Happy Birthday HAL !

[Valentin Albillo]

(01-12-2020 04:53 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  This slowly rotating space-ship taking forever to dock to the space station whilst some Walzer music was playing just kicked me out...

On the other hand I think this is one of the best scenes in a movie choke-full of them, and also one of the most memorables scenes in any movie, period.

I used it to great effect at the time to explain my 10-yo daughter what the moon shuttle was doing to try and dock: the space station was orbiting the Earth at great speed (low orbit, a circular motion) while simultaneously turning about its axis at a relatively slow speed, so the shuttle had to match all those different movements and speeds simultaneously.

You see how they first match the orbital speed, so the station now appears to stay put in front of them but still gyrating, then they match the rotation. From the outside view, the station is seen moving and rotating with a much smaller shuttle going next to it in a weird, unnatural fashion. But then the viewpoint changes to the inside of the shuttle "cockpit" and you see that for the pilots the station is now absolutely motionless, no rotation, and docking there is now trivial.

She understood it all and then we proceeded to simulate the whole docking maneuver in "Celestia", an awesome (now-defunct) free space simulator, which included models for the station and shuttle. We manually controlled the shuttle and after a few attempts we managed to dock successfully. We even recorded videos as seen from the outside and as seen from the cockpit.

That teached her more about such mechanics and about relativity of movement than any book lessons could. We both love this movie and will remember that docking forever. And the music is *perfect*. Para gustos hay colores.

Regards.
V.