this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
606 points (99.0% liked)

xkcd

8791 readers
151 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

https://xkcd.com/2883

Alt text:

They didn't bring us a gift, but considering the kinetic energy of a bottle of wine at orbital speed, that's probably for the best.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 67 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ok, now we start patiently waiting for the website where you enter an address and then get back your astronaut visit date.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure if there's any publicly available orbital data for the ISS with enough precision.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Isn’t there an app that shows you exactly where that thing is, and when it will be visible over your location?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah, but that's not to the precision of a few meters that would be required.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

https://stuffin.space/ should show you a decent percentage of objects tracked in Earth's orbit.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This assumes that old thing that your property goes straight up so you also claim ownership of the airspace, as written by Lawrence Lessig in his excellent book "Free Culture".

In that case, on more than one occasion I've had several dozen people over for dinner, as a commercial airliner flew overhead.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do you really need to assume that or can you just interpret having them over as being above you? You don't need to own the airspace for them to he above you.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Yeah, they're literally "over"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Legal Fiction, by William Empson

Plus, I recommend Samantha Harvey's 2023 novel, Orbital, spanning one day on a space station orbiting Earth. It's really good.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Image transcript:

Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.
Your well fenced out real estate of mind
No high flat of the nomad citizen
Looks over, or train leaves behind.

Your rights extend under and above your claim
Without bound; you own land in Heaven and Hell;
Your part of earth's surface and mass the same,
Of all cosmos' volume, and all stars as well.

Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell's
Pointed exclusive conclave, at earth's centre
(Your spun farm's root still on that axis dwells);
And up, through galaxies, a growing sector.

You are nomad yet; the lighthouse beam you own
Flashes, like Lucifer, through the firmament.
Earth's axis varies; your dark central cone
Wavers a candle's shadow, at the end.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Thanks you beat me to it

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don't get it. How did they eat the dinner?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

They couldn't because they were in a hurry and like a hundred miles away.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Over(head) for (the duration of) dinner (well, part of it anyhow).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

As someone who grew up in Wapakoneta, I can make this claim without orbital hijinx, and specifically with Neil Armstrong himself!