Astronaut's Experience Orbiting Earth at 11K mph

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the experience of astronauts orbiting the Earth, particularly in the context of speed perception during missions such as the Hubble servicing mission. Participants explore the sensations associated with high-speed travel in orbit and the implications of gravitational forces on those sensations.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes that astronauts orbiting the Earth, such as during a Hubble servicing mission, are traveling at high speeds, approximately 11,000 mph, and questions whether they feel this speed.
  • Another participant corrects the speed to about 18,000 mph and explains that astronauts do not feel they are moving quickly because they are in a gravitational orbit, experiencing no relative motion to their immediate surroundings.
  • A participant mentions the Earth's equatorial circumference and calculates that it would take about 1.33 hours to orbit the Earth, but another participant points out that it actually takes about 97 minutes to complete an orbit.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the sensation of speed experienced by astronauts in orbit, with some asserting that there is no sensation of speed due to relative motion, while others focus on the orbital time calculations, indicating a lack of consensus on the perception of speed and orbital duration.

Contextual Notes

Some calculations regarding orbital speed and time may depend on specific definitions and assumptions about the orbital path and conditions, which are not fully resolved in the discussion.

kleinma
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Ok so when an astronaut is orbiting the earth, let's use a Hubble servicing mission as an example (if only we could get another of those). The shuttle, the astronaut outside the shuttle, and the telescope are all moving at high speed in orbit around the earth. I forget the number, like 11k miles per hour or something crazy right?

So if you are up there orbiting, does it FEEL like you are traveling at a high rate of speed? or since you are in a gravitational orbit around the earth, it just seems as thought he Earth is rotating fast relative to you?
 
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It's about 18k mph, or ~7km / second or ~ 5mi / second.
No, the astronaut does not feel like he is traveling at a high rate of speed. Standing on the Earth, you are moving at about 32 km / second around the Sun, but you don't experience the sensation of speed because you are moving 0 relative to your immediate surroundings. An astronaut is also moving 0 relative to his immediate surroundings, the Hubble, and the Space Shuttle, so he does not experience a sensation of great speed either. When he looks down on the Earth, it seems to move approximately at the same speed as looking down at the ground from a jet airplane. Although they're moving much faster, they're also much higher.
 
well the Earth is what, has a equatorial circumference around 25k miles right? so somewhere around 1 and a third hours you would have orbited the Earth right?
 
kleinma said:
well the Earth is what, has a equatorial circumference around 25k miles right? so somewhere around 1 and a third hours you would have orbited the Earth right?
It goes around the Earth in 97 minutes.
http://science.nasa.gov/temp/HubbleLoc.html
 
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