Posted on 07/01/2012 9:08:55 PM PDT by POWERSBOOTHEFAN
Does anyone here have knowledge about space and how satellites work? How are they launched,kept in orbit and brought back to earth?
I'm a science geek and really curious about the universe.
That's just me talking.
It worked.
/johnny
Except for low Earth Orbit (LEO) none of the satellites will have enough residual atmospheric drag to bring them down for thousands or millions of years. The solar wind and gravity from the sun and moon will pull dead satellites out of circular orbits into elliptical orbits with crossing orbits. It will probably get bad. To bring one down will take more than twice the rocket capacity it took to put it up.
Go to bed. Wiseaker...
Sorry for my long letter. I should have checked out your profile first, to now understand your not so young and are pursing a degree in meteorology. But even more so. At this point you should be aware of the ways your original question(s) where posted. I still think my advice was solid.
Understand your questions where a bit loaded. I’ll leave it go at that. No offense in any way meant.
‘How do we know you don’t work for North Korea?’ Simple: A North Korean would have been smart enough to use Google or some other search engine.
We spar alot.. this is our of my realm..
Technically, you can track the fuel burned and the heat produced and come up with equations.
I'm not an NCO anymore. I'm nobody's mother. I'm a frigging part-time cook.
Derive your own.
/johnny
That's more along the line of what I had in mind; maybe deploy a steel sheet like a giant unbrella to capture the minute pieces of junk. Of course, in no time flat that would look like Swiss cheese, not to mention that every collision will generate even more particles.
How about a rubber membrane or aerogel block? The mind boggles.
Now, about that equation...
My laundry is in the dryer and the OP has departed.
Good advice and Good Night.
You need to know that when most people use a word, that word has a fairly precise meaning. ‘Geek’ is understood by 99.99999999% of people to mean ‘I am really into this stuff and know a hell of a lot about X’ — so if someone says ‘I am a Music Geek, and someone tell me how to read music’ he will rightly be laughed at. With any luck you have been disabused of your definition of ‘geek’ and will use it properly from here on.
Kepler’s laws and Newton’s laws, but of course you are familiar with these, being a science geek.
Picture yourself boosted aloft towards the horizon by a truly powerful force. You rise higher and higher. The air gets thinner and thinner until it pretty much isn’t. By this time, you are moving really fast. And the earth below you is curved. It falls away as you pass over it. But you fall towards it as fast it falls away. You are now in orbit.
“Is this a swipe at me? Because if it is it’s a pretty s****y thing to say. :(”
Lady, as I recall you have stepped in it at least once before, so back off with BS! You should have done some basic research before asking a dumb question while claiming to be a science geek!!
JC
If you are just a science tourist, try not to belittle the scientific knowledge of the real geeks by asking for a quick answer to something they have prepared themselves to understand with years of hard work.
If you are really interested in the science of satellites, and have kept up with your mathematics, then you should read this book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=UtJK8cetqGkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
A classic astronautics book for the layman, if you can find a copy:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Exploring_the_secrets_of_space.html?id=WuB4AAAAIAAJ
Magic.
Around the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpsOSXWBBs
It os not a matter of being smart. I mean have you never watched a NASA lift off? I know my daughter’s classes in school frequently took time to see them. Do you never take a physics course? Did you never see Apollo 13 ( the movie)?
I mean for being a science geek it didn’t sound to me like you show any signs of it.
I know next to nothing about how satellites work myself, but have wondered at how Dish Network etc. can control my individual TV (that I pulled the plug on quite some time ago) from a satellite so far, far away. It must be set up somehow to direct a wave very narrowly or I would think that a person could pick up random waves. Also, I wonder how one can order movies and things. I can understand a wave being directed at me, but does the little satellite on the garage throw rays back at it, or is the info all in the box and regulated through it somehow? To think that it can control thousands and thousands of TVs from way up there is amazing. Also, do those large satellites out in the country have to have subscriptions in order to get their TVs to come in or are they large enough and made to simply pull in waves without subscriptions somehow? Does Dish Network etc. have rights to the waves and is there such a thing as pirating them? I would like some of the large, gaping spaces in my knowledge filled in a little, just for personal satisfaction. I suppose my questions seem moronic to the knowledgeable about satellites, but there is the old adage that no question is a stupid question.
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