Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Add Editor's Note for "Space flight" #223

Open
DanBerrios opened this issue Oct 17, 2024 · 9 comments
Open

Add Editor's Note for "Space flight" #223

DanBerrios opened this issue Oct 17, 2024 · 9 comments

Comments

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator

NASA's definition doesn't specify a point of delimitation between Earth's atmosphere and space. However, the Kármán line, an imaginary boundary about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, is generally accepted as the place where space begins. At this altitude, there's no appreciable air to breathe or scatter light, so the sky appears black instead of blue.

@jmskip
Copy link
Collaborator

jmskip commented Oct 17, 2024

There is no universally accepted definition of where space begins. NASA does not define it. The Kármán line, an imaginary and somewhat arbitrary boundary approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, is considered by many to be where space begins. At this altitude, there's no appreciable air to breathe or scatter light, so the sky appears black instead of blue. The US FAA (https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight), while also not defining where space begins, recognizes "any flight crew or space flight participant who is on an FAA-licensed launch or reentry vehicle and reaches 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth" by listing their name on the FAA Commercial Human Space Flight Recognition web page (https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight/recognition/).

(Here's a link that directly addresses the issue:
https://www.space.com/42733-virgin-galactic-space-claim-relies-on-karman-line.html)

I propose the following terms:

o Parabolic flight - a flight within the Earth's atmosphere where an aircraft describes a series of parabolic arcs lasting on the order of tens of seconds to simulate microgravity

o Suborbital space flight - a flight in which a vehicle, launched from either the ground or from an aircraft, has a trajectory which carries it above a substantial part of the Earth's atmosphere but does not reach orbit. The occupants and/or contents experience a period (typically minutes) of microgravity by virtue of being in free fall.

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

@jmskip These 2 definitions look good to me... I will put them on separate issues. Any concerns?

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

Re the editor's note. Should use what you wrote above verbatim as the Editor's Note? @jmskip

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

Also, space flight and all children will probably get moved to SLSO

@jmskip
Copy link
Collaborator

jmskip commented Oct 23, 2024

Edited version for the Editor's note:

There is no universally accepted definition of where space begins. Some definitions use the Kármán line, a somewhat arbitrary boundary approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level. The US FAA (https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight) does not define where space begins, but recognizes "any flight crew or space flight participant who is on an FAA-licensed launch or reentry vehicle and reaches 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth" by listing their name on the FAA Commercial Human Space Flight Recognition web page (https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight/recognition/).

@jmskip
Copy link
Collaborator

jmskip commented Oct 23, 2024

I'm comfortable with the definitions if you all are.

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

We will add this Ed Note to the material transport process "space flight" in RBO.

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

Confirmed in SLSO.

@DanBerrios
Copy link
Collaborator Author

Kris and Dan to f/u with more information on how to deal with move of this concept to SLSO.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment
Projects
None yet
Development

No branches or pull requests

3 participants