What kind of spacecraft did you say you were drafting with the funny-looking landing gear hanging off the sides?
I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm going to have to call, "Foul," on this one.
That is, I don't think you were going nearly as fast as it might appear.
The reason is that cyclometers are notoriously inacurate at speeds in the Machian range. I know this from personal experience. They can over-report by an order of magnitude.
My guess is that you were coasting at only Mach 4.3, one-tenth of that indicated on the cyclometer.
This is consistent with the visual aspect of the video, but I'm guessing that the voice portion was dubbed courtesy of Houston. ;)
I'm disappointed! Occam's razor wins out again: the simplest explanation is probably the best.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
"When competing hypotheses are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selection of the hypothesis that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities while still sufficiently answering the question."
5 comments:
What kind of spacecraft did you say you were drafting with the funny-looking landing gear hanging off the sides?
I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm going to have to call, "Foul," on this one.
That is, I don't think you were going nearly as fast as it might appear.
The reason is that cyclometers are notoriously inacurate at speeds in the Machian range. I know this from personal experience. They can over-report by an order of magnitude.
My guess is that you were coasting at only Mach 4.3, one-tenth of that indicated on the cyclometer.
This is consistent with the visual aspect of the video, but I'm guessing that the voice portion was dubbed courtesy of Houston. ;)
Wish I had been there; looks like a blast!
Deaner, look closely: kms.
Still a respectable 27 mph or so....
Mike / Raleigh
I'm disappointed! Occam's razor wins out again: the simplest explanation is probably the best.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
"When competing hypotheses are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selection of the hypothesis that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities while still sufficiently answering the question."
Still, the flight must have seemed otherworldly.
A tractor AND drafting. A dream come true.
If 27 miles per hour rates only as "respectable", then I'm doomed.
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