This presentation discusses how to move objects in a microgravity environment.

1. Endeavour:Moving in Space Unit 1 Lesson 1

2. What is this all about? This course will teach you how to work in a team, communicate with others in writing and verbally, and use what you know. Scientists and engineers must do all of the above well. This unit will show you how to tackle tough real-life NASA problems by working on simple problems. Make no mistake though, these are real-life problems with possible deadly consequences.

3. Moving In Space Some people believe that it is easy to move in space. Although you appear to weigh nothing, you still have to contend with Newton’s Laws of Motion. In Warner Brother’s Cartoons they often had the characters do incredible things like falling to Earth at a high rate of speed and then stop quickly before hitting the ground. The character would then say something like, “ I never studied law.” Cute but deadly in real life. As you read earlier, a lack of understanding of the basic laws of physics could end your career, abruptly.

4. Newton’s First Law of Motion An object in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. If you throw a ball it should go on forever. Instead what happens? What outside force(s) keep it from going on forever? An object at rest tends to remain at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. If you put a pencil on a desk it will stay there forever. If you came back the next day and the pencil wasn’t there, what would you think happened to it?

5. Newton’s Second Law of Motion Force = mass x acceleration (F=mA) Ever try to push a dart into a dartboard. Pretty hard. What is an easier way? Why is it easier? Did you increase the mass of the dart? (make it stronger?) Once you accelerate the dart it has a force. At the end of it’s flight, assuming no loss of velocity, it should have the same force. What to try to catch the dart?

6. Newton’s Third Law of Motion For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you blow up a balloon and let it go, the gas escaping from the bottom of the balloon causes an unequal force toward the top of the balloon making it move.

7. What are we going to do? In this lesson we are going to apply Newton’s Laws to the astronauts on orbit.