Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2111-2115 (Jan 30 - Feb 3, 2012) - QC in SPAAAAAAACE!!! Week 2!
akronnick:
DSL speaks the truth.
If the Station is big enough to use the wheel concept for artificial gravity, it would be easy to spot dozens if not hundreds of miles away.
Orbits are weird.
To change an orbit in an efficient manner, it is not enough to burn your engines, you have to burn them at the right time, for the right duration, and in the right direction.
To achieve rendesvous you must:
1. Align the orbital planes of you and your target. You have to match the target's inclination as well as the ascending node and descending node (the nodes are where your orbital plane crosses the Equator). This is most easily achieved during launch.
2. Match orbital profiles. You have to get yourself in an orbit that has the same apogee(point farthest from Earth) and perigee(point nearest Earth). To change your perigee, you burn at apogee, and to change your apogee, burn at perigee.
3. Then you have to synchronize the orbits. This is where you have to burn forward to go back and vice versa. During this phase you could easily pass within visual range of the target, but you would not be able to catch it because the velocity doesn't match, and if you change your velocity now, your altitude will be wrong.
4. Once you get yourself close to the target, in the same orbit, going the same speed, congratulations you have achieved Rendezvous! Now comes the hard part, Docking.
It doesn't matter how fancy your spaceship is, or how much fuel you have. Isaac Newton cares not for your fancy technology. Gravity is the LAW.
I know all this stuff because I have dabbled in a free open source space flight simulator called "Orbiter". If you want to check it out, Google is your friend.
TinPenguin:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 29 Jan 2012, 23:32 ---Why aren't Marten and Marigirl taking continuous snapshots?
--- End quote ---
Because sometimes it's nice to view the world for real, rather than through a camera viewfinder. To live in the moment, not thinking about how you're gonna post all this on tumblr tomorrow.
Also, if people want pictures of space they can google for high-quality satellite images. They don't need blurry snaphots taken by some excited bozo with a cameraphone.
Border Reiver:
Based on the options, I want the Captain's duel. How much ham can the station hold?
cesariojpn:
--- Quote from: gopher on 30 Jan 2012, 01:55 ---I was hoping for a 2001 double wheel, still its pretty and classic.
--- End quote ---
Why are you reminding me of MST3K for some odd reason?
specter177:
--- Quote from: akronnick on 29 Jan 2012, 23:15 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 29 Jan 2012, 22:51 ---Was the pilot deliberately giving them more chances to look at the station?
--- End quote ---
Probably just taking time to align and synchronize the orbits. There is a reason it takes a spacecraft two to three days after launch to reach the ISS.
--- End quote ---
During Gemini, they could do rendezvouses in less than an orbit. It all depends on where the vehicle you want to catch is, and how much fuel you have.
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