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AvcalmQ t1_j8z8edj wrote

Reply to comment by Felaguin in Where does space really begin? Chinese spy balloon highlights legal fuzziness of ‘near space’ by HarpuasGhost

18 km out of... 100km. The kármán line isn't even in space, in that you still encounter significant drag and orbit degradation.

Shit man, if 18% is "near" I've got a nearly mint car I can sell.

EDIT: added a word for ease of interpretation

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Science-Compliance t1_j8zr12r wrote

>The kármán line isn't even in space

Earth's exosphere extends out past the moon. Any definition of "space" will be squishy. Satellites in low Earth orbit experience drag, too. Objects at 100km can complete multiple orbits around the Earth before drag pulls them down into the atmosphere. I'd be willing to call that space if someone wanted to argue about it.

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Blank_bill t1_j921s3f wrote

I'm an old coot ,I remember before we had space ( well except for people like Von Braun) but if you can get there in a balloon it's not space.

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Science-Compliance t1_j92w6p4 wrote

What about a balloon with rocket boosters attached to it?

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Blank_bill t1_j92wkg4 wrote

It's the rocets that go not the balloon. I could just see a rocket dragging a balloon behind it.

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AvcalmQ t1_j92uk4o wrote

It's the defined transition, you'd be arguing with the wrong guy on that.

I maybe should've said "up to 100km isn't space" but that's not an argument I thought I'd have had to have, tbh.

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Science-Compliance t1_j92wz94 wrote

The US considers anything past 50 miles in altitude to be space, and, in a manner of definition, they're not necessarily wrong. You can do more than one orbit at this altitude. "Space" is a human construct, so any definition is really going to fit human needs. In any case, 60,000 feet is not "space" by any reasonable definition.

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Aerostudents t1_j8zqriv wrote

>18 km out of... 100km. The kármán line isn't even in space, in that you still encounter drag and orbit degradation.

I mean you still encounter drag and orbit degradation way higher than the karman line though. The ISS also encounters drag and orbit degradation still.

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AvcalmQ t1_j92usue wrote

You're not wrong but you can clearly see what the comment was saying; I can't find many (any) satellites that are continuously operating at or below 100km, whereas I can for those above.

I'll add the word "significant" to further clarify this

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