Video: Hurricane Dean from the Space Station – “Holy Smokes that thing is Impressive!”

By Tuesday August 21, 2007



12 Comments
  1. edwinrogers says:
    8/21/2007 at 1:15 pm

    They’re big heat engines.

  2. Sean says:
    8/21/2007 at 1:24 pm

    Too bad they can’t just shoot it with a frickin’ laser from up there and make it go away.

  3. bobbo says:
    8/21/2007 at 1:35 pm

    Hey Bubba—recall the news about a month ago of those Rooskies that threw a big piece of aluminum junk into space? News reporter said that it was big enough to track and not a real problem to avoid and that “eventually” it would return to earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

    Would the following work or not==throw whatever garbage you got TOWARDS the earth and even if 1 foot every 10 seconds, it would fairly quickly return to earth and burn up? or does the physics of orbits do something weird? — thanks.

  4. Mister Mustard says:
    8/21/2007 at 2:02 pm

    I wish they had turned the camera upside down. Looking at the earth from that vantage point is somewhat disorienting. Kind of like those Google Earth shots where it looks like the camera took the picture bottoms-up, after the satellite already went by.

  5. pagon says:
    8/21/2007 at 3:16 pm

    You think that’s impressive?

    Try being in the path of one and watching tv – seeing that it”s bigger than your entire region – and it’s coming to get you That’s impressive.

    Then, when it comes, listen to it. That’s impressive.

    Then, when it’s over. go outside and see what’s left of of your city. Geez, that’s impressive.

    All that impressed the heck out me during 23+ years in Florida, including being in Ft. Lauderdale during Hurricane Andrew..

    Mother Nature rules, and we forget that at our peril.

  6. Les says:
    8/21/2007 at 3:18 pm

    I was watching one of the spacewalks the other day and they were really commenting about it and were in awe and hoping people would be safe.

  7. mark says:
    8/21/2007 at 3:29 pm

    5. And if you are unlucky enough to have the eye go over you, the eerie calm, the sunshine, birds trapped and flying in it, and the grey wall of swirling clouds that will hit you minutes later (where the wind switches direction), thats real impressive.

  8. Kurt Nelson says:
    8/21/2007 at 4:08 pm

    And don’t forget all the trees being knocked down in your town pulling up fire hydrants and flooding the street.
    (Orlando, 2004)

  9. Matthew says:
    8/21/2007 at 6:52 pm

    Jeez I wish youtube would support hd video.

  10. BubbaRay says:
    8/21/2007 at 11:52 pm

    #3, bobbo, orbital mechanics is a very non-intuitive, well, er, mess. Just the math is enough to give me a headache. In practice, the lower your orbit, the faster you travel — the higher, vice versa. So to “catch up” with anything above you, you’ve got to go slower. Weird, eh? A downward (toward the Earth) vector is extremely difficult to calculate. If you want to hit a moving hurricane from orbit just by jettisoning junk from a spacecraft, you’ll need more than a dual core and homemade software.

    The Gemini master, “Dr. Rendevous” was the second man to walk on the moon — Dr. Buzz Aldrin and although NASA doesn’t officially admit it, I’m certain he was chosen for Apollo 11 because of his unique knack for figuring out that kind of thing “on the fly” (pun intended). How they did it in 1969 with stone knives and bearskins beats me up.

    Here’s a link for those who are mathematically inclined:
    http://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htm

    Better have a slide rule and a pocket protector… 🙂

  11. bobbo says:
    8/22/2007 at 5:56 am

    10—I was afraid of that and such was my suspicion. Common sense doesn’t work huh?

    If I’m in space with junk in my hand and I throw it at directly at earth === you’re saying there’s no telling where it will go? If I throw it perpendicular to its orbit ((that makes sense-right?))–how can it go anywhere but towards Earth?

    Mathematically inclined? No. But I thought I knew simple vectors.

  12. BubbaRay says:
    8/22/2007 at 12:49 pm

    #11, Bobbo, how can it go anywhere but towards Earth?

    It’ll head for Earth alright, but where it will land is extremely difficult to calculate. If there were no atmosphere, shooting a sphere towards Earth and calculating where it hits (within say a radius of a mile or two) wouldn’t be that tough, but imagine trying to factor in (for various altitudes): temperature, pressure, humidity, wind velocity and direction. Also remember that the Earth’s gravitational field varies from location to location.

    Now what a freakin’ mess! I’d rather throw darts blindfolded, I’d have a much better chance of hitting the bull’s eye!


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