this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
606 points (99.0% liked)

xkcd

8921 readers
235 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

https://xkcd.com/2883

Alt text:

They didn't bring us a gift, but considering the kinetic energy of a bottle of wine at orbital speed, that's probably for the best.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 67 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ok, now we start patiently waiting for the website where you enter an address and then get back your astronaut visit date.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure if there's any publicly available orbital data for the ISS with enough precision.

[–] jaybone 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Isn’t there an app that shows you exactly where that thing is, and when it will be visible over your location?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah, but that's not to the precision of a few meters that would be required.

[–] auekay 3 points 10 months ago

https://stuffin.space/ should show you a decent percentage of objects tracked in Earth's orbit.

[–] niktemadur 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This assumes that old thing that your property goes straight up so you also claim ownership of the airspace, as written by Lawrence Lessig in his excellent book "Free Culture".

In that case, on more than one occasion I've had several dozen people over for dinner, as a commercial airliner flew overhead.

[–] Wizard_Pope 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do you really need to assume that or can you just interpret having them over as being above you? You don't need to own the airspace for them to he above you.

[–] chuckleslord 23 points 10 months ago

Yeah, they're literally "over"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Legal Fiction, by William Empson

Plus, I recommend Samantha Harvey's 2023 novel, Orbital, spanning one day on a space station orbiting Earth. It's really good.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Image transcript:

Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.
Your well fenced out real estate of mind
No high flat of the nomad citizen
Looks over, or train leaves behind.

Your rights extend under and above your claim
Without bound; you own land in Heaven and Hell;
Your part of earth's surface and mass the same,
Of all cosmos' volume, and all stars as well.

Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell's
Pointed exclusive conclave, at earth's centre
(Your spun farm's root still on that axis dwells);
And up, through galaxies, a growing sector.

You are nomad yet; the lighthouse beam you own
Flashes, like Lucifer, through the firmament.
Earth's axis varies; your dark central cone
Wavers a candle's shadow, at the end.

[–] Emerald 3 points 10 months ago

Thanks you beat me to it

[–] randomaccount43543 14 points 10 months ago
[–] RampantParanoia2365 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't get it. How did they eat the dinner?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

They couldn't because they were in a hurry and like a hundred miles away.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Over(head) for (the duration of) dinner (well, part of it anyhow).

[–] Mango 2 points 10 months ago

As someone who grew up in Wapakoneta, I can make this claim without orbital hijinx, and specifically with Neil Armstrong himself!