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#1 ISS orbit picture

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:51 pm
by The Minx
I didn't want to spam the new year's thread with more rants about the ISS, but anyway, to illustrate what I was saying there, here's the picture I was talking about:

Image

Doesn't look all that impressive, does it? Especially since the distance to the moon would be over 11000 pixels on this scale.

#2

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:14 pm
by Batman
Not that the damned thing would be any more useful if it were in geostationary orbit. USED to be people took us having a permanent moon base by now a given and a Mars colony was considered highly likely. Instead, we got... the International Barely Transatmospheric Station.

#3

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:24 pm
by The Minx
Batman wrote:Not that the damned thing would be any more useful if it were in geostationary orbit. USED to be people took us having a permanent moon base by now a given and a Mars colony was considered highly likely. Instead, we got... the International Barely Transatmospheric Station.
Actually it's not even transatmospheric, since it is well within the thermosphere. It's only beyond the lower atmosphere. To be fair, many satelites are there too. I guess I wouldn't quibble about it if at least it were in the exosphere. Or maybe I'm just venting my disappointment about space flight in general. Yea, that sounds about right.

PS: NASA defines "in space" as being beyond 100 km or so, where the lower atmosphere ends.