I’m back after doing rough figuring for the energy release landing a freighter-sized barge, and… the comment I was going to reply to is gone? sigh
Okay, this is scaled up from the PE and KE needed for a Soyuz to ISS orbit. (I’m not going to redo grade 11 physics this afternoon.)
9,000 kg to ISS height = 3.32 x 1010 Joules.
Add 5x that for the orbital KE = 1.992 x 1011 Joules.
Scale it up to a 90,000 tonne freighter = 1.992 x 1015 Joules.
That’s about half the energy released by a 1 megatonne H-bomb. Okay, not too bad for pure heat. Still, I wouldn’t want to be under the huge reentry footprint of that daily barge. If the long flash don’t get you, the shockwave will ruin your day.
I wonder how that’ll be for plants, animals, and air travel?
Note that’s from a 400 km LEO. Coming direct from the Moon would bump up the energy a lot.
