On Tue, 17 Oct 2000 10:04:07 -0700, Matson, Robert wrote: <quote> It *was* leading the complex. High drag on the water (which quickly becomes ice) causes it do drop into a lower orbit which in turn causes it to race ahead of the shuttle. The lower the drop in altitude, the greater the velocity of the ice crystals -- this is what leads to the "C" shape. </quote> Hmmm. It seems to me that there isn't enough atmosphere at that altitude to provide THAT much drag. Since the water appears to get quite a distance away from the shuttle rather quickly, I figured that the water was squirted out with significant velocity and intentionally directed down. I also assumed that the water is sprayed in such a way as to minimize the droplet size and disperse the cloud quickly. Too many assumptions! The water dump is sure a dramatic demonstration of how counter-intuitive orbital mechanics can be. I wish NASA would schedule them for maximum visibility. ..Virgil..->VFenn1@excite.com website www.virgilfenn.com 39.0731N 108.6119W 1417m _______________________________________________________ Say Bye to Slow Internet! http://www.home.com/xinbox/signup.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Oct 17 2000 - 11:31:22 PDT