xDingDongWang Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I thought this was really interesting when i found it, it's amazing how quickly the International Space Station (ISS) orbits the earth, I believe it's something like 18,000 mph, forgive me if i'm wrong. But here's the stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload There's also an iPhone app which tells you at what time the ISS is passing by near you. I went out the other night to see if and it's seriously incredible as to how bright in the sky it is and how quickly it moves. Here in the UK it only takes about 4 minutes to go across the skyline and then it's gone! Really interested me, hope you guys like it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnl Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 It has to, or else it'll crash into the earth. I'll look thru my notes and see if I can find the calculation for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xDingDongWang Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 Well it orbits the earth in 90 minutes if that helps xD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnl Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 (edited) I did the quick approximate calculation. The ISS orbits at 419 to 424 km from the Earth. The close orbit is the Perigee, the further orbit is Apogee. These are the velocities I found: Vp = 7.653627 km/s Va = 7.659257 km/s From wikipida, the average velocity is about 7.66 km/s (or 17,100mph) So the approximate calculation is pretty close Oh also, the circumference of the orbit is about 42723.15 km, at an average velocity of 7.656442km/s. Therefore the time is 5580.026 seconds or 93 minutes. (Wikipeida says: 92.87 minutes). Really interested me, hope you guys like it! It is a really cool video, thank you for sharing Forgot to include one more equaiton: (Ra + Rp)/2 = a Edited June 5, 2014 by ajnl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xDingDongWang Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 I did the quick approximate calculation. The ISS orbits at 419 to 424 km from the Earth. The close orbit is the Perigee, the further orbit is Apogee. These are the velocities I found: Vp = 7.653627 km/s Va = 7.659257 km/s From wikipida, the average velocity is about 7.66 km/s (or 17,100mph) So the approximate calculation is pretty close Oh also, the circumference of the orbit is about 42723.15 km, at an average velocity of 7.656442km/s. Therefore the time is 5580.026 seconds or 93 minutes. (Wikipeida says: 92.87 minutes). It is a really cool video, thank you for sharing Forgot to include one more equaiton: (Ra + Rp)/2 = a Fair play for completing that yourself, i wouldn't know where to start , you could have googled it but im guessing you enjoy that! Make sure you find out what time it passes over you, you'll be astonished when you see it in the sky (if you haven't already) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnl Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 (edited) xDingDongWang, on 06 Jun 2014 - 03:57 AM, said: Fair play for completing that yourself, i wouldn't know where to start , you could have googled it but im guessing you enjoy that! Make sure you find out what time it passes over you, you'll be astonished when you see it in the sky (if you haven't already) Sadly I probably couldn't have figured this out on my own. I had a Space Technology class, and I used notes from that to figure it out. Sounds like a good plan! It looks like it'll pass over tonight, around 12:04am. I'll have a look tonight. Edited June 6, 2014 by ajnl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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