General > General Technical Chat
SciFi movies and pathetic misconceptions of tech failing for the story line.
BrianHG:
--- Quote from: Infraviolet on April 17, 2023, 12:45:46 am ---The Jedi seem determined to burn thrusters the wrong way and make their situation worse, not that there's any reason a starship should begin to fall from orbit just because part of it gets blown up anyway.
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Careful here. Yes, if you are in orbit, in other words, moving around the planet at a velocity and angle which fights/balances the planets gravity towards it's surface, having an engine die means just maintaining you relative distance above the planet continuing to orbit.
However, if you are maintaining a surface geostationary position above the planet using some magical antigravity device while not located in the geostationary orbital plane, once that device is turned off, you will begin to drop like a rock.
It is the same for use here. if we shoot a rocket straight up above the ground to the orbital altitude of our current international space station, once the rocket runs out of fuel, the rocket will decelerate, then begin to drop like a rock as it does not have the angular velocity around the earth to counteract the Earth's gravity.
To stop your rocket which was stationary relative to the ground from falling, it would have to go 35,786 kilometers above the equator where our geostationary satellites are located. That is the one magic altitude above our equator where you just magically stay stationary above the ground below. The altitude of our international space station at 408 kilometers is just way to close and if it were to stay above one point of the Earth relative to the ground, at 408km, it would drop like a rock and without it's current orbital speed, it would not burn up in our atmosphere where most of it would reach the ground.
I know in scifi they always say their ships are in orbit while having/using their impossible magical antigravity drive to be much closer to the planet and still stay above a certain land mass (IE: military point/target of interest) just illustrates the writers using the term 'orbit' to mean something a little different than in our reality.
coppice:
--- Quote from: Infraviolet on April 17, 2023, 12:45:46 am ---The one time Star Wars got the science pretty right
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The "wings flying against an atmosphere" dynamics of most of Star Wars action sequences was getting the science pretty much right?
AVGresponding:
As David Hess said, Star Wars isn't so much science fiction as space opera. Some of the (many) novels written under license in the period between ROTJ and TPM are decent sci-fi however, and I continue to regard them as "canon" and disregard the questionable (at best) prequels, and have a special contempt for the utter dross from Disney.
David Hess:
--- Quote from: Infraviolet on April 17, 2023, 12:45:46 am ---Another one in Star Wars which is very wrong is the orbital mechanics during the crashing of the ship about 20 minutes in to Revenge of the Sith (III, in chronological order). The Jedi seem determined to burn thrusters the wrong way and make their situation worse, not that there's any reason a starship should begin to fall from orbit just because part of it gets blown up anyway.
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Star Trek Beyond got that right at least accidentally when Nero is drilling into Vulcan - he was not in inertial orbit. Star Wars ships obviously have some type of anti-gravity and gravity generation, so presumably could maintain a non inertial orbit where loss of power would cause a rapid acceleration toward the planet. Of course it is never explained and is treated more like a ship sinking, but whatever.
Again, Star Wars is space opera and not science fiction, so I would not take it that seriously.
In Babylon 5 the Earth ship crews move around in freefall when the ship is not under acceleration until later ships include rotating sections or later some form of artificial gravity, but in any Hollywood production except most recently The Expanse, having to simulate freefall in many scenes is a large practical problem.
rdl:
Geostationary orbit is not a "magical" altitude. Orbital speed in geostationary orbit is a bit over 3 km/sec.
--- Quote from: BrianHG on April 17, 2023, 06:28:17 am ---...
To stop your rocket which was stationary relative to the ground from falling, it would have to go 35,786 kilometers above the equator where our geostationary satellites are located. That is the one magic altitude above our equator where you just magically stay stationary above the ground below.
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