I was wondering, has any astronaut ever gone up in space and gotten out of the shuttle and floated away? Would you float away into space? Or would you be stuck in Earth's gravitational pull? Or sucked back to Earth?
2007-08-14 03:55:01 · 8 answers · asked by Jen 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Depends on your initial motion. If your floating away from the earth you would keep going.
No one has floated away (died), but there have been several "space walks" where they are not connected to anything but their propulsion pack.
After reading the previous 2 answers I'll add some more.
Assumption:
The shuttle is in an orbit that doesn't require propulsion to stay in place (like a satellite). This would mean that you are already at a speed to maintain your position. Any slower and you fall to Earth, any faster and you leave orbit.
Then:
If the person pushed off of the shuttle to get his initial motion then he/she will continue in that direction (Newton's first law of motion) and the shuttle (without intervening with it's own propulsion) will eventually drift into the Earths atmosphere (Newton's 3rd law of motion) The gravity of the Earth would not pull him back. The only way for that to happen would be if the shuttle is holding an orbit that requires it to use its propulsion to stay in place. In this case there is a chance that the astronaut would be recaptured by the Earth.
A far higher danger is collision with space debris.
See Wikipedia links for further info.\
RickB:
I don't see what would cause you to cycle away from the shuttle, towards it, then away again. Sounds like your changing directions?? Also, the speeds would be relative to the Earth not the shuttle. Your not going to move away from the shuttle at 8000mph. That would bethe speed relative to the Earth, including the speed your already going to stay in orbit to the Earth.
Tangential velocity of an object in a constant orbit is equal to the sqr rt of the gravitational contant times the mass of the Earth divided by the radius (center of Earth to you) V=srt(GM/r) This is the speed to maintain orbit. So... to keep the equation balance, by increasing the radius you will require less speed to maintain orbit. Again, because of Newtons laws your not going to change directions and come back. It doesn't matter how fast away from the shuttle your going, your going to continue to spiral outward from the Earth.
Also it is correct to call it falling since the velocity is balance to the radius of the Earth, but when a person is in space they have no sensation of falling; therefor, floating is an accepted term
2007-08-14 04:04:43 · answer #1 · answered by Capn 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Capn is correct that "it depends," but he is way off on the details.
As others have stated, the astronauts take precautions against floating away. They either remain hooked with a tether, or they wear a sort of "jet pack" that lets them steer back toward the shuttle just in case they start to float away.
But here's what would happen IF the jet pack didn't work:
If you float away "gently," (i.e. slowly relative to the shuttle), you will not float away into empty (interplanetary) space, nor will you fall back to earth. What will happen is, you will remain in orbit around the earth, but your orbit will be slightly different from the shuttle's orbit. Depending on the speed and direction at which you "pushed off," one of two things may happen: either (1) you will gradually drift farther and farther away from the shuttle; or (2) you will go into an orbit that makes you recede from the shuttle for about 45 minutes, and then brings you closer to the shuttle for the next 45 minutes until you're pretty much back at the shuttle; and then (if you don't grab on) the cycle will repeat. In any case, you won't move far from the earth, so it would be fairly easy for them to rescue you.
Now, if you float away FAST (say some large force pushed you away from the shuttle), the story could be quite different. Depending on the direction in which you got pushed away, your "new" orbit might just intersect with the earth (that is, you would fall and burn up into the atmosphere); and this would happen in a matter of minutes, so it would be hard to mount a rescue party. But you would have to be pushed very fast (say 1,000 mph) in order for this to happen.
A final possibility is if you got pushed away very, very fast (about 8,000 mph relative to the shuttle) in "front" of the shuttle (i.e. in the direction the shuttle's moving). In this case, you would reach "escape velocity," which means you would continue to move farther and farther away from the earth forever (or until somebody rescued you).
2007-08-14 04:50:15 · answer #2 · answered by RickB 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"floating" is not the correct terminolgy - floating refers to something having boyancy such as a cork on a body of water or a hydrogen balloon in the air. Astronauts up in space are not floating, but rather are falling. The space craft they are in is in a continuously falling orbit around the earth. The rate of their fall is identical to the curvature of the earth, so they never fall closer, but are always falling 'around' the earth. When the astronaut goes out of the vehicle he or she is still falling with the same rate. They can DRIFT away from the vehicle's path but they do not float. The earth does not "suck" anything. IT simply has a gravitational field in which other massive bodies which also have their own gravitational field affect each other.
2007-08-14 04:24:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes they have. It called EVA and they do float - although on most cases they are being attached into a cable so they don't float away from their space shuttle/capsule.
If they're in an orbit then they won't be sucked into Earth unless they have something powerful enough to get out of the orbit - either to escape the orbit or enter the Earth.
2007-08-14 04:04:36 · answer #4 · answered by dodol 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, there has never been a stranded astronaut, and more likely than not, he/she would be pulled back into earths gravity, and in a matter of years fall back into the atmosphere and burn up...
2007-08-14 04:14:02 · answer #5 · answered by Lexington 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in case you have been interior the area commute orbiting the Earth, you will be able to desire to no longer have a tumbler of water, with the aid of fact the water might decide on the flow out of the glass. it could be a around ball, and that i keep in mind seeing a video of an astronaut sticking a straw into the ball and sucking some up - the ball grew to grow to be smaller. If somebody had smashed the ball, the little droplets might have flown everywhere and led to issues of the electrics interior the spacecraft! yet, the water maintains to be liquid with the aid of fact there is air interior the spacecraft. If the water grow to be exterior interior the vacuum of area, what might happen? might the water freeze sturdy? Or might it boil away? you will possibly think of that with the aid of fact area grow to be very chilly, the water might freeze right into a ball of ice. yet with the aid of fact there's a vacuum, in certainty the water might boil away to vapour.
2016-10-10 05:09:23 · answer #6 · answered by fauntleroy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are very careful not to get out of control. Most spacewalkers are on tethers. If one did get loose and could not be recovered, they would eventually fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. They would die of oxygen starvation long before that.
2007-08-14 04:03:21 · answer #7 · answered by aviophage 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i would fly away, but i know one thing..
not the gravity of earth would get my back, nasa couldnt get me either..
but my wife wud, i dont know how, but she's got her own technics..
2007-08-14 08:48:07 · answer #8 · answered by ? ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