How does a space shuttle in outer space manages to steer and turn, when in space there is no mass to push?
Considering that when a space shuttle turns inside Earth’s atmosphere it uses the air mass around it to push to the same side of which the space shuttle will be turned, (Ex. If you send a thrust of air to the left from the back of a tube so it turns to the left.) how in the empty space can a shuttle be turned having no mass to refer to?
Think of Newtons Third Law…. could it be a reaction force?
or perhaps a Conservation of momentum effect?
Assuming we’re talking about a rocket engine, there is indeed mass to push. The rocket is pushing against the heated output of the engines, so a force is returned from the exhaust to the ship. It’s this force that moves the ship.
Jets and rockets don’t work by "using the air mass around them."
They work by exploiting newton’s laws of motion: every action has an equal an opposite reaction. Matter (gases in the case of these engines) is ejected out the back. The engine is according thrust forward. You could propel yourself by throwing tennis balls out the back, if you had enough of them and you could throw them so fast.
Works in vacuum exactly the same way. Except the jet needs to draw in air to burn its fuel with. Rocket carries its own reactant.
Remember the law "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction"? This does NOT require any "reference mass". Push to the LEFT with one pound of force, and everything moves RIGHT by an equal amount.
If you squirt gas out of a tube pointed towards the left, the tube itself will move towards the right. That is how rockets fly in space where there is no air, and wings are useless.
SO, the space shuttle (in fact, ANY space craft, including most satellites) have ATTITUDE CONTROL JETS. When the Space Shuttle needs to turn LEFT, it fires a tiny squirt of gas pointed RIGHT. Therefore, the space shuttle moves a tiny bit to the left.
Since there is no air in space, there is no friction, so a very tiny amount of push this way can spin the space shuttle ALL the way around. In fact, it is necessary to fire another small gas jet pointed the opposite direct to make the space shuttle stop when the turn is complete.
The space shuttle has these jets on its nose, tail, and win tips. The jest on the nose and tail point left, right, up, and down. The jets on the wing tips point up and down, causing the space shuttle to do a barrel roll. THAT is how the flip the space shuttle onto its back so the astronauts in the space station can examine it for damage.
The Space Station ALSO has jets like these, to keep it pointed in the right direction, or to move it slightly to avoid a collision with "space debris"