Free falling in outer space - Matt J. Carlson

Translator: Annisa Jasmin Reviewer: Hafizh Alfarisi

Have you ever been floating in a swimming pool,

Pernahkah kau mengapung di kolam renang, merasa nyaman dan hangat sambil berpikir,

all comfy and warm, thinking,

"Man, it'd be cool to be an astronaut!

“Pasti keren jadi astronot!

You could float out in outer space, look down at the Earth and everything.

Aku bisa melayang di angkasa luar, melihat Bumi dan seisinya.

It'd be so neat!"

Mengagumkan!”

Aslinya tidak sekeren itu.

Only that's not how it is at all.

If you are in outer space, you are orbiting the Earth:

Jika kau berada di angkasa luar, kau mengitari Bumi.

it's called free fall.

Inilah yang disebut terjun bebas.

You're actually falling towards the Earth.

Kau sebenarnya sedang jatuh ke Bumi.

Bayangkan sejenak perasaan yang kau dapat

Think about this for a moment: that's the feeling you get

if you're going over the top of a roller coaster, going, like, "Whoa!"

saat mencapai puncak roller coaster, lalu kau berteriak, “Woah!”

Only you're doing this

Hanya saja, kau merasakannya selama kau mengitari Bumi

the whole time you're orbiting the Earth,

selama dua, tiga, empat jam, hingga berhari-hari.

for two, three, four hours, days.

Whatever it takes, right?

Tak masalah, bukan?

So, how does orbiting work?

Jadi, bagaimana benda mengorbit?

Let's take a page from Isaac Newton.

Mari simak teori Isaac Newton.

He had this idea, a little mental experiment:

Dia memiliki ide, sebuah percobaan psikis.

You take a cannon,

Kau bawa sebuah meriam dan letakkan di puncak bukit.

you put it on top of a hill.

If you shoot the cannonball,

Bola meriam yang kau tembak melesat sedikit. “Pluk!”

it goes a little bit away.

But if you shoot it harder,

Jika menembaknya keras, bolanya melesat cukup jauh

it goes far enough so that it lands

sehingga bisa mendarat sedikit melewati lengkungan bumi.

a little bit past the curvature of Earth.

Bisa kau bayangkan jika menembaknya sangat keras,

Well, you can imagine if you shot it really, really, hard,

it would go all the way around the Earth

bola akan melayang mengitari bumi, lalu kembali. “Buk!“

and come back -- boom! -- and hit you in the backside or something.

Bolanya menabrakmu dari belakang.

Kita kembali ke awal dan posisikan kau sebagai satelit kecil di atas Kutub Utara.

Let's zoom way back and put you in a little satellite

over the North Pole of the Earth

and consider north to be up.

Anggap utara di sisi atas Bumi.

You're going to fall down and hit the Earth.

Kau akan jatuh dan menabrak Bumi.

Namun, sebenarnya kau bergerak menyamping dengan sangat cepat.

But you are actually moving sideways really fast.

So when you fall down,

Jadi, ketika kau jatuh, kau nyaris mendarat.

you're going to miss.

You're going to end up on the side of the Earth, falling down,

Kau malah berada di sisi Bumi selagi terjatuh,

and now the Earth is pulling you back in sideways.

tetapi Bumi menarikmu kembali ke sisi lainnya.

So it's pulling you back in and you fall down,

Jadi, Bumi menarikmu dan kau terjatuh lagi.

and so you miss the Earth again, and now you're under the Earth.

Kau pun gagal mendarat lagi dan sekarang berada di sisi bawah Bumi.

Bumi menarikmu ke atas, tapi kau tetap bergerak menyamping.

The Earth is going to pull you up, but you're moving sideways still.

Jadi, kau akan gagal mendarat lagi.

So you're going to miss the Earth again.

Kau pun ada di sisi lain Bumi sambil bergerak ke atas

Now you're on the other side of the Earth, moving upward,

dan Bumi menarikmu ke sisi lain.

and the Earth's pulling you sideways.

Kau akan jatuh menyamping,

So you're going to fall sideways,

tapi bergerak ke atas dan gagal mendarat lagi.

but you're going to be moving up and so you'll miss.

Sekarang kau berada di sisi atas Bumi lagi, di atas Kutub Utara,

Now you're back on top of the Earth again, over the North Pole,

going sideways and falling down,

bergerak menyamping sambil terjatuh.

and yep -- you guessed it.

Dan ya, bisa ditebak.

Kau akan terus gagal mendarat karena bergerak sangat cepat.

You'll keep missing because you're moving so fast.

Begini cara astronot mengitari Bumi.

In this way, astronauts orbit the Earth.

They're always falling towards the Earth,

Mereka selalu jatuh ke Bumi, tapi selalu gagal mendarat.

but they're always missing, and therefore, they're falling all the time.

Karena itu, mereka selalu jatuh.

They feel like they're falling, so you just have to get over it.

Mereka merasa seperti akan jatuh, jadi terima sajalah.

So technically, if you ran fast enough and tripped,

Secara teknis, jika kau berlari cukup cepat, lalu tersandung,

you could miss the Earth.

kau bisa saja tak lagi mendarat.

Namun, ada permasalahannya.

But there's a big problem.

First, you have to be going eight kilometers a second.

Pertama, kecepatan jatuhmu harus sampai 8 kilometer per detik.

Itu sama dengan 18 ribu mil per jam, lebih dari Mach 23!

That's 18,000 miles an hour,

just over Mach 23!

The second problem:

Masalah kedua: jika kau memang secepat itu,

If you're going that fast,

yes, you would orbit the Earth and come back where you came from,

kau memang mengitari Bumi dan akan kembali ke posisi awalmu,

but there's a lot of air in the way,

tapi kau menghantam banyak partikel udara, terutama orang dan benda.

much less people and things.

So you would burn up due to atmospheric friction.

Kau akan terbakar akibat gesekan atmosfer Bumi.

Karenanya, aku tidak menyarankan ini.

So, I do not recommend this.