{"id":1862,"date":"2019-02-14T09:36:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T14:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2019-02-14T09:36:01","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T14:36:01","slug":"where-is-outer-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/14\/where-is-outer-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Outer Space?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I did not make it to the Galloway Symposium in December 2018 because of a travel conflict. I clearly missed an excellent presentation on scientific considerations of where outer space is.\u00a0 Dr. Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics presented his paper The Edge of Space: Revisiting the Von Karman Line.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Looking at the inner edge of space from historical, physical and technological viewpoints, he proposes 80 kilometers as a more appropriate boundary than the currently popular 100 km Von Karman line.<\/p>\n

In his presentation at the Galloway, he prepared some excellent slides<\/strong><\/a> (with cool pictures) laying out the history and logic for his proposal.\u00a0 In the slides, he concludes that:<\/p>\n

1) Elliptical orbit satellites can sustain perigees of 80-90 km but not 70 km<\/p>\n

2) Lifting vehicles (airplanes, balloons) can operate up to 50 km or so but not 55 km<\/p>\n

3) The effective Karman line (gravity force = aerodynamic force)is between 65 and 90 km depending on time, latitude and satellite properties, and is about 77 km for the \u2018most typical\u2019 values<\/p>\n

4) The natural physical boundary region is the mesosphere from 50 to (85-100) km or so. The stratopause is at about 50 km, the mesopause varies with time and latitude<\/p>\n

Reijnen\u2019s \u201cmesospace\u201d, Sgobba\u2019s \u201cnear space\u201d, Pelton\u2019s \u201cprotozone\u201d should therefore be located in the physical mesosphere<\/p>\n

The USAF were right! 80 km (50 miles) is a good dividing line, perhaps with a transitional protozone or \u2018mesozone\u2019 underneath it extending from 50 or 65 km to 80 or 90 km.<\/p>\n

I propose that \u2013 for *scientific* purposes:<\/p>\n

Geodetic heights up to 50 km are \u2018air\u2019<\/p>\n

Geodetic heights above 80 km are \u2018space\u2019<\/p>\n

Geodetic heights from 50 to 80 km are the \u2018protozone\u2019 or \u2018mesozone\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did not make it to the Galloway Symposium in December 2018 because of a travel conflict. I clearly missed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhere is Outer Space? - Ground Based Space Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/14\/where-is-outer-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where is Outer Space? - Ground Based Space Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I did not make it to the Galloway Symposium in December 2018 because of a travel conflict. 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