Re:Factories in Space
by heavenlyblue on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @06:48PM
(#36132163)
Aren't bodies inside ISS rotating with it? Or are you implying that the rotation of ISS is not inertial but is constantly propelled by engines? If engines are driving it constantly, why is not constantly accelerating it's rotation?
True - thanks for the clarification. As long as the ISS is rotating at a constant rate anything oriented to it inside of it will not perceive it to be rotating. It's rotating relative to a stationary perspective on the surface of the Earth but by the time anything docks to it, everything in the system will be rotating at the same rate. Thanks for pointing this out!
>However, this is unrelated to acceleration - these are constant angular velocities.
If it were not for the force of gravity, an object in motion would move in the direction of its instantaneous velocity. It does not do that, it instead accelerates toward the center of the gravitational body.
>In orbit this g acceleration is cancelled out by centripetal acceleration to produce 0 acceleration, or free fall.
But again, they do not "cancel out," otherwise how is the instantaneous velocity constantly changing direction?
You're bringing up the bizarre thing about gravity here. The only way we could be in 'free fall' undergoing 0 acceleration while still going in circles is if space itself were warped around an object.
Also I should add, it is confusing thinking about 0g, because obviously bodies in a gravity well are experiencing a gravitational force. Really we're talking about 0 acceleration, where g is the acceleration due to gravity. In orbit this g acceleration is cancelled out by centripetal acceleration to produce 0 acceleration, or free fall.