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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.
Space Science
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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  • is another piece of slightly-too-small-to-track, large-enough-to-annihilite-your-windshield piece of 23,000 MPH space junk to worry about.
    • (1) how fast can you swing IN A FREAKING SPACESUIT?
      (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
      • It's true that the golf ball will be going around in something like the ISS orbit (as you point out, there's not much delta-vee in a golf swing) -- but not everyone launches into that orbital plane. Speed of impact for a different orbital plane goes something like 23,000 mph * sin(theta). So, er, I stand corrected: "...Nothing like a 5,000 mph side-window-annihilating golf ball..."

        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)

          by everphilski (877346) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @11:35AM (#14816824) Journal
          Boy, you have no idea how orbits work do you?

          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.
    • Not only does it contain a transmitter, but the article says it will burn up on re-entry in 3 to 4 years.

      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.
    • I'd worry less about the golf ball and more about the embarrassed cosmonaut who's trying to push the divot he just made back in to the ISS with the toe of his spacesuit before anyone notices.
  • It'll be like that Seinfeld episode [pkmeco.com] where the technician reaches deep into the innards of a downed satellite, only to pull out a golf ball with a tiny antenna.
  • This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. We already spend a lot of time and effort tracking the junk that's floating around in orbit without putting stuff there intentionally.

    Getting hit by a golf ball travelling 27,734 km/h would REALLY suck.
    • If you're stationary at that altitude you should be more worried about falling back down than about the very slim chance of getting hit by a golf ball. If you're in orbit you'll be moving at roughly the same speed as the ball - the only way you could have a large difference in speed is if there is a large difference in eccentricity of your orbits, however I expect both you and the ball will be in roughly circular orbits (if you get hit during the short time before you circularise your orbit you're *very* u
  • I bet that ball's going to go a fairway.

    Sorry.

  • Oh please god yes (Score:5, Funny)

    by mccalli (323026) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @10:59AM (#14816485) Homepage
    Please. Please send golf into space. As long as it's all golf, and a very long way away from me. A very very long way away from me. Where do I donate? This is a cause worthy of funding.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  • ..at least its not a promotion by the caber-tossing [wikipedia.org] industry.
  • ...until someone's solar array is clobbered by one more little piece of pointless space junk.

    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
  • I can't imagine swinging a driver in a full blown space suit is going to be easy. I would be afraid that the ball is get launched at an unexpected angle which one would think could put it into an orbit that may conflict with something else that is already out there.

    -Rick
  • Does "burning up in the atmosphere" count as a hazard?
  • If it lands in the Sahara, that'll cost him a one stroke penalty.
  • Maybe he'll break Alan Shepard's record for the longest drive ever. [bbc.co.uk]

  • In space nobody can here you play golf! (Score:3, Informative)

    by HaydnH (877214) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @11:35AM (#14816816)
    ok, from TFA:

    "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:Yardage? (Score:5, Informative)

      by HaydnH (877214) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @11:14AM (#14816609)
      "So I wonder how many yards it will travel in 3 or 4 years before it burns up? This is going to be the longest drive ever."

      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 /.</sarcasm> - that's 3696 billion yards.

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