{"id":831,"date":"2004-12-02T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-02T14:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/all_shapes_and_sizes\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T00:32:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:32:46","slug":"all_shapes_and_sizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/all_shapes_and_sizes\/","title":{"rendered":"De toutes les formes et de toutes les tailles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Un engin spatial est un appareil con\u00e7u pour \u00eatre lanc\u00e9 dans l'espace. Il peut servir \u00e0 observer la Terre, \u00e0 assurer des communications, \u00e0 naviguer et \u00e0 explorer l'espace. Il existe \u00e9galement des engins spatiaux destin\u00e9s \u00e0 transporter des \u00eatres humains dans l'espace, appel\u00e9s \u2018 engins spatiaux habit\u00e9s \u2019, ainsi que d'autres qui acheminent le ravitaillement n\u00e9cessaire aux stations spatiales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

L\u2019absence d\u2019air dans l\u2019espace fait qu\u2019un vaisseau spatial peut avoir une forme \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s quelconque. La dimension est plus un probl\u00e8me. Un vaisseau spatial doit pouvoir tenir dans la coiffe de sa fus\u00e9e. Et la fus\u00e9e doit avoir suffisamment de puissance pour le mettre en orbite.<\/p>\n

Le premier satellite au monde, appel\u00e9 Spoutnik, pesait 83,6 kg et n\u2019\u00e9tait pas plus gros qu\u2019un ballon de basket. Aujourd\u2019hui, les satellites de communication peuvent peser plus de 6 tonnes (6 000 kg).<\/p>\n

La forme d'un vaisseau spatial d\u00e9pend principalement du fait qu'il tourne ou non sur lui-m\u00eame dans l'espace.<\/p>\n

Les modules utilis\u00e9s pour construire les stations spatiales sont encore plus grands. Le v\u00e9hicule de transfert automatique (ATV) de l\u2019ESA p\u00e8se 20 tonnes. Il peut embarquer jusqu\u2019\u00e0 9 tonnes de mat\u00e9riel \u00e0 destination de la Station spatiale internationale.<\/p>\n

Certains sont \u00e9quip\u00e9s de grandes \u2018 ailes \u2019 solaires (des panneaux solaires qui transforment la lumi\u00e8re du soleil en \u00e9lectricit\u00e9) qui pivotent de mani\u00e8re \u00e0 \u00eatre toujours orient\u00e9es vers le Soleil. Les petits satellites sont souvent dot\u00e9s de panneaux solaires plats sur leurs quatre c\u00f4t\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Les v\u00e9hicules qui doivent atterrir sont diff\u00e9rents. Ils doivent supporter des chaleurs extr\u00eames lorsqu\u2019ils descendent dans l\u2019atmosph\u00e8re \u00e0 grande vitesse. Par exemple, la sonde Huygens de l\u2019ESA, qui s\u2019est pos\u00e9e sur Titan, avait la forme d\u2019une soucoupe avec un bouclier de chaleur \u00e0 l\u2019avant.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A spacecraft is a machine designed to be put into space. They can be used for observing the Earth, communication, navigation and space exploration. There are also spacecraft that carry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"esa_banner_image":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2003\/12\/the_atv_and_progress_spacecraft_use_solar_arrays_the_apollo_spacecraft_makes_use_of_fuel_cells2\/18248696-2-eng-GB\/The_ATV_and_Progress_spacecraft_use_solar_arrays_the_Apollo_spacecraft_makes_use_of_fuel_cells.jpg","esa_banner_description":"The ATV and Progress spacecraft use solar arrays, the Apollo spacecraft makes use of fuel cells","esa_banner_credit":"ESA\/D.Ducros","esa_banner_licence":"ESA Standard Licence","esa_banner_detail_url":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2003\/12\/The_ATV_and_Progress_spacecraft_use_solar_arrays_the_Apollo_spacecraft_makes_use_of_fuel_cells2","esa_external_url":"","esa_external_new_window":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[10,44,40],"tags":[2],"panel":[],"language":[],"age":[],"duration":[],"resource_type":[],"audience":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learn","category-spacecraft","category-technology","tag-background-article"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1974,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/1974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"panel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panel?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"duration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/duration?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"resource_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_type?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}