Space Cowboys

[Stuart]

I saw this film for the first time over the weekend. I must admit to enjoying it but don't know enough about space and astronomy to be able to pick out the Good and Bad Astonomy. What did they get right (if anything) and what were the glaring faults?

[kucharek]

Quickly delete your post and go to
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/movies/spacecowboys2.html
before a slightly annoyed BA gives you his "There is also a website attached to this board"-reply.... :roll:

Harald

[Stuart]

Quickly delete your post and go to
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/movies/spacecowboys2.html
before a slightly annoyed BA gives you his "There is also a website attached to this board"-reply.... Harald

Apparently too late to delete but thanks for pointing me to the review; its a great piece of work. I'm not sure about whether the orbital decay affecting the missile targeting is correct; it depends on how the guidance system works. My guess would be that there is a distinct launch footprint that would get the missiles to the target areas; if the satellite was in that launch area the missiles would hit; if not they would go ballistic and fall at random. Its also possible that if the satellite was out of position, the missiles would land in the right pattern but displaced from the intended target area by an amount proportional to the displacement. I'll have to think about that.

[Wingnut Ninja]

One thing that caught my eye in that movie was that the feet of the EVA suit were dirty. Are the space suits on the shuttle ever used for walking around on the ground? It seems like the feet would never really be used in zero g.

[Colt]

Something else: Why would IKON have a big and heavy metal hatch on it for the cosmonauts to actually go inside of the satellite instead of just having a removable panel, even if they had to go inside. This would be the way to go in terms of launch costs. -Colt

[Tito_Muerte]

I still think the most glaringly painful point hasn't been ranted enough about...even in Phil's review......namely.... HOW IN THE HECK DOES TOMMY LEE JONES NOT GET BLASTED INTO A BILLION PIECES WHEN HE HITS THE MOON???? are we really to believe that he just gently lands on the surface??? yeah right.

[g99]

I still think the most glaringly painful point hasn't been ranted enough about...even in Phil's review......namely.... HOW IN THE HECK DOES TOMMY LEE JONES NOT GET BLASTED INTO A BILLION PIECES WHEN HE HITS THE MOON???? are we really to believe that he just gently lands on the surface??? yeah right.

He jumped just as the ship hit the surface. AS everyone knows if your plane is crashing and you jump just as it lands, you will come out fine. :-) :roll:

[ToSeek]

I still think the most glaringly painful point hasn't been ranted enough about...even in Phil's review......namely.... HOW IN THE HECK DOES TOMMY LEE JONES NOT GET BLASTED INTO A BILLION PIECES WHEN HE HITS THE MOON???? are we really to believe that he just gently lands on the surface??? yeah right.

He jumped just as the ship hit the surface. AS everyone knows if your plane is crashing and you jump just as it lands, you will come out fine. :-) :roll:

As long as you're Bug Bunny.

[Tito_Muerte]

ah bugs bunny....who else found him attractive when he dressed up as a lady bunny??? 'cause man, that was sexy....

[tracer]

Don't forget, Bugs Bunny also managed to avoid certain death in an airplane that had been put into a power dive, because the plane ran out of gas just before it hit the ground. ("You know how it is with these A cards.")

[logicboy]

I still think the most glaringly painful point hasn't been ranted enough about...even in Phil's review......namely.... HOW IN THE HECK DOES TOMMY LEE JONES NOT GET BLASTED INTO A BILLION PIECES WHEN HE HITS THE MOON???? are we really to believe that he just gently lands on the surface??? yeah right.

I just thought of something, Did they show IKON on the moon? I cant remember. Was he wearing one of those backpacks that allow to move in space, that would create some kind of thrust right. Maybe he ditched IKON and landed on the moon using the thrust from his backpack. I haven't seen the movie for a while so someone please correct me.

[daver]

I still think the most glaringly painful point hasn't been ranted enough about...even in Phil's review......namely.... HOW IN THE HECK DOES TOMMY LEE JONES NOT GET BLASTED INTO A BILLION PIECES WHEN HE HITS THE MOON???? are we really to believe that he just gently lands on the surface??? yeah right.

I just thought of something, Did they show IKON on the moon? I cant remember. Was he wearing one of those backpacks that allow to move in space, that would create some kind of thrust right. Maybe he ditched IKON and landed on the moon using the thrust from his backpack. I haven't seen the movie for a while so someone please correct me.

Escape velocity for the moon (unless i've made a silly mistake) is going to be on the order of 2.4 km/sec. That's about mach 7. That's the minimum impact velocity. Delta V from a MMU is on the order of 20 meters/sec. That's two orders of magnitude that has to be made up.

Pretty obviously, Klonos the god of space smiled.

[tracer]

Escape velocity for the moon (unless i've made a silly mistake) is going to be on the order of 2.4 km/sec. That's about mach 7. That's the minimum impact velocity. Delta V from a MMU is on the order of 20 meters/sec. That's two orders of magnitude that has to be made up.
Actually, the minimum impact velocity can be considerably lower than the escape velocity. Escape velocity for the Earth is about 24,000 miles per hour, for example, but the minimum impact velocity of an asteroid falling onto the Earth from space is only about 11,000 miles per hour, assuming the asteroid started out with juuuuuuust the right trajectory. (I read this fun fact on a message board some place, so you just know it has to be true.)

So if Tommy Lee Jones directed his booster vehicle onto one of these just-so minimum-lunar-impact-speed trajectories instead of just blasting straight at the moon, he'd only impact at a paltry 1.1 kilometers per second, which is only "mach 3" (assuming Earth sea-level atmosphere, which the moon doesn't have). A tough guy like Tommy Lee Jones could surely walk away from such a minor crash. ;)

[ToSeek]

A tough guy like Tommy Lee Jones could surely walk away from such a minor crash. ;)

Yes, just as long as he remembers to bend his knees.

[daver]

Actually, the minimum impact velocity can be considerably lower than the escape velocity. Escape velocity for the Earth is about 24,000 miles per hour, for example, but the minimum impact velocity of an asteroid falling onto the Earth from space is only about 11,000 miles per hour, assuming the asteroid started out with juuuuuuust the right trajectory. (I read this fun fact on a message board some place, so you just know it has to be true.)


Well, i wouldn't want to appear to doubt a message board, but i don't see how an asteroid could smack into the earth with less than orbital velocity.

I can kind of see a lunar impact with less than lunar escape velocity--the TLJ object could be captured into a high lunar orbit, energy from this orbit could be bled off (interactions with the Earth and the Sun), over a long period of time the TLJ orbit could spiral in, and ultimately impact with lunar orbital velocity--say 1.7 km/sec (mach 5 or so).

I'm guessing that this would take months to years. Maybe decades. So, TLJ, besides being tough and a crackerjack pilot, would also have to be really good at holding his breath.

[johnwitts]

Unless TLJ turned the whole thing around and retro fired...