manned space missions: how far up?

manned space missions: how far up?

Just a question that struck me:

I know that space shuttle missions, International Space Station, etc and
most manned Earth orbit missions are just a few hundred miles above the
Earth's surface. In effect, an afternoons' car drive.

Excepting the 27 men who've actually circled the Moon (Apollo 8-17, not
counting Apollo 9 which stayed in Earth orbit to test the lunar module).

So, except for those 9 flights....

What's the highest orbit any other manned mission has achieved? Has anyone
gone above 300 miles?

I'm assuming no (manned) flight has gone even close to geosynchronous orbit,
22,000 miles up.

"Algomeysa2" wrote in message
nk.net...
|
| What's the highest orbit any other manned mission has achieved?
| Has anyone gone above 300 miles?

Gemini 10: 764 km
Gemini 11: 1,374 km

--
|
The universe is not required to conform | Jay Windley
to the expectations of the ignorant. | webmaster @ clavius.org

In message et,
Algomeysa2 writes
manned space missions: how far up?

Just a question that struck me:

I know that space shuttle missions, International Space Station, etc and
most manned Earth orbit missions are just a few hundred miles above the
Earth's surface. In effect, an afternoons' car drive.

Excepting the 27 men who've actually circled the Moon (Apollo 8-17, not
counting Apollo 9 which stayed in Earth orbit to test the lunar module).

So, except for those 9 flights....

What's the highest orbit any other manned mission has achieved? Has anyone
gone above 300 miles?

I'm assuming no (manned) flight has gone even close to geosynchronous orbit,
22,000 miles up.


Gemini 11 reached a maximum altitude of 1372 km (858 miles) which seems
to be the record. Much higher than that, and you start approaching the
Van Allen belts which isn't really healthy, though it's quite safe if
you're just passing through like the Apollo flights.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the full Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Thanks. So, from something else I saw on the web , it seems that the
heaviest Van Allen belt concentration is between 9,500 km - 16,000 km, and
then less so, 6,300 - 38,000 km.

Geosynchronous satellites would be in roughly the 35,500 KM range, so, I
guess Manned Geosynchronous Satellites will be a bad idea....

....it's always seemed to me that, if we get Serious about a manned Mars
trip, a good in-between step (besides the obvious one of putting a base on
the Moon) would be to establish something halfway between the Moon and
Earth, say around 125,000 miles out. Not so far that they can't get
back to Earth if there's trouble, but far enough away that you're really
simulating being truly out in Space...

(Sort of the "you can't do a shakedown cruise for your submarine in your
swimming pool" concept).

"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message et,
Algomeysa2 writes
manned space missions: how far up?

Just a question that struck me:

I know that space shuttle missions, International Space Station, etc and
most manned Earth orbit missions are just a few hundred miles above the
Earth's surface. In effect, an afternoons' car drive.

Excepting the 27 men who've actually circled the Moon (Apollo 8-17, not
counting Apollo 9 which stayed in Earth orbit to test the lunar module).

So, except for those 9 flights....

What's the highest orbit any other manned mission has achieved? Has
anyone
gone above 300 miles?

I'm assuming no (manned) flight has gone even close to geosynchronous
orbit,
22,000 miles up.


Gemini 11 reached a maximum altitude of 1372 km (858 miles) which seems
to be the record. Much higher than that, and you start approaching the
Van Allen belts which isn't really healthy, though it's quite safe if
you're just passing through like the Apollo flights.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the full Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Algomeysa2 wrote:

...it's always seemed to me that, if we get Serious about a manned Mars
trip, a good in-between step (besides the obvious one of putting a base on
the Moon) would be to establish something halfway between the Moon and
Earth, say around 125,000 miles out. Not so far that they can't get
back to Earth if there's trouble, but far enough away that you're really
simulating being truly out in Space...

How would you get it to stay halfway between the Earth and the Moon?
Or are you thinking of a ring of several such stations, of which at
least one would be more or less between them at any given time?

--
Odysseus

Sorry, I may have phrased that wrong. I didn't mean it's got to be
between the Moon and Earth at all times; I meant, in a high orbit
(arbitrarily chosen as halfway between the Earth and the Moon's orbit).

"Odysseus" wrote in message
...
Algomeysa2 wrote:

...it's always seemed to me that, if we get Serious about a manned Mars
trip, a good in-between step (besides the obvious one of putting a base
on
the Moon) would be to establish something halfway between the Moon and
Earth, say around 125,000 miles out. Not so far that they can't
get
back to Earth if there's trouble, but far enough away that you're really
simulating being truly out in Space...

How would you get it to stay halfway between the Earth and the Moon?
Or are you thinking of a ring of several such stations, of which at
least one would be more or less between them at any given time?

--
Odysseus