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Author
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Topic: STS-132: Viewing, questions, and comments
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 05-19-2010 08:17 AM
   
Thierry Legault captured this stunning solar transit of Atlantis approaching the International Space Station. ...taken from the area of Madrid (Spain) on May 16th 2010 at 13h 28min 55s UT. Atlantis has just begun the "R-bar pitch maneuver": the shuttle performs a backflip that exposes its heat-shield to the crew of the ISS that makes photographs of it; since its approach trajectory is between the ISS and the Earth, this means that we are seeing Atlantis essentially from above, with the payload bay door opened. 
Credit: Thierry Legault |
PowerCat
Member Posts: 193
From: Herington, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 05-19-2010 10:18 AM
Thanks for posting such an awesome and unique view of the Shuttle/ISS! |
gliderpilotuk
Member Posts: 3398
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 05-19-2010 11:52 AM
Incredible image! |
dfox
Member Posts: 208
From: Scarsdale, NY, United States
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 05-19-2010 02:03 PM
That is really cool. Does anyone know how magnified the shuttle and ISS are relative to how large they would appear if they were actually on the surface of the sun? |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2915
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 05-19-2010 02:48 PM
Wow! I have to admit, that may be a first for me, in seeing the station outpost and a shuttle orbiter approaching it with an enlarged sun backdrop. Just unreal! |
Moonwalker1954
Member Posts: 245
From: Montreal, Canada
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 05-19-2010 02:54 PM
Absolutely spectacular! What a shot! |
mikej
Member Posts: 481
From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 05-19-2010 03:16 PM
quote:
Originally posted by dfox:
Does anyone know how magnified the shuttle and ISS are relative to how large they would appear if they were actually on the surface of the sun?
Short answer: "A whole lot!" Long answer: Inspecting the full-sized image, I count the Orbiter's wingspan to be about 28 pixels and the Sun's diameter to be about 3595 pixels. Thus, the ratio of the Orbiter's wingspan to the Sun's diameter in the picture is 28 / 3595, or about 0.00779 (the wingspan in the picture appears to be about 0.78% the size of the sun). The Orbiter's wingspan is actually a tad under 24 meters and the Sun's diameter is about 1,391,000 km, or 1,391,000,000 meters. So, the ratio of the Orbiter's wingspan to the Sun's actual diameter is 24 / 1,391,000,000, or about 0.00000001725, (the wingspan is actually 0.0000017% the size of the sun). Comparing the ratios, the wingspan is 0.00779 / 0.00000001725 or 451,594 times larger in the picture than if it were actually on the surface of the Sun. To check our work, we note that the Orbiter was determined to be 391 km from the observer. The distance from the Earth to the Sun varies from 146 to 152 million kilometers, for an average of 149 million km. Dividing 149,000,000 / 391 shows that something 391 km away appears to be approximately 381,074 times larger than if it were 149 million km away. So, the two answers are fairly close: 381,074 to 451,594 times larger; certainly in the same ballpark. Before I actually ran the numbers, I was merely hoping to get numbers of the same order of magnitude, so I'm very happy to be "in the same ballpark"! Take this with a grain of salt, because when dealing with numbers of this magnitude, small variations make a big difference: If I'd've used 152 million miles as the distance to the Sun and (since the Orbiter's silhouette was a bit fuzzy) 26 pixels as the wingspan in the picture, the comparison would have stood at 388,746 to 419,263 times larger -- very close, indeed. (Of course, calculating at 146 million km and 29 pixels would have given numbers which were farther apart, so I didn't bother doing that.  ) See, wasn't leaving it at "a whole lot!" much easier? |
dfox
Member Posts: 208
From: Scarsdale, NY, United States
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 05-19-2010 08:49 PM
Thanks! It's obvious that you would've made a great lab partner in my college physics classes! |
AmirBer
Member Posts: 24
From: Be'er Sheva, Israel
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted 05-22-2010 08:37 AM
I have finally succeeded in photographing the ISS lats Thursday, I would really like it if you could help me find out what's what in those pics, did I spot STS-132 correctly? |
alanh_7
Member Posts: 1252
From: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 05-26-2010 07:55 AM
What a flight... what a great landing. Beautiful. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 05-26-2010 01:37 PM
NASA TV is showing Atlantis go all the way from the SLF into the OPF. I don't ever remember seeing them do this before. Kind of sad to think that was the last flight for Atlantis. I think that it is the only shuttle that other than the FRF whenever the SSME's were fired she left the pad, not a single cutoff or RSLS abort. |
Tom
Member Posts: 1597
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 05-26-2010 05:35 PM
That's correct. Columbia, Challenger, and Endeavour each had one RSLS abort with Discovery having two. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 05-26-2010 07:42 PM
Even with out the aborts, I am curious as to the finding on that anomolous plume from the SSMEs on the ascent video.While the other shuttles got the glory, Atlantis was the quiet trendsetter as it were. She had her share of firsts, but nobody really remembers them as Columbia was the FIRST shuttle, Challenger was the early workhorse of the fleet, Discovery flew the return to flight missions and Endeavour became the new kid on the block when it was built. Endeavour got the glory of the first Hubble mission since it was set up in those days for the long duration flights with an extra consumables load. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-09-2010 07:44 AM
Today, a national British paper carried a photo of the recent Atlantis launch taken from a F-15 Eagle. What were they doing near the launch? I as under the impression that there was a no-fly zone round the Cape at launch times. |
NavySpaceFan
Member Posts: 655
From: Norfolk, VA
Registered: May 2007
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posted 06-09-2010 07:57 AM
quote:
Originally posted by moorouge:
I as under the impression that there was a no-fly zone round the Cape at launch times.
Who do you think enforces the no fly zone?
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cspg
Member Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006
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posted 06-09-2010 09:49 AM
Armed seagulls?Seriously the answer lies in the photo credit!  |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-09-2010 12:48 PM
quote:
Originally posted by cspg:
Armed seagulls?
OK - of course. I had a senior moment. I just wasn't expecting any aircraft that close. I remember that the astronauts used to fly chase planes close during Mercury/Gemini launches but thought this practice had been stopped during Shuttle missions. |
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