Ah guys! Did we need that?
Ah guys! Did we need that?
picture: Capt. Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper, NASA. lol caption: Andrew
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Well, I would hate to be the house that might fall on… it looks like that the angle of descent is to high for it to burn up in the atmosphere.
Dude, it’s space… There is no gravity, remember?
There’s nothing pulling it to earth.
Science fail.
If there wasn’t gravity in space, the earth wouldn’t orbit the sun, the moon wouldn’t orbit the earth, and satellite TV wouldn’t exist.
“Space” has many implications. If they are in fact in orbit, then yes there is gravity. The way it basically works (anyone feel free to give a more technical explanation) is when the ship is in orbit it is not free of gravity, it is in earth’s gravity but is going fast enough that if it maintains speed it can continue to fall around the earth. If a chunk of whatever comes off, it will fall to earth, there is nothing keeping it going at the speed it needs to.
the reasoning behind zero G by the way is freefall. like those rides where it takes you up a tower then drops you, except the dropping part is constant
Right. Everything in earth’s orbit will eventually fall victim to gravity and collide with the Earth, including the moon. (don’t worry, the sky is not falling today)
The effects of gravity at that distance are so minimal, that it simply takes a very long time. That is why our satellites can orbit for years before finally being pulled into the atmosphere and burning up.
So that toolbag WILL eventually be drawn to earth.
It’s not that everything will eventually fall, but that space isn’t a perfect vacuum. In a perfect vacuum, an orbit could theoretically go on forever. But every little particle something hits in space slows it down a little. That’s why the moon is very slowly coming closer to earth, and why the ISS needs a short burn of fuel to keep it in order every once in a while (though there is more friction in space in near-earth orbit than in the moon’s orbit).
Ooops sorry. I meant drifting away. Really, the moon is drifting away from the earth at about 3.74 centimeters a year.
Same idea though. In a perfect vacuum, I think the orbit would stay the same forever?
I finally understand my Dyson.
Actually Steve, the Moon is far enough away that the Sun’s gravity has a stronger affect on it that the Earth does. Orbital Mechanics is a very complex thing…everthing in the solar system pulls on everything else in the solar system. The Moon is affected by the Earth, the Sun, Jupiter, and so on.
The Moon is moving away from the Earth because the of the tides it cause in the Earth. The tides cause friction within the Earth, which cause the Earth and Moon to move a little farther apart (conservation of energy working there). This same friction is why the Moon only shows one side to the Earth. It’s “tide-locked”.
The bag will fall to Earth, but only because it’s orbiting inside the outer reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere, so friction with air will slow it down enough to reenter. Someone already mentioned that the ISS needs regular “boosts” to keep it in place. There are a lot of satellites that orbit in “geo-staionary” orbits at about 22,000 miles, compared to the ISS and Shuttle at 190 miles. They’ll be there for along time, until the little tugs made by other planets when they pass close pulls it into a different orbit…
I could go on, like I said, orbits are very complex when there’s more than two bodies involved.
The gravitational field of the earth at that altitude is still about 3/4 of what it is at the surface of the earth, actually. What makes ‘microgravity’ conditions is the fact that the shuttle or space station and all their contents are all falling towards the earth at the same rate all the time, so there are negligible forces between them and the objects within.
To orbit at any particular altitude requires a specific speed.
Net Force = Gravitational Force
mv^2/r = GMm/r^2
v=sqrt(GM/r)
where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the earth, and r is the distance from the centre of the earth. The mass of the object (m), interestingly enough, doesn’t enter into it.
Any object will orbit in a circle at distance r so long as it has speed v. It’s the very tiny drag of earth’s atmosphere still present at the space station’s/shuttle’s altitude that eventually slows objects down, which affects the size/shape of their orbit. Without that drag, inertia would maintain the ‘forward’ direction indefinitely. Which is why the shuttle occasionally uses its engines to boost the station to a slightly higher orbit.
I feel so inadequate right now.
Hee. That was not my intention, honest. It’s just so rarely I can find my niche that I do tend to overfill it…
In bed…
Like physics, another activity that’s often best done in the dark..
It’s okay, I am only coping with my science ineptitude with crappy attempts at humor.
That was FUN! But my head hurts. but it was still FUN! Science is bitchin’ cool ^_^
So is sex.
“If a chunk of whatever comes off, it will fall to earth, there is nothing keeping it going at the speed it needs to.”
Inertia FAIL!
An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. IN this case the outside force is gravity from the earth, I’ve always thought a space shuttle does still have some form of propulsion to be sure they don’t reenter the atmosphere until the job is done, seeing as the chunk would not then it really has nothing to counteract the gravitational pull of earth.
There’s quite a lot of general shit in stable earth orbit that people have dropped.
If you’re interested there are numerous sites that track it…
For the amount of time that the shuttle is in orbit, the atmospheric drag is n ot enough for it to require any forward propulsion. Since the force of gravity is always directed towards the centre of the earth, therefore at right angles to the direction of the shuttle’s motion at any instant, it can’t cause it to either speed up or slow down.
The movement that results from gravity is directly toward the earth only, but as long as you have the right speed (see my comment above to Steve for the actual formula), that change in position is exactly matched by the amount that the earth’s surface curves away from you.
Difficult to do without graphics for visualization, innit?
Basically the shuttle’s (or any object in stable orbit’s) velocity is all on a vector that would be tangential to earth’s orbit were it not for gravity pulling on it. That angular momentum has to be just strong enough that gravity bends the tangent line into a circle rather than a death spiral, but not so strong that gravity can’t hold it and it goes off into open space.
*bows to slan’s WIN*
)
Nothing but the gravitational field of Earth.
*PsssSSHHT!* PDQ to control, the bozone’s too strong, repeat, too strong! Lights fading…*PppSSSHHttt*
The crystals are breaking… We canna handle the pressure!!!
But Death… we need… just… a little more time!
Thats my best phonetic Shatner right there…
Damn and I’m usually Kirk. Oh well.
“But sir, we’ve already lost five ensigns to the radiation. I be inna lead suit!”
You’re just a twit.
Houston, we have a problem…. with our education system.
Physics fail – the earth’s gravit yexednds around the earth – if it can keep the moon in, why not this?
And you can judge angle of descent from one point how??? Last time I checked you needed to points to make a line which you would need to jusdge an angle.
Not to mention you would need to know it’s mass and what it was made of to be able to determine if it would burn on that angle of reentry.
Oh boy…
I feel bad for the lady astronaut who let this toolbag slip…
I bet she felt horrible, and I fear she will never hear the end of it.
That said, if Avon can make “Soap-on-a-rope” I would expect NASA could employ the same technology to toolbags.
I don’t think it was her fault.
How do we know this was a woman?
Pretty-well publicised when it happened. Youtube should have something if you type “shuttle toolbag lost” or similar. Her words as it sailed off were pretty good, all things considered.
Ah. Thanks… I was kind of offended because not knowing this, Steve’s comments sound really sexist. But instead of going that route, I thought I’d ask. Hooray for common sense.
Now they just seem mildly sexist remarks ;o)
?
I intended to show empathy…
As mentioned, I think if the designers at NASA had thought to put a strap on the stupid bag that attaches to something…anything…this could have been avoided.
Man or woman makes no difference. I suppose you immediately associated Avon with women, and you think that was part of my ’sexist jab’? I hadn’t thought of that. It was just the only brand of soap I could think of off the top of my head that came on a rope.
I didn’t read any sexism in your comments. As a woman who has worked for a while in a male dominated field, I noted your empathetic tone. Women tend to be singled out when we make mistakes in such a scenario. Men’s mistakes tend to be absorbed by the group. It’s an interesting phenomenon. I wonder if the reverse is true.
I’m worried that it won’t change anytime soon, if we can judge by the current crop of high school students. There’s this weird unspoken sexism that exists in schools, especially high schools. Male students will say and do things, and give a lack of respect (and I’m not just talking about sexual harassment boy) to their female teachers that they don’t dare try with their male teachers.
Well they aren’t trying to bang their male teachers for the most part and somehow our young gents aren’t being taught how to be young gents. They are being taught to be whatever television show they tune into. Then again, young males are usually asses to begin with. I consider myself a mellow personality but I was still an ass. I just reserved my quirks for my friends instead of teachers.
I think a lot of that has to do with porn-watching at a semi-young age. How many scenarios in porn begin with the naughty teacher? The new crop of idiots in high school now are simply trying to make what they see happen in real life. You can trace a bunch of todays problems back to the fact that we are desensitized to bad (or adult) things at a VERY young age.
) And God help my future son should he do to a teacher what that snot-nosed brat did to Jane! The biggest battles my step-kids and I have right now is making sure they ask for things right and that they always say ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘no ma’am’, ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ EVERY SINGLE TIME.
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And you’re right, DWN. No one is taught respect anymore. I can swear on my life that if my children (any of them, present or future) EVER get caught being less than respectful, you will be reading about me on the news
I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I am insistent on saying sir but I will be damned if I let my boys get away with being impolite. However, Mikey has been saying sir and ma’am rather frequently on his own or perhaps Lynn is teaching it to him. I don’t see her correcting him when he doesn’t say it though. Hmmmmm…
I don’t mind television to be honest, I just mind that a painfully small minority of parents seem to be paying enough attention to their kids to have them realize that entertainment is just that and not a pattern for society. I don’t think dichotomy between reality and entertainment is too much to ask for with the parenting of our kids. *sigh*
I think the fail lies in parents who expose the kids to violence and sex (of a fantasy nature, not in the healthy aspect of the home and parents), and thereby desensitize the children to the difference between right and wrong. It’s difficult to explain to a four year old why it’s wrong to punch your sibling when you see friends do it (in the context of a story) on a movie or on tv.
