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Golf in Space

Posted by CmdrTaco on 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."

1 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Re:gah... by everphilski · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.