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Monday, 6 March 2006
A Russian cosmonaut plans to whack a golf ball into orbit from the International Space Station, a publicity stunt that critics say would add to the growing problem of space junk.
Pavel Vinogradov is to take on the role of a celestial Tiger Woods under a deal between a Canadian golf club manufacturer and the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency.
In one of three space walks planned from the International Space Station over the next six months, Vinogradov will climb aboard a special platform and swing a special gold-plated six iron and seek to enter the record books for the longest-ever golf drive.
If all goes well, and NASA, the prime agency in building and running the space station, approves, his ball will orbit the Earth for about four years.
It would travel up to 3.36 billion kilometres before eventually burning up upon friction with the atmosphere.
"Every single record for distance in the golf industry will be shattered," says Element 21 Golf Co, the Toronto firm behind the scheme.
The ball will be fitted with a small radio transmitter allowing golf fans to track the ball on their home computer, says the company, which says it will give the club to charity.
Scientists, though, are less than gleeful. They say, in theory, it should be easy to hit the ball a huge distance.
After all, US astronaut Alan Shepard exulted that his two historic 1971 golf shots on the Moon, where gravity is a sixth of the Earth's, went "miles and miles and miles".
On the space station, orbiting the Earth at a height of some 350 kilometres, gravity is negligible and friction is zero, which should make it a golfer's dream.
Taking a shot
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.
"There's a lot of room in space, but orbital mechanics is a wonderful thing, and things tend to come back to where you launched them from," says Dr Heiner Klinkrad, acting head of space debris at the European Space Agency.
"For the [space station], the most probable collision velocity in the worst-case scenario is somewhere at 10 to 11 kilometres per second," he says.
"This thing is certainly larger than a centimetre, which means it would certainly penetrate the shields of the space station if it hits at this speed."
The perfect swing
Dr Jean-Michel Contant, secretary general of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Paris-based forum on space research, suggests that Vinogradov's boots be strapped to the platform and that he make a few practice swings on a tethered ball before doing the big drive.
"If safety criteria are respected, this exercise could be useful as a teaching tool for children and students and be fun for the broad public," he says.
"But it holds out no scientific benefits ... and if the worst-case scenario happens, it won't be fun at all."
Another problem is that of space junk, especially from exploded satellites and boosters, which is becoming a threat to satellites and travellers.
"The international recommendations are that you should not throw out unnecessary objects, and I wouldn't qualify a golf ball as a mission-related object," Klinkrad says.
Junk in space
The junk region of most concern is between 900 and 1000 kilometres above Earth, where there are many navigation, communication and weather satellites. The golf ball would be far below this height.
Dr Bill Ailor, a director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, told New Scientist magazine there are about 300 operational satellites in this low-orbit zone.
These could in theory be at risk from the ball as it slowly spirals towards Earth.
"But the chance of something like that happening is probably very low," says Ailor.
A NASA spokesperson says its engineers are vetting the planned golf drive for safety but was unable to say when this review would be completed.
A Russian cosmonaut plans to whack a golf ball into orbit from the International Space Station, a publicity stunt that critics say would add to the growing problem of space junk.
Pavel Vinogradov is to take on the role of a celestial Tiger Woods under a deal between a Canadian golf club manufacturer and the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency.
In one of three space walks planned from the International Space Station over the next six months, Vinogradov will climb aboard a special platform and swing a special gold-plated six iron and seek to enter the record books for the longest-ever golf drive.
If all goes well, and NASA, the prime agency in building and running the space station, approves, his ball will orbit the Earth for about four years.
It would travel up to 3.36 billion kilometres before eventually burning up upon friction with the atmosphere.
"Every single record for distance in the golf industry will be shattered," says Element 21 Golf Co, the Toronto firm behind the scheme.
The ball will be fitted with a small radio transmitter allowing golf fans to track the ball on their home computer, says the company, which says it will give the club to charity.
Scientists, though, are less than gleeful. They say, in theory, it should be easy to hit the ball a huge distance.
After all, US astronaut Alan Shepard exulted that his two historic 1971 golf shots on the Moon, where gravity is a sixth of the Earth's, went "miles and miles and miles".
On the space station, orbiting the Earth at a height of some 350 kilometres, gravity is negligible and friction is zero, which should make it a golfer's dream.
Taking a shot
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.
"There's a lot of room in space, but orbital mechanics is a wonderful thing, and things tend to come back to where you launched them from," says Dr Heiner Klinkrad, acting head of space debris at the European Space Agency.
"For the [space station], the most probable collision velocity in the worst-case scenario is somewhere at 10 to 11 kilometres per second," he says.
"This thing is certainly larger than a centimetre, which means it would certainly penetrate the shields of the space station if it hits at this speed."
The perfect swing
Dr Jean-Michel Contant, secretary general of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Paris-based forum on space research, suggests that Vinogradov's boots be strapped to the platform and that he make a few practice swings on a tethered ball before doing the big drive.
"If safety criteria are respected, this exercise could be useful as a teaching tool for children and students and be fun for the broad public," he says.
"But it holds out no scientific benefits ... and if the worst-case scenario happens, it won't be fun at all."
Another problem is that of space junk, especially from exploded satellites and boosters, which is becoming a threat to satellites and travellers.
"The international recommendations are that you should not throw out unnecessary objects, and I wouldn't qualify a golf ball as a mission-related object," Klinkrad says.
Junk in space
The junk region of most concern is between 900 and 1000 kilometres above Earth, where there are many navigation, communication and weather satellites. The golf ball would be far below this height.
Dr Bill Ailor, a director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, told New Scientist magazine there are about 300 operational satellites in this low-orbit zone.
These could in theory be at risk from the ball as it slowly spirals towards Earth.
"But the chance of something like that happening is probably very low," says Ailor.
A NASA spokesperson says its engineers are vetting the planned golf drive for safety but was unable to say when this review would be completed.
