bradman said:
When you say 'lies towards the Earth's surface', it sounds like you might be forgetting the re-entry corridor is between 5 and 7 degrees. It's not like they're plummeting directly towards Earth.
yeh..thanks for ur contribution mate - they just want 2 know whether its facing towards the earth or away on re entry, they know the reentry corridor...
btw according to my notea, whixh i rememba thoroughly researchin cause i had the same problem, Astronauts face IN THE DIRECTION OF MOTION (ie up) when they LAUNCH, and on RE-ENTRY facce OPPOSITE TO THE DIRECTION OF MOTION, (ie up)
i think bout it in terms of reaction force - we know that on launch the astronauts face up - The Force acting on them is obviously up, so the Reaction force is down - they face up cause the Reaction Force keeps their eyes down
Now , using the same logic, on re-entry, the Net Force is UP (away from earth) as the spaceccraft is decelerating, which means the Reaction force is down (towards the earth) - thus to keep eyes in , astronauts must face UP (Away from earth) so that the Raection force is down
I dunno, like i said its a triky area which i found confusing as well, let us know what u think about my explanation and if u find a better/more correct one
EDIT: after reading ratcher0071's post: yeh thats wat i originally thought ,. but then i discovered its the REACTION FORCE that keeps the eyes in - think about it, we know FOR SURE the astronaut faces up (awway from earth) during lift off, but the Force onm the astronaut is up - what is keeping him down is the REACTION - now with ur post u said " If you think about it, the force experienced by the astronaut, will make him move back" - but wont hte astropnaught be going at say 1000km/h toward sthe earth - as the sapcecraft enters atmosphere it SLOWS DOWN , but the Astronaughts inertia will mean the astronaut feelss the Raection force TOWARDS THE PLANET, and thus must be facing AWAY FROM THE PLANET so his eyes are in - like when ur in a car heading towards a wall and put on the brakes - the nest force on teh car is away from the wall, while we feel a net force (inertia) towards the wall - now let the wall be the earth and the car the spaceship - we are hitting the brakes, so to speak, and thus the astronaught willl feel a nmet force (inertia) towards the planet - he must face away in order for his eye to be kept in place...
ive rambled on, i know, but seriously lets work 2gether to get to the bottom of this once and for all....