Kármán line

The Kármán line is an imaginary boundary at a height of 100 km above sea level, which is used to distinguish the Aviation of the space. Therefore serves as a definition of a theoretical distinction of the Earth's atmosphere on the free space, which means that from roughly this amount, the atmosphere can no longer be used to produce meaningful progress in a flying object.

It was Determined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI ) and named in honor of Theodore von Kármán, who contributed decisively to its definition. It is essentially a classification of aircraft performance, as these are not above it below in the two areas and comparable. So it has been used for example in the competition on the X-Prize for the first civilian space flight as a criterion.

The German A4 was designed as a ballistic rocket artillery long range and designed the first man-made object that penetrated the Kármán line.

Background

The early 1950s wanted to von Karman aviation may differ from the space program. For this he needed a definition and therefore corresponded with many leading scientists from these two areas. The idea for creating a border was that the higher a flying object increases, it requires increasingly higher speeds to fly controlled by the aerodynamic forces, it can. From a certain speed and height, the centrifugal force is greater than the aerodynamic forces. The "air" ride is then meaningless. To this end, numerous calculations were performed which had the result that, from an altitude of about 100 km, the limit can be set. Von Karman hit the rounded height of 100 km before that was accepted by the other scientists, and is located relatively close to the calculated results.

While the interpretation of the FAI clearly lies at 100 km, but there are also other definitions. So the armed forces of the United States awarded the astronaut badge from a likewise laid down in the 1950s by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ) altitude of 50 miles (about 80 km). This definition is based on the assumption that, for the aerodynamic control of an aircraft, a dynamic pressure on the camming surfaces of at least 1 lbf / ft ² ( 47.88 Pa) is required. This demarcation is true but now obsolete and has gained international recognition hardly.

International law relevant to the determination of the air sovereignty underlying airspace from the majestic open space, none of these definitions. These reserve the States so far. General functional differentiation is to previously assumed, ie a function of the activity carried out instead of the exact amount.