What would happen if the International Space Station (ISS) orbited the planet not at an altitude of 400 km above the surface, but very close, for example, at the height of an aerial view?
Airplane enthusiast Benjamin Granville used the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator game to show what a space station would look like at an altitude of only 3 km above the Earth. The results were equally surprising and creepy.
At the same time, the flight speed is also taken into account. Since the ISS is flying at a speed of 27,600 km/h relative to the Earth’s surface, an observer on the surface would not even see the station — it is rushing 8 times faster than a bullet. This speed must be maintained by objects in order to remain in orbit of our planet. In other words, to photograph the ISS, you need an ultra-sensitive camera that could catch an object at such a speed.
Of course, such a maneuver could never be performed in real life. The space station would not only have to overcome incredible air resistance, but also terrible friction in the atmosphere, and it would also need fantastic power to maintain its speed. But still, it’s an interesting demonstration of the extreme speed of an object that, at least from a distance, seems to be peacefully drifting in the night sky.
Earlier we reported on how the Earth looks from the ISS.
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