Physics+in+space

=__**Physics in space**__=

This page is (or will one day be - when I have time to write it!) a celebration of our presence and our future in space.

I would encourage everyone to look at the opening sequence from Stanley Kubrick's film "2001 a Space Odyssey" which was co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke (copyright restrictions apply, so I can't provide a video link).

It was released in 1968, only 9 years after we made first contact with the moon, when Russia impacted "Luna 2" into the moon's surface, and a year before the first humans stepped on the moon (America's Apollo 11 mission). As the film's opening scene takes us from our distant ancestors to our future in space it contrasts the astonishing development we have made, from the first use of tools to the incredible feat of putting satellites and people into orbit around the Earth.

While the film predicted that by 2001 we would be casually commuting into space, something that has still not become a reality, we are now (in 2012) at the dawn of the commercial space age, as companies such as SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, and Planetary Resources Inc, have taken on the challenge of space travel from the governments who have lead the field so far. And they intend to make a profit out of space!

Astrophysics - links to my our notes on the physics of space. [|Windows to the Universe] - an extensive site with space related information and resources [|Why do we explore (nasa)] - (video from nasa) [|I work in space(!)] - some videos from the UK space agency about space related careers.


 * Teaching idea - Fermi problems**

I like this idea (from ) of teaching children how to estimate answers to questions that are seemingly impossible to answer. For example: is it realistic for people to walk around the space station in opening of 2001: a space odyssey, i.e. would there be enough apparent gravity? Faced with such a question many people would have no idea where to start (other than watching the start of the film - not something many classes would object to!) However the approach Enrico Fermi became famous for is simply to break the question down into small questions which can be answered with reasonable estimates.

For example, for the above question estimates can be reasonably made of:


 * The width of the window from which the approach of the space shuttle is observed (from the people visible in the window).
 * This allows an estimate of the width of the docking opening to be estimated.
 * From this the diameter of the space station can be estimated.

Once the diameter is "known" the only other estimate that is required is the speed of rotation, and 1/2 a rotation can be timed as the space shuttle approaches.

These two numbers should enable students to estimate the centripetal acceleration, a = w 2 r. Will it be the approximately normal gravity the people appear to feel in the film?