Attitude and altitude are important factors for flying a spaceship. But How do you control the International Space Station, a ship the size of a US football field (or five hockey rinks — a better reference for Canadians!)? And where does this happen? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield answers these questions from inside the ISS.
And below is a beautiful image Hadfield just shared via social media today, showing shadows and clouds over a mountain:
Chris Hadfield is a really cool guy! I like all the effort he’s put into his public outreach videos. I hope you get a chance to interview him sometime soon? Be way cool to ‘get the grits’ from his perspective… He does Canada proud!
is there any reason those panels, or additional supplement panels, couldn’t be tethered a few thousand meters away so they could keep solar alignment separately?
Does one set of reaction wheels turn the entire thing?
Radiating heat away from the station.
Since it’s in vacuum, the station can’t use the more efficient convection and conduction, and thus needs a very big surface to radiate away the heat.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php#id–Heat_Radiators–Life_Support
But…. isn’t he talking about orientation rather than actual steering?
What about when you want to use rest room because everything seems to to rise up instead of falling.
I would go up there if the spaceship was like the TNG Enterprise. I’d like to have the view; just from a nice cushy suite with sparkly blankets and a replicator. 🙂