Space shuttle fuel consumption?

Question

i've been scouring the net for details of the space shuttle's fuel consumption but can't find any details, is there a cover up ?

i'm not interested in conspiracies, i just want to know the fuel consumption.

anybody know ?

Answer 1

Ask the question here

http://orbiter-forum.com/

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Answer 2

The answer to this isn't really straight forward since there are a couple different fuels involved. Based on the info from this NASA site:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/refe...

you can do a few rough calculations:

Main Engines burn for approximately 8.24 minutes:

   Oxygen: 143,060 gal / 8.24 = 289.24 gal/sec

   Hydrogen: 383, 066 gal / 8.24 = 774.80 gal/sec



Solid Rockets bur for approximately 2.00 minutes:

  1,100,000 lbs of fuel in each / 2 = 18333 lbs/sec

Answer 3

I remember reading once long time ago that the Queen Elizibeth 2 cruise ship travelled about 6 inches on 1 gallon of fuel.

I vaguely remember the space shuttle travelling the same distance per gallon of fuel or equivalent. I think the S shuttle uses liquid Hydrogen as as a fuel so theres not much to conspiracies.

Answer 4

if you're not interested in conspiracies, please do not suggest their existence.

the shuttle runs its external tank dry in about 8 minutes. figure it out yourself.

later: all the relevant numbers (external tank and srb capacity) are in wikipedia, among other places. you can't have looked very hard.

Answer 5

Electrical power for NASA's Space Shuttle Orbiter is provided by fuel cell power plants designed, developed, and built by UTC Fuel Cells, a unit of UTC Power. In the Orbiter, a complement of three 12 kW fuel cells produces all onboard electrical power; there are no backup batteries, and a single fuel cell is sufficient to ensure safe vehicle return. In addition, the water produced by the electrochemical reaction is for the crew to drink and for spacecraft cooling. [1]

Answer 6

All the stuff you need is on wiki.

Type in space shuttle fuel.

Capacity somewhere in the region of 1.billion galls.

Don't know over what time scale though.