The film "Gravity" and Orbital Resonance

[Northstar1989]

So, I was just thinking about the film "Gravity" for some reason, and how horribly unrealistic it is...

Start off by reading this article- which gently hints at just a few of the inaccuracies:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/mark-kelly-gives-an-astronauts-view-of-gravity/2013/10/11/2b4e5e6c-3286-11e3-9c68-1cf643210300_story.html?tid=sm_fb

My biggest qualm is, beyond a doubt, the shrapnel field- so I would like to just focus discussion on that. Namely, that if you have an object at the same orbital orbit but in a different phase of the orbit that blow up, it's NOT magically going to start moving independent of its orbital resonance with other objects in the same phase, and strike them every 90 minutes (like in the film gravity), Instead, the shrapnel spread out is going to enter a number of slightly-different orbits that would take days, months, or even years to phase into position with another object in the same orbit- such as the ISS- giving astronauts there plenty of time to escape before any debris would reach them...

The easiest thought-example is to imagine two objects in KSP in circular 100 km x 100 km orbits, on *opposite* sides of Kerbin from each other at all times. What happens if you blow one up? It doesn't magically start moving around that orbital altitude at twice the speed- instead it would take a LONG time for any of the resulting elliptical or inclined debris orbits to phase into position with and hit the object on the other side of the orbit from the first...

Regards,

Northstar

[Ralathon]

Ill just quote myself from the last time we had this discussion:

I really don't understand why people constantly feel the need to constantly bash this movie on its physics accuracy. I constantly see people posting stuff like "Plain unwatchable due to inaccuracies" yet proceed to praise The Dark Knight as the pinnacle of movie making. Does it make them feel smart about themselves or something?

Because Gravity is one of the most accurate sci fi movies I've ever seen. The inaccuracies were minor or intentional. Sure the Hubble, the ISS and the planned chinese station are in vastly different orbits IRL. But else there wouldn't be a story. It'd be: Debris hits, characters run out of supplies and die. Not a good movie, even if its more realistic.

Also, you're assuming that the debris hitting the ISS and Tiangong is the debris generated by the space shuttle. Why? A lot of shrapnel missed the shuttle and flew on to rendezvous after another orbit. Think, 2 orbits with the same period but different inclinations. One slightly elliptic so it only has 1 close encounter.

[Dodgey]

Yea I don't see a problem. It seems like the more accurate a movie is the more flack it gets for its inaccuracies.

[Northstar1989]

Yea I don't see a problem. It seems like the more accurate a movie is the more flack it gets for its inaccuracies.

Perhaps because other movies don't *pretend* to be accurate/realistic?

Regards,

Northstar

[Mitchz95]

Perhaps because other movies don't *pretend* to be accurate/realistic?

Regards,

Northstar

The movie was praised for its visuals and cinematography which made it look realistic. I don't believe anybody went on record saying it was supposed to be a completely accurate representation of how space works.

[Aghanim]

Gravity again... we already have several threads dedicated for dissecting Gravity's fails

[ThinkOutsideTheHangar]

It doesnt have to be realistic guys! It only has to be be beliveable! Welcome to capitalism.

[Fingal]

I don't care how believable/unbelievable it is. That re-entry scene is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on screen.

[Dkmdlb]

You mean the scene where the Chinese Space Station re-enters for no reason?

[Space_Kraken]

It's obvious the debris knocked it onto a suborbital trajectory.

[Fingal]

You mean the scene where the Chinese Space Station re-enters for no reason?

It could have been farted out of orbit by a squadron of flying unicorns and it still wouldn't diminish that scene.

[Justin Kerbice]

A big movie company is working as we speak on an amazing and super accurate space movie, no name yet.

What is it about ? We show, for 4 hours, people filling paperworks, designing components, preparing the mission, studying various trajectories, and finally do some tests on a few components. Amazing !

"The most accurate space movie ever !" (this is how they'll sell it)

[Fingal]

A big movie company is working as we speak on an amazing and super accurate space movie, no name yet.

What is it about ? We show, for 4 hours, people filling paperworks, designing components, preparing the mission, studying various trajectories, and finally do some tests on a few components. Amazing !

"The most accurate space movie ever !" (this is how they'll sell it)

Although to be fair that was quite cool when they did an episode of "From the Earth to the Moon" like that.

[peadar1987]

Retrograde orbit?

[AngelLestat]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Reentry Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpcPLtHkWLI

Second debris wave scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKnVPdem_rQ

Reentry Scene - How was made

Complaint how unreal a few scenes are in gravity is like critic all KSP game for the appearance of kerbals.

-The hair does not float.. Solution?? made the hair digital??

-The space debris destruction happens too fast.. Solution?? Let all astronauts go back to earth and end the movie.

For example where I saw the movie for the first time, I dint like the scene when Sandra Bullock try to hold to George Clooney but they keep feeling an acceleration even when they look stop.

When I saw the scene again, is clearly that they are spining with respect to the space station, so that creates an centrifuge acceleration.

[Fingal]

Being British I don't know much about Neil deGrasse Tyson but between this and Titanic he comes across as someone who just likes to get attention by being a contrarian. He reminds me of the people who complained about comic sans in the presentation of the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

[Chiboko]

It's obvious the debris knocked it onto a suborbital trajectory.

Kraken trying to provide non-kraken cause for a spacecraft being destroyed? Sounds suspicious.