5 Ways We Use Pi for Space Exploration Missions (2024)

FAQs

5 Ways We Use Pi for Space Exploration Missions? ›

Engineers use pi to compute how much fuel is available in spacecraft tanks, which are commonly spherical, and how quickly that fuel travels through their cylindrical fuel lines. Even donut-shaped (toroidal) tanks, which can hold a lot of propellant but take up much less space, require the use of pi.

Engineers use pi to compute how much fuel is available in spacecraft tanks, which are commonly spherical, and how quickly that fuel travels through their cylindrical fuel lines. Even donut-shaped (toroidal) tanks, which can hold a lot of propellant but take up much less space, require the use of pi.

For JPL's highest accuracy calculations, which are for interplanetary navigation, we use 3.141592653589793. Let's look at this a little more closely to understand why we don't use more decimal places.

Pi is used in many areas of mathematics, science, and engineering, including trigonometry, geometry, calculus, and physics. Pi is also important in computer science, where it is used in algorithms for numerical analysis, machine learning, and cryptography. The first few digits of pi are 3.14159265358979323846.

Pi has a big role to play in actuation. Actuators control the flaps that move on aircraft wings and tails or the parts that open and close valves on jet engines. Controllers send signals to electric motors, telling them how fast they need to spin to make the actuators move, said Terry Ahrendt, a systems engineer.

More than just a geometry formula, the practical uses of Pi can be found everywhere. Scientists use Pi to understand anything that involves a circle, sphere or curve. Whether calculating the vastness of space or understanding the spiral of DNA, Pi is involved.

Overcoming the challenges of working in space has led to many technological and scientific advances that have provided benefits to society on Earth in areas including health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity.

We explore in many ways: in person, using space probes, and using telescopes. Space probes have many types and parts: Fly-by missions pass nearby planets and moons and take data from a distance. Orbiters are parts of missions designed to stay in orbit.

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted both by uncrewed robotic space probes and human spaceflight.

Why are we using pi? ›

Because its definition relates to the circle, π is found in many formulae in trigonometry and geometry, especially those concerning circles, ellipses and spheres. It is also found in formulae from other topics in science, such as cosmology, fractals, thermodynamics, mechanics, and electromagnetism.

Pi is used in most calculations for building and construction, quantum physics, communications, music theory, medical procedures, air travel, and space flight, to name a few. Pi is an irrational number, which means that it cannot be expressed by a simple fraction.

Using pi, it can measure things like ocean wave, light waves, sound waves, river bends, radioactive particle distribution and probability like the distribution of pennies, the grid of nails and mountains by using a series of circles.

Pi is commonly used to find the circumference or area of a circle - it is a little less than one-third of the circumference of a circle, which can be found by multiplying the circle's diameter (or 2 times the radius) by pi. Pi can also be used to find the area of a circle - just multiply pi by the radius squared.

Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. It is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

Every one of those expressions can be represented by a circle, an alteration of a circle, or a combination of circles. Since pi (π) is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, we can argue that π is a fundamental design principle of the universe. This is where its importance comes from.

NASA, he explained, certainly doesn't need trillions of digits for its calculations. In fact, they get by with using just 15 — 3.141592653589793. It's not perfect, but it's close enough: The most distant spacecraft from Earth is Voyager 1.

For instance, Pi is crucial in calculating the area and volume of circles, spheres, cylinders, and cones.

Pi was famously featured in the 1967 Star Trek episode “The Wolf in the Fold,” where Mr. Spock stops a murderous computer by instructing it to compute the last digit for the value of Pi – an impossible task that destroyed the computer. Competitions are held to determine who can recite the most digits of Pi.