Next ISS Commander's Spacewalk Golf Shot Raises Concerns

Space.com ^ | 2/27/2006 | Todd Halvorson

[1Old Pro]

Didn't he also hit a six iron?

He should hit a one iron so he can at least say he hit the club good once.

[SpottedBeaver]

Air or no air, I'll bet I could slice a drive in space.

And if there is any other planet in our galaxy with liquid water on it, my ball will find it.

You play golf exactly the same way I do.

[Grim]

This picture shows Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard swinging his makeshift golf club for the third time. The golf ball is actually visible in flight, as the white dot in the upper right corner of the picture. Behind Shepard, you can see astronaut Ed Mitchell, who later threw an improvised javelin. (We took this still image from a video clip of the Apollo 14 mission, which you can see in its entirety here: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/video14.html.)

[BigSkyFreeper]

It may go down as the longest tee shot in history.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Meanwhile, the Chinese are headed to the moon.

We've already been there twice. The ISS is just a precursor to man living on the moon for longer periods of time, which will be the precursor to man living on Mars.

[Constitution Day]

[presidio9]

The ISS is just a precursor to man living on the moon for longer periods of time

No, the ISS was a stop-gap to give the shuttles somewhere to go and to keep the Russians from disbanding thier program entirely. We haven't learned anything from the ISS that we didn't learn on Mir. Anymoney that would be spent on future manned space shuttle trips would be better deposited towards a permanent moon presence now. In otherwords, stopp all manned flights for the next five years and spend the money on that instead.

[Hiryusan]

Has it occurred to anyone that the station and golf ball would then be in intersecting orbits. He may miss the station on the first shot, but it will cross the station's path again every 45 minutes( or thereabouts, assuming a 90 minute orbit at that altitude) for another try. And what about all the other satellites in or near that orbital band???

[Toby06]

[cspackler]

I didn't know you were a fan...

[Ditto]

"...taking great care not to hook the ball into the outpost.

Danger Will Robinson.

I know every time I try real hard not to hook ... I hook.

[Gaffer]

I'll be the Russians are doing it with the blessing of NASA. I don't care to have what money they take from me in taxes to have this kind of thing supported.

[Skooz]

A golf ball shouldn't be able to "hook" in any direction in space. It should continue to head in a straight line.... gravity permitting.

Believe me, if I were to hit a golf ball in space--or anywhere else--it would slice.

[mwilli20]

A golf ball shouldn't be able to "hook" in any direction in space.

Of course you are correct, I should have said he mis-hits the ball and it hits the panels...

Although if the ball were traveling, and rotating very fast... :-)

http://www.ebtx.com/ntx/curvball.htm

[MikeD]

Has it occurred to anyone that the station and golf ball would then be in intersecting orbits. He may miss the station on the first shot, but it will cross the station's path again every 45 minutes( or thereabouts, assuming a 90 minute orbit at that altitude) for another try. And what about all the other satellites in or near that orbital band???

Not quite. Both the station and the golf ball are in similar orbits. The golf ball is moving away at, say, 100 mph. Ignoring that the slightly higher velocity would cause it to move to a higher orbit, it would take roughly 266 hours (11 days) to cover the roughly 26,600 mile circumference of the orbit. Of course, that is ignoring the fact that faster objects orbit at different altitudes, and ignoring that the station keeping thrusters occasionally boost the station's altitude.

Good thought, though -- do we really want a golf ball flying around near the station's orbit as a potential hazard for incoming vehicles?

[TomasUSMC]

And if there is any other planet in our galaxy with liquid water on it, my ball will find it.

---

I feel your pain.