altitude control so that it can be appropriately oriented in space and respond to external torsions and forces adequately. The altitude control subsystem consists of probes and triggers, as well as control algorithms. The altitude control subset allows the appropriate direction indicated toward the interest of the mission (scientific measurement or external intervention), toward the Sun to capture the energy, to present to a given space shuttle, or toward the Earth or a satellite for communications (Feiveson and Kulkarni p. 332).

Thus, a spaceship is a complicated device that shall be carefully prepared for operation in significantly complicated conditions for outer space. Regardless of different peculiarities in the composition of various types of spaceships, they have similar main principles of composition. Various systems of life security are installed inside the ship to facilitate the mission of the astronauts. If developed properly, these systems will help the astronauts to make longer and more efficient trips.

Works Cited

Alwes, D., and H. Sdunnus. “Space Debris Aspects in Design and Operation of a Space Craft – The Programmatic of an End-to-End Service.” Advances in Space Research, vol 34, no. 5, 2004, pp. 1264-1269. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2003.11.015.
Feiveson, Alan H., and Pandurang M. Kulkarni. “Reliability of Space-Shuttle Pressure Vessels with Random Batch Effects.” Technometrics, vol 42, no. 4, 2000, p. 332. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/1270943.
Oers, Bart van et al. “An Optimisation-Based Space Allocation Routine for the Generation of Feasible Ship Designs.” Ship Technology Research, vol 56, no. 1, 2009, pp. 31-48. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1179/str.2009.56.1.005.

Why is this Subject Important to Write About in Your Essay?

Here, in a descriptive essay sample about space ship construction, students may improve their knowledge both in engineering and astronomy disciplines.
The construction principle of every spaceship should include the consideration of safety precautions to survive in complicated conditions of outer space. The main idea in the descriptive essay is a brief definition of the sequential actions’ importance while projecting every space ship.

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