Golf in space could backfire

Lots of interest about the announcement that a Russian cosmonaut will hit a golf shot off of the International Space Station. Here’s a more critical view. Quoting from the article:

But, as experienced golfers will tell you, driving that little white ball with the right force and in the right direction is a lot harder than it seems, even on a terrestrial course.

The task is that much harder in a thick spacesuit, which leaves little room for a decent swing or flexing the joints.

The ball thus could quite easily be mis-hit and travel only a couple of metres, or be hooked or sliced and sent in entirely the wrong direction.

As a result, it could accidentally land in the same orbital plane as the space station. Station and ball would both whizz around the planet on the same track, one after the other.

And what that means is a remote risk of a collision, capable of damaging or even destroying the space station, depending on the angle, velocity and site of impact.

Source: News in Science

1 Comment so far
Leave a comment




Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

URI

Your Comment