Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2111-2115 (Jan 30 - Feb 3, 2012) - QC in SPAAAAAAACE!!! Week 2!
J:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 29 Jan 2012, 00:01 ---Visualised as Holodad.
--- End quote ---
or downloaded into robodad.
Akima:
--- Quote from: akronnick on 29 Jan 2012, 23:15 ---There is a reason it takes a spacecraft two to three days after launch to reach the ISS.
--- End quote ---
Enormously more primitive launch technology than is available to J E-C? I'm sure Hannelore knows the drill, and she was obviously surprised. She can probably compute orbits in her head. Skewbrow would approve. :-D
So Jeph opts for the classic "Wheel In Space". You can't go wrong with the classics. Or lens-flare.
gopher:
I was hoping for a 2001 double wheel, still its pretty and classic.
Skewbrow:
--- Quote from: Akima on 30 Jan 2012, 01:23 ---
--- Quote from: akronnick on 29 Jan 2012, 23:15 ---There is a reason it takes a spacecraft two to three days after launch to reach the ISS.
--- End quote ---
Enormously more primitive launch technology than is available to J E-C? I'm sure Hannelore knows the drill, and she was obviously surprised. She can probably compute orbits in her head. Skewbrow would approve. :-D
--- End quote ---
Absolutely. :-D
But do any of you have an idea, how much manouverability something like a space shuttle has, when attempting to dock? If there is a speed difference of 80 meters per second (or about 1 per cent of the orbital speed, or 180 mph), can you still comfortably decelerate/accelerate to match speeds after you first spot the station with (un)aided eye? I mean with 1 per cent speed difference you would have to wait for a hundred laps (or close to a week) to get another change, so surely they can do better than that, but by how much?
Edit: Thanks @DSL, @akronnick for the overview below. I did know about the need to align the orbital planes (math guys always assume that this has happened before they start, because then your picture will fit on a chalkboard or any 2D). The stuff about speeding up putting you on a higher, and consequently also slower orbit, is something that is also obvious, but I'm ashamed to admit I completely overlooked :-) Therefore any calculation based on 1% speed difference is best forgotten. Practice...
DSL:
Ability to change velocities while in orbit is most of it. Also, if the orbit is inclined, there's a matter of matching the ground track of the target. That's why you heard talk of "launch window" for missions to ISS. What little I know comes from trying to read what Buzz Aldrin wrote in his books, but there's the seeming paradox of trying to match a higher orbit from a lower one, in which the net effect of speeding up is to slow down (because more velocity puts you in a higher, slower orbit) ... so you retro-thrust to slow down to catch up with your target, then hit the gas to slow down. Or as one of the other Astros is supposed to have told Aldrin, "Dammit, Aldrin, you're not messing up my mission profile with this rendezvous crap!"
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