Comments on: Space Station Reboost

Space Station Reboost

curious nu — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:40:29 -0800

Physics! (SLYT via)

By: psylosyren

psylosyren — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:50:12 -0800

PHYSICS! Also, Woh. Woh-hoho. Wooooooooh.

By: Ron Thanagar

Ron Thanagar — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:51:12 -0800

I love physics! Thanks for this, very cool!

By: Buckt

Buckt — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:55:19 -0800

Thanks for reminding me how much I want to be in space = /.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:57:37 -0800

Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles -- see if you're so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:11 -0800

wow.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:02:02 -0800

It was all fun and games until they fell out of the door they forgot to close tightly... safety first, guys!

By: auto-correct

auto-correct — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:02:51 -0800

I love this. But it's a sad reflection of our culture that our astronauts who spend months at a time in orbit still where khakis and polo shirts. Get those men some some *real* space uniforms, stat.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:08:23 -0800

That's why the ISS has walls. It's for the No Astronaut Left Behind program.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:20:50 -0800

The *real* experiment they're doing up there is: "Does being in space ever stop being awesome?" Method: Take a bunch of nerds. Dress them in khaki. Put 'em in space. Results: No. Being in space does not ever stop being awesome.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:34:17 -0800

Results: No. Being in space does not ever stop being awesome Well, until the hellish Space Devourers from the Dark Side of the Sun come and hollow out your body as part of their bid to Conquer the Earth! OK, that is awesome, just not so much for you.

By: uosuaq

uosuaq — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:36:44 -0800

For that to be a true experiment, you'd need a bunch of nerds dressed in khaki and polo shirts who *weren't* in sp....oh, right.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:38:11 -0800

Dumb question: is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity or is reaction with objects or sources of thrust the only way?

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:38:39 -0800

Yeah Science!

By: exphysicist345

exphysicist345 — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:49:50 -0800

The laws of physics apply not only to astronauts on a space station, but also to occupants of any vehicle that's accelerating. A car/train/plane accelerating forward tries to leave you behind. Imagine standing on a skateboard in a subway car as it leaves the station. You'd find yourself rolling back to the rear of the car. Same thing.

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:59:13 -0800

Dumb question: is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity or is reaction with objects or sources of thrust the only way? I suppose as long as there's oxygen, etc in the spacecraft, mathematically, yes... practically, no.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:02:41 -0800

is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity You're better off gulping in great big lungfuls of air and blowing it out to produce thrust.

By: joelf

joelf — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:11:23 -0800

Satoshi Furukawa acts surprised, but you can tell he's totally underwhelmed.

By: moshjosh

moshjosh — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:12:12 -0800

What are those guys from Best Buy doing up there?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:18:10 -0800

Dumb question: is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity or is reaction with objects or sources of thrust the only way?

Depends on the density of the air around you.

By: Mister Moofoo

Mister Moofoo — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:24:22 -0800

Dying in space is real easy: One fuck-up, PSSSSSSSS! You're gas, spread over a thousand miles of stratosphere. Jesus, man, think of the view!

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:31:47 -0800

Neat, but these guys got nothing on Bob Hoover, who can pour iced tea while doing a barrel roll.

By: schmod

schmod — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:48:19 -0800

Also, spaaaaaace!

By: symbioid

symbioid — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:38:20 -0800

So, since nobody's commented on it here, yet. My limited understanding of why this is so amazing is due to Einstein's realization that accelerated motion and gravity are the same sort of effect. I might be wrong in the sense that maybe they aren't accelerating at "relativistic speeds" but I think the observation holds true regardless. For instance - observe the image to the right of this section of the General Relativity article... It shows a person in a falling elevator, which is the same sort of effect as gravity (and in this case, an accelerating shuttle acts in the same way as a falling elevator). I'm too... buzzed... right now to think about this further, but it's an interesting thing to reflect upon, and there's a shit-ton of learnin' to be had here, and so I think the exclamation of "physics" really does show how deep and astounding this is besides what seems like an obvious, everyday perception of the world.

By: empath

empath — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:45:02 -0800

Yeah, it's basically artificial gravity. They're 'falling' away from the camera, albeit very slowly. It must feel incredibly weird. With a little more acceleration, they could just stand up at the end of the hallway.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:03:50 -0800

is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity or is reaction with objects or sources of thrust the only way? False dichotomy. Air molecules are objects.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:19:28 -0800

> False dichotomy. Air molecules are objects. Er, I don't know if you're joking but not enough to provide any resistance for motion.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:06:43 -0800

Why can't they take up a huge balloon, say about the size of a football field, inflate it with air and have just a huge fun playground?

By: alexei

alexei — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:11:25 -0800

> Er, I don't know if you're joking but not enough to provide any resistance for motion. The existence of parachutes and propellers suggests otherwise.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:17:52 -0800

I'm talking about arms and legs.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:50:46 -0800

Arms and legs are inefficient propellers, that is true. But any set of motions that will shift you through water should also eventually shift you through air if you're floating in zero G. The only reason for this is that your body is interacting with air molecules, which are undoubtedly objects. So there is in fact no difference between propelling yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking and reaction with objects or sources of thrust, which was my point. "Swimming" or kicking if floating in a vacuum would of course be completely futile.

By: benzenedream

benzenedream — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:25:47 -0800

Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. So basically, a rumaki of death.

By: mach

mach — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:39:47 -0800

Dumb question: is it possible to propel yourself (albeit very slowly) by "swimming" or kicking in zero gravity or is reaction with objects or sources of thrust the only way? You might be able to propel yourself if you had one of those space burritos for dinner.....

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:39:43 -0800

Imagine standing on a skateboard in a subway car as it leaves the station. You'd find yourself rolling back to the rear of the car. Yeah, but will the skateboard take off, or not?

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:44:44 -0800

I'd would be interesting to hear someone who's been in zero G talk about being able to propel simply by flailing/swimming but I'm thinking that mostly it will just result in the person rotating in place.

By: lucidium

lucidium — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:47:48 -0800

> Why can't they take up a huge balloon, say about the size of a football field, inflate it with air and have just a huge fun playground? This is what I'm desperately looking forward to when we have materials strong enough to build an arena at the top of a space elevator. Strap on some ankle wings and play space ball!

By: quite unimportant

quite unimportant — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:20:23 -0800

Snark all you want about polos and khakis. Those velcro covered cargo pants are the business. Does anybody make them outside of NASA?

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:40:39 -0800

Problem with swimming in air under microgravity, your balance isn't going to be good enough to prevent more of your effort from going into spin than getting somewhere. This may change if you wear something to drastically increase the surface area of your arms, as with sufficient grasp of the air, you'll feel the balance and be able to compensate...I think.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:42:15 -0800

Seems to me that visual feedback should be enough for that. Clearly the only way to settle this issue definitively is to ask somebody who has been in the right conditions for long enough to try this stuff out.