Why do spaceships not burn during atmospheric entry like in Star Trek and Star Wars?

[steph]

Yeah , powered descent from a hover would be peanuts compared to orbital energy

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah , powered descent from a hover would be peanuts compared to orbital energy

And with lots of unobtainium and handwavium, you can come to a full stop over the surface of a planet without much maneuvering.

 

[Face]

I still think Roddenberry had the perfect solution for the dreaded planetary landing dilemma: beaming. No burning, no turbulence, no piloting errors. Just some quantum destruction and reconstruction and you can call it a day. Isn't fiction a wonderful thing?

Besides that, it is amazing how reality resembled many of the Star Trek ideas: flip-phones/communicators, tablets/PADDs, flat screens, even replicators/3D-printers. I'd find it wonderful if they do that for energy (antimatter-reactors) and transportation (warp-drive) as well now. Of course beaming would be cool, too, but.. "Heisenberg compensator"?

 

[steph]

Well, it was also a budget measure. Much easier to just fool around with ship mockups in 'space' than do atmospheric flight etc. Although the plot opportunities might have been good

 

[Face]

Well, it was also a budget measure. Much easier to just fool around with ship mockups in 'space' than do atmospheric flight etc. Although the plot opportunities might have been good

Haha. Of course that was the real reason, but still a cool solution.

 

[Arvil]

Face, I caught that Heisenberg Compensator thing, too. More technobabble.

 

[Arvil]

In Star Trek Into Darkness they make a little justice to the physics laws and the Enterprise burn a little.

Watch at 2:09
But in mi experience burning and destroying ships in Orbiter I think that would be a massive plasma/fireball.

Needs a bigger hammer.

 

[Sword7]

The university subject term is "Reentry aerodynamics", which is just a more specialized high-energy version of "satellite aerodynamics" (yes, that exists).

If you need an old, expensive text book to get started, there it is:

AIAA Aerospace Research Central

Thanks for providing links to books. Also, I found other atmospheric re-entry books when I searched through google, etc.

Dynamics of Atmospheric Re-Entry (AIAA educational series) - available on Amazon.
Atmospheric Re-Entry Vehicle Mechanics - available on Amazon and Springer

I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived here. I read some and found some useful information.

Thanks for replies.

Tim