Topics: International Space Station, Space, NASA, Science, YouTube, World News
A mind-blowing simulation has revealed how the ISS doesn’t crash into Earth despite ‘constantly falling’.
The International Space Station is a large, habitable satellite, roughly about the size of a football field.
It is constantly moving, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of around 250 miles, and is maintained by multiple international space agencies, including NASA.
Yet while the structure sits just above Earth, gravity miraculously never manages to pull it down, which would send it hurling towards home and burning up in the atmosphere.
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Now, fortunately a viral simulation by popular YouTube creator Zack D. Films has explained why the ISS remains safe from this hellish scenario.
The simulation shows the ISS whizzing around Earth, as the caption reads: "The space station is constantly falling, but it's moving forward so fast that as it falls, it keeps missing the planet.
"This continuous fall creates a loop, keeping it circling around Earth rather than crashing into it."
The filmmaker continues: "But the space station isn't completely out of the atmosphere which does contain a tiny bit of air. And as it loses speed, moving forward, gravity starts to pull it a little closer to Earth each day, meaning it would eventually fall to the ground."
Fortunately, space boffins are all-too-aware of such a risk and have come up with an ingenious solution.
"To fix this, the station used small rocket boosts every few weeks to climb back up," Zack continued, "which keeps it in perfect orbit."
According to Space.com, the ISS is able to remain in orbit due to physics that can be traced back to 17th century English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, who theorised the theory of gravity.
The site explains it boils down to the ISS' orbital velocity - its height above the ground - and the speed at which it is falling under gravity.
"The rate at which the ISS falls as it follows its curved path equals the rate at which the curved surface of Earth drops away below it," it states, explaining further how this is achieved 'with certain combinations of height and orbital velocity.'
The ISS orbits at a height of around 420 kilometers and travels at 7.6 kilometers per second, the perfect velocity required to 'keep following the path that matches the curvature of Earth.'
If this were to change, for instance if the ISS was orbiting the Earth at a greater height, it wouldn't need to travel so quickly to keep pace with the curvature of its fall. Likewise, if it were at a lower altitude, it would need to travel faster.
It's true that the ISS also needs human intervention to prevent it from crashing down in the atmosphere, as Space reports it 'cannot be left to its own devices indefinitely.'
This is because it sits within Earth's atmosphere - in a thinner part called the thermosphere - which creates drag that slows it down, causing it to lose around 100 meters in altitude every day.
As the simulation pointed out, the ISS has thrusters to push it back up 'every month or so.'
If it didn't, it would fall deeper into the atmosphere and burn up, like a meteor.
