Atmospheric drag: Encyclopedia - Atmospheric drag

Atmospheric drag

Atmospheric drag is a form of drag, which is the force that opposes an object moving through a liquid or gas.

In astrodynamics depending on the situation atmospheric drag can be regarded as inefficiency requiring expense of additional energy during launch of the space object or as a bonus simplifying return from orbit.

Atmospheric drag - Calculation

Atmospheric drag can be calculated as follows:

where: c_d is the body's coefficient of drag (that has to be determined experimentally), A is the body's cross-sectional area, ρ is the air density, and v is the body's velocity.

See also

• Drag (physics)
• Gravity drag

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Atmospheric drag", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki