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Golf in Space
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:50 AM
from the where's-the-orbiting-ball-boy-target dept.
from the where's-the-orbiting-ball-boy-target dept.
deeptrace writes "Tentatively scheduled for a spacewalk this summer, a Russian cosmonaut will take his trusty six iron and a special weightless-friendly tee and put a golf ball into orbit from outside the International Space Station. The golf ball has an embedded transmitter so that it can be tracked as it orbits. It is expected to orbit for 3 to 4 years before burning up on re-entry. The golf shot is the result of promotional fees paid to the Russian space agency by a Canadian golf club manufacturer."
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Great... just what space entrepreneurs need... (Score:5, Insightful)
gah... (Score:3, Insightful)
(2) the speed of the space junk will be the speed of the space station, +/- the speed of your swing (see (1))
(3) there is a very thin atmosthere at low earth orbit deteriorating the orbit of anything there, further slowing the golf ball with time
(4) due to the nature of the spin of the earth and the fact that you get a boost from it, all spacecraft are launched in the same direction.
(5) therefore any collosion with the golfball at a later time will be a
Re:gah... (Score:2)
It's also true that the golf ball, like other small space junk, will eventually re-enter. Will the transmitter still be worki
Re:gah... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, actually, I do. I'm an aerospace engineer.
Now Y is moving several thousand miles an hour else it would simply fall to the earth.
Try several tens of thousands, 17,500 mi/h for LEO.
It is also moving at several thousand miles an hour, but it's on a reciprocal orbit of the golf ball.
You didn't read (4). No one uses reciprocal orbits in LEO. Hardly anyone uses reciprocal orbits... ever. The velocity the earth gives you by rotation is significant; working against it is stupid and is used very rarely, and generally only in GEO when you are trying to maintain a constellation of satellites (GPS).
Now, would you like to guess at the energy transfer of a collision at those speeds?
Kinetic energy = 1/2 * m * V * V; transfer depends on the elasticity of the collision.
I'm not stuipd, I just know the assumptions better than you do.
Parent
RTFA much? (Score:2, Insightful)
The odds of this being a problem for 'space entrepreneurs' is probably comparable to me winning powerball within the same timeframe. Space is big. Really big.
Balls? Worry about divots. (Score:3, Funny)
Great, more space junk (Score:2)
Re:Great, more space junk (Score:2)
Yeah, we don't have enough junk in orbit (Score:2)
Getting hit by a golf ball travelling 27,734 km/h would REALLY suck.
Re:Yeah, we don't have enough junk in orbit (Score:2)
I bet (Score:2)
Sorry.
Oh please god yes (Score:5, Funny)
Cheers,
Ian
If the golf ball punctures the side of the ISS.... (Score:2)
It could be worse.. (Score:2)
It's all fun and games... (Score:2)
Still, just about anything that might get, say, your average golfer to remember (even for a moment, once a day) that we have stuff, that we put there orbiting around the planet... that's worth it. I wonder sometimes if the occasional golfer who found his way to the new course using the GPS-enabled nav system on his new Lexus is even aware that a bunch of orbiting hardware and thousands of people working on the gr
What if he chips it? (Score:2)
-Rick
Do you get a drop? (Score:2)
Watch out for those deserts... (Score:2)
Out-of-this-World Record (Score:2)
Alan Shepard won the first hole (Score:2)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/
In space nobody can here you play golf! (Score:3, Informative)
"The ball is expected to remain in orbit for three to four years."
"The ball is expected to travel up to 2.1 billion miles before it drops back into the atmosphere and burns up."
TFA doesn't say if that distance is based on 3 or 4 years, so I'll work out both and give a max & min average velocity:
Min time in space = 3 years = 1,096 days (2*365 + 1*366: leap year in 2008) = 26,304 hours
Max time in space = 4 years = 1,461 days (3*365 + 1*366: leap year in 2008) = 35,064 hours
2.1 billion miles / 26,304 hours = 79,835.77 mph
2.1 billion miles / 35,064 hours = 59,890.49 mph
So the average speed will be between 59,890.49 mph & 79,835.77 mph!! (or 96,384.16 kph & 128,482.90 kph)
Considering the speed of sound (at sea level) is 761mph it's just as well in space nobody can here you play golf!
Haydn.
Re:Satellites (Score:2)
Re:Other sports (Score:2)
It's called a joke (Score:2)
Re:Yardage? (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA:
"The ball is expected to travel up to 2.1 billion miles before it drops back into the atmosphere and burns up."
<sarcasm>I know it's a really hard conversion, especially for the techie crowd on
Parent