How do astronauts get to space?

[Guest Bronynaut]

I look up at the sky where the rockets go and it's just all blue. Not black like in all the space pictures. Where do they go to get to black space? Because airplanes always fly in the blue sky, too.

[Capt'n Skunky]

The sky is blue because of the atmosphere. It will slowly turn black as you reach space at about 70km.

Cheers!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Vanamonde]

The sky also turns dark for airplanes that fly very high, like the U-2. (I wish I could find a better picture of it, though.)

[nibula]

oh god what is this?

[Nooblet68]

oh god what is this?

What is what?

[Fulbert]

The sky gets noticably darker even at 10-15 thousand metres, the altitude many commercial liners fly at. Not the inky black but still.

There's another thing about the darkness and all. when I was a kid I believed that the sky turned black at night because of the rockets. I would often see the news reports where they would sometimes show the footage of rockets blasting off from Baikonur. There it was, standing in the middle of the desert at day. Then it would launch, and everything around it would turn dark and dusky.

I made the only logical conclusion.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Fulbert
Wait, there's another thing!..

[Ziff]

I look up at the sky where the rockets go and it's just all blue. Not black like in all the space pictures. Where do they go to get to black space? Because airplanes always fly in the blue sky, too.

Check this video out to see just about where that thin blue line starts to fade away.

[socket7]

The sky turns from blue to black! It's all about perspective.

From the ground you are looking up through all the atmosphere When the sun is out, light reflects off the atmosphere, and the sky turns blue! At night, there is no light from the sun to bounce off the atmosphere, and the blue sky disappears, and you can see the stars and all of space.

When you're just high enough, you can get a photo like this, showing the blue sky and the blackness of space.

Most airliners fly at 30,000 feet or so, or 9.1 kilometers high. You have to go quite a bit higher for the sky to start turning black. The space station, is about 402 kilometers high (This is still within the atmosphere technically, but its black like space and has no gravity so who cares.)

The SR-71 had a maximum altitude of 25.9 Kilometers, and at those altitudes, you can see the transition between the sky and the blackness of space.

The atmosphere, The blue sky that keeps us all alive is shockingly thin.

[RC1062]

Kinda like looking at a light through apple juice. The more juice between you and the light, the more golden yellow-y the light looks.

[AncientAstronaut]

The sky turns from blue to black! It's all about perspective.

(...has no gravity so who cares.)

What are you talking about? There is gravity EVERYWHERE in space... How do you think the Moon orbits Earth?

Something in orbit has the sensation of free-fall, but there's still gravity. If they were to stop moving entirely, the space station would plummet back to Earth.

[sal_vager]

Hey, be nice AncientAstronaut, some of our members are young and they honestly don't know these things, as usual xkcd says it best

[socket7]

What are you talking about? There is gravity EVERYWHERE in space... How do you think the Moon orbits Earth?

Something in orbit has the sensation of free-fall, but there's still gravity. If they were to stop moving entirely, the space station would plummet back to Earth.

I did not want to bring the concepts of microgravity and planetary physics to a discussion about why we see the sky as blue on the ground and black in space. It's off topic.

It all comes back to relativity, really. Relative to those of us who have to stand under 1G all day long because we can't get into orbit, anything that appears to float in mid air is in "zero-G"

Edited August 8, 2012 by socket7

[LaydeeDem]

I look up at the sky where the rockets go and it's just all blue. Not black like in all the space pictures. Where do they go to get to black space? Because airplanes always fly in the blue sky, too.

>Plays Kerbal Space Program

>Doesn't know how the atmosphere works

What.

[Tim_Barrett]

Sometimes I kind of wish I was back in this situation.

Playing games for the first time, especially with little general knowledge of the area in the first place, can be very exciting/fun.

Everyone remembers there first time playing minecraft, right? Well this person is about to go on one hell of a ride with KSP! Have fun Bronynaut!

[Guest Bronynaut]

I'm sorry I'm new. I just see all the rockets on the TV and want to do it too.

[Vanamonde]

>Plays Kerbal Space Program

> Doesn't know how the atmosphere works

Chooses a challenging game instead of a shoot-'em-up. Asks about it. Then knows how it works.

I ask about aspects of the game I don't understand all the time, and I learn all kinds of stuff.

[Guest Bronynaut]

Minecraft is not a shoot-'em-up. It's a game that allows you to express you're creativity.

[Vanamonde]

It's a game that allows you to express you're creativity.

That's what I meant. It's good thing you're playing creative games and asking questions instead of just shooting badguys.

[AncientAstronaut]

Hey, be nice AncientAstronaut, some of our members are young and they honestly don't know these things, as usual xkcd says it best

I wasn't trying to be rude. Hopefully he didn't take offense. Sorry about the way it seemed to come off.

[RC1062]

What are you talking about? There is gravity EVERYWHERE in space... How do you think the Moon orbits Earth?

Something in orbit has the sensation of free-fall, but there's still gravity. If they were to stop moving entirely, the space station would plummet back to Earth.

I know you know this but; It is plummeting towards the Earth.

I like physics, it is so mucked up yet also common sense.

[SNapple]

I made an illustration of a circular orbit.

The Green circle represents an object that has gravity, in this case Kerbin.

The smaller grey circle represents an orbiting satallite.

The Orange line represents where the stallite would go if there was no gravity.

The blue line represents where it is actually going to go.

I will explain the blue line. You see, gravity constantly pulls the satallite towards it, but it doesn't hit it because the speed the orange line symbolizes is pointed so that the satallite misses the planet. But the craft still get's pulled back down to the planet, and then the satallite is in a position where the planet's gravity is pulling against the speed it originally had.

And that just repeats over and over.

[OdinYggd]

Getting to space is easy.

Just build a rocket with enough thrust relative to it's mass to leave the ground, and enough fuel to do that the whole way.

Once you get the hang of keeping your rockets from exploding, falling apart, or losing control in flight, getting to space is the easiest part of the whole game. It's getting somewhere in space that's the real challenge, because once you're in space you've only got what you brought with you to work with for fuel.