Orbital Mechanics Simulator

Trajectory or Spinning Things
By Cole

When you are sitting in a chair and being spun around on a long arm and another kids is on the other end of the arm in another chair doing the same thing (spinning), it is difficult to throw a ball to them. You were supposed to throw a ball to the opposite side of the simulator but by the time the ball got there, the person had already spun about 30 degrees around the circle. To get to the next round of this experience you and your partner had to catch 4 thrown balls. In the next round you had to each throw a ball to each other. WE were supposed to throw both balls at the same time. I kept throwing the balls in the wrong direction. Our space camp guide did show us how to arch the ball as we threw it and this helped to correct our trajectory. This simulator was used to show how one spacecraft could dock with another spacecraft or another planet in space.