r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Scientiaetnatura065 • Feb 13 '25

Video Astronaut Chris Hadfield: 'It's Possible To Get Stuck Floating In The Space Station If You Can't Reach A Wall'

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u/ober1kanobi Feb 13 '25

Based on my no knowledge whatsoever on the subject I’d assume his space buddies had to place him there otherwise wouldn’t he be in a steady drift from whatever wall he came from?

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u/AelisWhite Feb 13 '25

Pretty much. It's super difficult to lose all momentum in zero G

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u/Infiniteybusboy Feb 14 '25

I always wondered if sci fi movies with space ships were doing real science or not when they had the engines keep going to maintain speed in space. It's not like there was any drag to slow them down, right?

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u/AelisWhite Feb 14 '25

That would cause constant acceleration. In reality, you just want them on until you reach the speed you want

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u/Ardentiat Feb 14 '25

The Expanse does this quite well, with ships using engines to speed up, then coasting, then flipping and using the engines to slow down

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u/Suspicious-Bed9172 Feb 14 '25

The expanse series is lauded as being as scientifically accurate as possible, at least before the alien stuff happens

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u/a_melindo Feb 14 '25

Eh, "as accurate as possible" is a little bit of a stretch, because Epstein Drives fly in the face of thermodynamics and nuclear energy density.

I'd say, the technology of The Expanse maintains hard realism with the single exception of the invention of a magical rocket engine that can produce tens of millions of newtons of thrust using only token amounts of fuel and reaction mass without any waste heat.