) She isn’t allowed to be around violence right now as she’s getting better able to know what it is, though. We’ll see how long that lasts, as Daddy likes to watch violent and profane movies 
)
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But this is all opinion, mind you. I had Leia watching The Dark Night in the theatre with me at 2 months old………she slept right through it
Mikey loves the Dark Knight and Iron Man. Then again, he also wrestles with me. The thing is that we make sure he knows when to play around and rough house and when not to. However, those are the high end of what we will let him watch. I expect him to be my horror movie watching buddy when he gets about five or six more years under his belt. Lynn hates horror movies so I get stuck not being able to watch them with anybody and watching them alone is rather meh.
Side note: Watching Mikey put on a Batman mask and interrogate his stuffed animals is adorable in a quirky kind of way.
Your kids have the inside track, though. You’re more than likely not using the tv as a babysitter and then not explaining the context of what the kids are seeing. You’re actually letting your boys know the difference between hitting for play and hitting for real. You’re fine. It’s the other 4 billion idiots in the world I’m worried about
)
We are going to need more bullets…
I feel like women as a group tend to have more sympathy when it
comes to men who exist in a predominantly female group making mistakes. I could be wrong though. I’m not even sure if that first sentence made any sense.
It’s our mothering instincts. *sigh* I’ve worked at a store where the entire staff was female except for one guy, when he made a mistake it’s like all the ladies turned to each other and was like, “isn’t he adorable, go run outside and play!” I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, sometimes we’re our own worst enemies, ladies.
I look at the magazine racks as I wait to check out from a store and I believe you wholeheartedly about being your own worst enemies.
/agree to both
Yeah, if I read a full issue of Cosmo I feel like signing myself up for therapy to deal with the self-esteem issues that crop up as a direct result!
I just feel the self loathing radiating off the covers. I have read a couple of them in doctor’s offices to see what the hell the big deal was. I was disturbed to say the least.
Men are a fairly small minority in nursing and I’m sure they make mistakes. One doesn’t hear a great deal about them in the media. Whether that’s because the group absorbs the mistake, because doctors are more willing to sweep a male nurse’s errors under the table or for some other reason, I couldn’t venture a guess.
My BFF Dave is a registered nurse. I’ll ask him what he thinks,
though he may not be able to tell from his perspective.
No no no, you misunderstood. That’s why I put the ;o)
to show I was kidding.
I have an ultra sensitive readar for sexism and not knowing that it was a woman who dropped the bag, that made the tone of your remark sound sexist to me as in “Only a woman could be that clumsy”; but knowing that it WAS a woman, the tone switches to empathy. Sorry for the confusion, and the run on sentence.
Doh! I overlooked the smiley! Don’t worry charro, no need to apologize.
Darn text-to-emotion conversion fails again!
Besides many women are incredibly talented in ways a man could never be…
insert obligitory [in bed] comment! (lols!)
No insertion necessary. Double entendre FTW
Awww lesbians only? *kicks dirt and walks off to pout*
I didn’t mean it like *that*. What I meant is it’s not entirely necessary for us to get off that way. Oh bother, explaining jokes ruins the funny
Actually I would have expected your response to be more along the lines of “double penetration”.
I went with the no insertion and went from there. Always found it easier to assume I am not included than to assume I’m allowed.
It was so her fault, no women in spaceships rule should apply when dealing with repairs. (Just being perverse of course).
What’s a thingy to a man?
That thingy that hooks bras together.
What’s a thingy to a woman?
Anything under a car hood.
(I’m JK, of course. The astronauts on the ISS do good work. Also, I think the ISS is one of the most practical applications of spaceflight technology currently in use.)
Hey.. I know a dipstick when I see one…..
I see what you did there.
Damn that “thingy” that keeps bras together!
Just when you think you have it mastered, they change the design! Single hooks, double hooks, clips, clasps, snaps…when will it end?!
*Gives thanks for the “clasp-in-front” design*
Maybe the engineers at NASA could use bra clasp technology.
Wrenches from Heaven!
Spanner mana!
Like all the crap falling from the sky in the “UP” movie. Chairs? Canes? Dogs in parachutes?
Pity the poor villagers they landed on.
Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship for no apparent reason?
What was that! Kaley!
This is the captain. We’re experiencing a slight problem with our re-entry sequence. We may encounter some turbulence, and then explode.
My ship don’t crash. She crashes, you crashed her!
Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my goram ship for no apparent reason?