Ask Lemmy

26279 readers

1409 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Effect of a gravity assist on person, or whatever, in spaceship (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

OK, this is dumb, but it's gone through my head a couple times. I've seen a few science fiction movies and shows where the people in the spaceship use a gravity assist and lean into the turns like they're driving NASCAR or riding a roller coaster.

I think they wouldn't feel the acceleration (vector change) because gravity is doing the acceleration on every molecule and there would be nothing to lean against. I'm often wrong though. Someone smarter than I am have some insight?

EDIT: For what it's worth, I guess I shouldn't have used the Expanse clip as it upset some people. I just used it for an example of what I was asking. The question is this: Under little or no thrusters, would you feel a gravity assist? Even a radical one that changes your direction 90 degrees and greatly increases your velocity?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You're correct in that he would not feel anything from the assist itself, as the spacecraft is accelerating the same amount as him. However, the key here is that he appears to be dramatically altering his attitude with some kind of RCS thrusters. There's not much use to that unless he's firing the main engine, but I'm assuming no main engines were used as they don't appear to ignite.

The leaning appears to be in response to attitude corrections, and is pretty accurate given the rate of rotation here. The way he's bracing only makes sense in gravity, so I'll assume the ship has an AG field (like most standard sci-fi ships).

The only thing that appears to be off its the acceleration at the end ...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

No anti-grav in the expanse.

I read that scene as him feeling the flow of the ship as they time the gravity assist with minimal thrust since the point of that scene was to run quiet.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The leaning could also even just be that thing gamers do when we lean into a turn in the game by actually leaning in our seat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Just need a better view of that screen with manual enhance coaster lean