International Space station tour - It's huge!
- Thread starter The_blue
- Start date
Thanks for the excellent "short" video.
If you have time make a drink and settle down for the long tour:
and something different:
To find out more about the International Space Station visit the NASA ISS area:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Like any of us are going to know that?
, it's not all top secret you know.
Not so much in this particular case.
If you mean the one that's visible in the 'part III' YouTube link, it's a Russian docking mechanism (which is somewhat similar to the US Apollo-era version).
During docking, a Russian Soyuz, Progress, or station segment 'docks' by literally colliding with the station with a docking probe extended. That probe slides into the cone you can see (the cone helps correct for slight misalignment).
Once docked, the craft uses hooks and latches to make a hard attachment to the station, and the probe is retracted. Since the docking mechanism is also a hatchway, they swing the (now empty) cone out of the way to gain access.
Some of us 'know that' then.
PS - The US shuttle docking mechanism uses much more 'finesse' but needs precision formation flying - something computers aren't quite good enough at, yet.
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Thanks for the excellent "short" video.
If you have time make a drink and settle down for the long tour:
Is this a new video or the old one?
