Ever wondered how big the ISS really is?

[micheinnz]

It's this big.

Comments

[selidor]

Ooh, nice graphic.
VentureStar! I miss VentureStar. Hadn't thought of that for ages.

[micheinnz]

Apollo ws the one that made me stop and think. It was never a huge craft, but it was big enough for three guys and enough fuel and batteries to get them to the moon and back so not tiny either.

And yet, and yet... look at the ISS. It's beautiful.

[wcg]

It's big enough that we worry about tidal stresses along its long axis. We don't ever, *ever* want it to turn where the long axis is perpendicular to the Earth's surface, rather than parallel to it. That would be Very Bad.

[micheinnz]

How bad is Very Bad? Fall-out-of-the-sky Bad?

[wcg]

Break the space station bad. It would take a very long time to fall out of the sky, since it's in orbit. But it would lose structural integrity and the pieces would drift apart.

[freetrav]

Interesting. I'm slightly disappointed that Skylab didn't make it into the graphic.

[pauamma]

If that's any consolation, Mir didn't make it either.

[randomdreams]

And now I have to go figure out what Skylon is.

So, a lot of the stuff on the ISS is solar panels, isn't it?

[hitchhiker]

ooh, nifty!