Glossary term: Espaçonave
Description: Uma espaçonave, ou nave espacial, é um veículo construído para viajar no espaço sideral. A propulsão é geralmente feita por meio de algum tipo de motor de foguete, que emite gás ou plasma em uma direção para acelerar na direção oposta. As naves espaciais que não transportam seres humanos são chamadas de espaçonaves não tripuladas ou robóticas; exemplos incluem vários tipos de satélites, telescópios espaciais ou sondas espaciais usadas para exploração. As naves espaciais tripuladas, por outro lado, precisam garantir a sobrevivência de seus ocupantes humanos, com, por exemplo, uma atmosfera pressurizada, proteção contra radiação e temperatura controlada. As naves espaciais que podem retornar à Terra são chamadas de recuperáveis; aquelas que podem ser lançadas novamente após a recuperação são reutilizáveis. Uma nave espacial projetada para servir de base de longo prazo, por exemplo, na órbita da Terra, é chamada de estação espacial.
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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
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In Other Languages
- Árabe: المركبة الفضائية
- Alemão: Raumschiff
- Inglês: Spacecraft
- Espanhol: Nave espacial
- Francês: Vaisseau spatial
- Italiano: Veicolo spaziale
- Chinês Simplificado: 航天器
- Chinês Tradicional: 航天器
Related Media
Nave espacial Crew Dragon da SpaceX
Caption: A nave espacial SpaceX Crew Dragon é o primeiro veículo comercial tripulado a visitar a Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS). Ela é retratada com seu cone frontal aberto, revelando seu mecanismo de acoplamento enquanto se aproxima do módulo Harmony da estação.
Credit: NASA
License: PD Public Domain icons
Space debris orbiting the Earth
Caption: This animation shows objects orbiting the Earth. The data date from February 2024 and are taken from space-track.org which maintains a public catalogue of objects tracked by the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM).
At first in this video we see green dots, each representing one of the 31,000 human-made objects orbiting Earth. These include both operational and decommissioned satellites, used rocket stages from space launches, and fragments larger than 10cm created by collisions or explosions. Later in the video, some of the green dots are replace by orange dots, each of these representing one of the 9,300 operational satellites orbiting the Earth. Note that since February 2024 more satellites and rockets have been launched in to space and some objects will have fallen back to Earth, so these numbers will have changed.
We see two main groups of objects. The first are those objects orbiting close to the Earth, objects in low Earth orbit. These include communication satellites (many from the satellite constellations used to provide satellite internet services), Earth observation satellites, military satellites, two operational space stations and other objects such as rocket stages and other debris.
More distant from Earth we see a thin ring of satellites. These are in geostationary orbit. This is a special orbit where the orbital period matches the rotation period of the Earth. This means that a satellite in geostationary orbit stays above the same point on the equator and, when observed from the side of the Earth facing the satellite, will appear to stay at a position on the sky that does not change over time. Because of this, geostationary orbit is used by many communications satellites as a satellite dish on Earth used to receive or transmit a signal to that satellite can point in a fixed direction and does not need to dynamically track the satellite. Geostationary orbit is also used by weather observation satellites.
Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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License: PD Public Domain icons
