The Orbital Plane

The Quicktime object movie in this webpage illustrates the orbital plane of the shuttle orbiter.The movie has various segments you should study.

	1) The shuttle revolves around the earth once while the viewer is located directly above 28 degrees north latitude. The elapsed time is shown on the stopwatch.
	2) The observer's position moves from above 28 degrees north latitude to directly above the equator (0 degrees latitude). The earth is frozen in time while you do this as denoted by the paused stopwatch.
	3) The observer's position moves above the equator through the point where angle of inclination can be measured. No time is passing.
	4) The observer's position continues moving above the equator until the observer has traveled halfway around the earth from the original position above the equator. No time is passing.
	5) The observer's position then moves north to a position to view the circular orbit of the space shuttle orbiter. No time is passing.
	6) The orbiter revolves around the earth one more time. The elapsed time is shown on the stopwatch.

Play the Quicktime object movie below by clicking on the picture and dragging to the right. Use this object movie to investigate the orbital plane and to answer the following questions:

Questions:

1) What direction does the earth rotate as viewed from the north pole?

2) How long does it take the orbiter to make one revolution?

3) By looking at the shadow of the earth, about what time of the year does the flight occur?

4) What is the approximate inclination of the orbit? Measure it on the monitor using a protractor.

5) At what view does the orbit look like a line? an elipse? a circle?

Science Simulations | Mission Control