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Prius in space!

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by zenMachine, Apr 25, 2008.

  1. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    Hasbro's Monopoly, probably the most well-known board game in the universe, has a new ‘Here & Now’ edition coming out in September (yep, some people have their eyes on next Christmas already). Instead of antiquated things like railroad stations, this version will have airports. Plus NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

    And those old place-marking tokens like the top hat, the boot and the wee Highland terrier? Replaced by things like McDonald’s French Fries (really), a Starbucks coffee mug, a Motorola Razr cell phone and, you guessed it, the Toyota Prius.


    So pleased were the space cadets at JSC to be honored in such a fashion, and as a way of acknowledging Toyota’s entry into the zeitgeist, they decided to take those tokens (along with an airplane, a New Balance 992 running shoe, a laptop computer and a labradoodle -- this is getting more surreal by the minute) where no token has gone before, on a giant leap to the International Space Station, orbiting about 217 miles above the Earth...

    Toyota's Prius has a Monopoly in space : Up to Speed : Los Angeles Times
     
    #1 zenMachine, Apr 25, 2008
  2. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Has anyone ever worked out the equivalent miles per gallon the space shuttle gets? It must be the ultimate hyper-miler with that pulse and glide it uses.
     
    #2 patsparks, Apr 25, 2008
  3. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    If memory serves, each of the three engines on the rocket delivers an amount of energy equivalent to four Hoover Dams. And half of that energy is used up in the first few minutes after blast off.

    Of course, once the shuttle reaches space there's nothing to stop its glide except re-entry, where whatever kinetic energy stored in it has to be burned off and wasted in order for it to come to rest. (Hence the heat-shielding tiles).

    Too bad all that energy can't be captured via regenerative braking...
     
    #3 zenMachine, Apr 26, 2008
  4. madler

    madler Member

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    For a typical mission taking into account the distance covered in orbit, it uses 1/8 kg of solid fuel and 1/4 liter of liquid fuel (most of the mass of which is oxygen) per kilometer. Of course, all of the fuel usage is in the first eight minutes, with all the distance covered by coasting for the next week or two.

    Since the shuttle could in principle land on the opposite side of the Earth from where it took off from, you could also calculate the mileage based on the point-to-point distance on the Earth. The maximum would be 20,000 km, which gives 50 kg of solid propellant and 100 liters of liquid per kilometer. The trip would take a little over an hour.

    To get a fair comparison to, say, the mpg of the Prius is a little tricky. Of course there's the solid fuel and hydrogen/oxygen vs. gasoline issue. And do you not count the oxygen, since the Prius doesn't count its oxygen? Also the shuttle carries up to 24,000 kg of payload and has an extended crew cab that holds seven.
     
    #4 madler, Apr 26, 2008
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