Starship Asterisk*

Saw an amazing sight last night here in Chiang Mai Thailand as the ISS made a pass directly overhead. Progress was clearly visible behind it working on catching up. Does anyone have historic tracking information on Progress? I am curious to know how far apart they were when they went overhead. Never...

So still no definitive answer here. As Lord Kelvin once said, "If you can not express the worth of your work with numbers, it is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind." I like the post using an assumption of 1kg, but the little balsa gliders I am referring to are about .5 ounce in weight, so...

Thanks for that neufer. That gives hope for a good show coming up. It is hard for me to conceive that evaporative cooling can last long enough that close to the sun, but the physics laws rule.

It seems no one is certain what will happen as it passes something like a sun's diameter from the sun. I would think all the ice will be vaporized, causing all kinds of strange dynamics. This is one of the most exciting things to happen in astronomy in my lifetime and I am hoping for a good show as ...

It occurs early in the morning when the temperature is the lowest, so my suspicion is that water vapor is reaching the dew point. Not sure why it appears green but the look and flow of it is similar to clouds forming in the mountains.

Thank You for the email on anticrepuscular rays. Here are a few more images. We have seen these every evening for a week as the sun filters through towering cumulus clouds to our west here in Mae Taeng Thailand. http://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/userpics/33998/P1000913.jpg http://teakdoor.com/Galle...

Kinetic energy of a 1 kg glider at 7800 m/s orbital velocity = 30,420,000 Joules. Specific heat capacity of balsa = 2900 Joules/(kg.ºC) Temperature of reentering balsa glider ~10,500º C (= 30,420,000/2900). Art... Now we are getting somewhere! Agreed that the energy has to be dissipated before it c...

Forget about throwing something backwards.. That's not the question. It is tossed toward earth at a slow rate (make an assumption like 20 km per hour) from the space shuttle at its orbital velocity. Assume the glider weighs 1 kg on earth and has a wing span of 2 meters, wing chord of 20 cm, and a to...

A member of a Radio Controlled Aircraft flying forum (link below) asked an interesting question: If you throw a light balsa glider toward earth from the orbiting space shuttle, will it have enough energy to re-enter the atmosphere? If it does, will it burn up or safely glide to earth? Guesses are al...