But it can also stay in orbit for a very long period so multiply that 20, 000 km (half earth circumference) by 2N (N= # of orbits) for total distance and the gas mileage now equals 0.5*2N, it orbits earth every 90 mins (16 x per day) . So after one day it has averaged 16 mpg (better than a lot of SUVs) and after half a week of orbiting its doing better than a Toyota Prius!
Guest
05-Jul-2006 17:19
from wikipedia "fuel effeciency":
The NASA space shuttle consumes 1,000,000 kg of solid fuel and 2,000,000 litres of liquid fuel over 8.5 minutes to take the 100,000 kg vehicle (including the 25,000 kg payload) to an altitude of 111 km and an orbital speed of 30,000 km/h. This amounts to about 3,300 GJoules of energy, or about 100,000 l/100 km or 12 feet per gallon of gasoline. It's worth noting that a rocket can, in theory, re-entry on any place on Earth, giving it a best-case "ground" distance of 20,000 km. This would amount to 500 l/100 km or about 0.5 mpg.
