HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
I did a quick search to see if any fellow geeks out there had mentioned this already and did not see any threads on it.
I was fortunate to get an ADR for Space 220 last Saturday. My first time there. The whole experience is really cool. But they have their physics wrong! Any other tech geeks out there notice? Didn't anyone at Disney check with someone who knows their orbital mechanics? Heck, Space 220 is right next to Mission Space which had tons of input from NASA!
We were informed when we got on the space elevator that they had the "artificial gravity" working on Space 220. But one would not need artificial gravity on Space 220. When you are at 220 miles above Earth there is gravity. However, if you are moving at a high enough orbital velocity the centrifugal force would balance out the gravitational force - this would create a net zero-g and you would be floating like on the Space Station. That required orbital velocity is roughly 17,000 mph at 220 miles above Earth - the same velocity as any satellite orbiting the earth at 220 miles up. For the record, the formula is V*V/r where V is the orbital velocity and r is the radius of the orbit. r is not 220 miles but the distance to the Earth center - about 220 + 4,000 miles (actually about 3,959 miles) where 3,959 is the approximate radius of the Earth.
But Space 220 does not orbit the Earth. It is a space elevator and so rotates with the Earth. That is why the view out the Space 220 window never changes and you always remain over Central Florida. Gravity on Space 220 would be roughly the same as it is on Earth - near enough that you would not notice.
The floating astronauts in zero-g out the windows? They would not float. They would fall to Earth the same as on Earth's surface. They would need jet packs to stay floating outside the windows the same as they would out the window of your house.
I told my wife all this while we were on Space 220 but she was not impressed and thought I was ruining it all. Oh well!
I was fortunate to get an ADR for Space 220 last Saturday. My first time there. The whole experience is really cool. But they have their physics wrong! Any other tech geeks out there notice? Didn't anyone at Disney check with someone who knows their orbital mechanics? Heck, Space 220 is right next to Mission Space which had tons of input from NASA!
We were informed when we got on the space elevator that they had the "artificial gravity" working on Space 220. But one would not need artificial gravity on Space 220. When you are at 220 miles above Earth there is gravity. However, if you are moving at a high enough orbital velocity the centrifugal force would balance out the gravitational force - this would create a net zero-g and you would be floating like on the Space Station. That required orbital velocity is roughly 17,000 mph at 220 miles above Earth - the same velocity as any satellite orbiting the earth at 220 miles up. For the record, the formula is V*V/r where V is the orbital velocity and r is the radius of the orbit. r is not 220 miles but the distance to the Earth center - about 220 + 4,000 miles (actually about 3,959 miles) where 3,959 is the approximate radius of the Earth.
But Space 220 does not orbit the Earth. It is a space elevator and so rotates with the Earth. That is why the view out the Space 220 window never changes and you always remain over Central Florida. Gravity on Space 220 would be roughly the same as it is on Earth - near enough that you would not notice.
The floating astronauts in zero-g out the windows? They would not float. They would fall to Earth the same as on Earth's surface. They would need jet packs to stay floating outside the windows the same as they would out the window of your house.
I told my wife all this while we were on Space 220 but she was not impressed and thought I was ruining it all. Oh well!
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Sure he had a nerd rep but he grew up to be an astrophysicist so who got the last laugh?
