Does the Space Shuttle have to turn to keep a camera pointed at Earth as it orbits?

Question

The Moon always keeps one face towards Earth which means it rotates once on its axis for each orbit. Moons around other planets don't necessarily do the same. If you are on the Space Shuttle and are trying to take a video of the Earth, will you automatically keep pointing at the Earth or do you have to turn the Shuttle as you orbit?

What I was getting at here was when the Shuttle goes into orbit, do they have to induce a rotation that matches their orbital period? If they induce a rotation of say 1 rotation per minute, will it cancel out over time? Our Moon's rotation matches the orbital rate due to tidal forces. The back side of the Moon is actually is a higher orbit than the front which induces an overall torque on the Moon. Over time the front in back are forces to stay in their orbits and the rotation rate matches the orbital rate. The Earth doesn't do this with the Sun ( at least not yet)

Answer 1

I'm not going to answer your question but do have some info for you.

All moons in our solar system face their planets the same way our moon does and for the same reason.


As far as the moon being it two orbits, one for the back and one for the front, I think you are misinformed. The orbit the moon follows is determined by it's center of it's mass. You have seen the term gravitationally locked in here? What that means is that when you take a moon they are almost without exception not perfectly dense throughout. This variance causes one side to be "heavier" than another, gravity pulls on this side more simply because there is more to pull on and hence one side will always be facing it's planet. This effect has nothing to do with it's orbit however, the center of the mass is where the true orbit is.

You don't see this effect on planets because for one reason they simply haven't had enough time to slow down their spin, not much out there to slow them down. Another reason is that most planets are either have a fluid interior like the earth or are giant gas balls which would prevent a permanent lop sided density. This is not the case with moons. Moons are small, and most likely solid.

The space shuttle obviously has hardly a chance to form this relationship with the earth. So yes the shuttle does face the same direction and must keep turning itself to keep facing the earth.

Answer 2

Yes it does. The shuttle orbits Earth once every 90 minutes, so it needs to turn one time completely around each 90 minutes, as measured against the fixed stars, to keep pointing at the ground. I recall this being referred to as Orb Rate when reading about Apollo 15. Search for Orb Rate in the source below.

Answer 3

It does turn, as it falls towards the Earth in orbit... just like the Moon does. It appears to be stationary in respect to the Earth because of forward inertia.

Answer 4

Actually, there is a moon that isn't gravitationally locked. The space shuttle is only up for a short time so it's not.