6th March 2006, 2:59 PM
It seems that the Russian space program has cut a deal with some golf club company to have a cosmonaut golf a ball and bounce it off the international space station.
Sounds safe enough, until one remembers the lack of anything to slow down a flying golf ball. That thing will fly away from the space station at a fixed speed, and once the ball settles into orbit, it will be travelling, relative to the station, at something likely faster than the speed of sound. What happens when the golf ball travels around and comes back towards the station from the other direction?
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1093
We've all seen those videos of tunnels where scientists fire small pellets at really high speed at some giant granite slab right? The ISS isn't granite...
This is why even paint is considered too dangerous on a space mission. A few flecks of anything becomes a very overpowered projectile when orbitting at low altitude...
Sounds safe enough, until one remembers the lack of anything to slow down a flying golf ball. That thing will fly away from the space station at a fixed speed, and once the ball settles into orbit, it will be travelling, relative to the station, at something likely faster than the speed of sound. What happens when the golf ball travels around and comes back towards the station from the other direction?
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1093
We've all seen those videos of tunnels where scientists fire small pellets at really high speed at some giant granite slab right? The ISS isn't granite...
This is why even paint is considered too dangerous on a space mission. A few flecks of anything becomes a very overpowered projectile when orbitting at low altitude...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
