Star Trek and who watches it.

[ZBeeblebrox]

Wow. very astute analysis...thanks YK.

I tend to watch Sci Fi with Reality blinders on, and just appriciate the overall story.

Thanks for the answer to my inquiry.

[Agent Minivann]

I think the most important thing to remember here is that JJ Abrams took something that was closer to hard science fiction and shifted it radically into the domain of space opera. The science is less important, and really you just mentioned one example of what is wrong. I don't completely buy what you are saying with it. Think about a geosynchronous orbit over a point not on the equator. That is a very different set of considerations from what you mention.

[Jim]

Also, if you go back to the 2009 Trek movie, they warped from Earth to Vulcan in a few minutes. So it's not like Into Darkness was doing things differently than they already established they would...

[Yodaking]

You can read about a Satellite falling to Earth right now here. It ran out of gas last month and has been steadily sinking towards the Earth and will plunge to Earth somewhere between Sunday night and Monday afternoon. Very low polar orbit, 161 miles above the Earth. Close enough to experience drag from our atmosphere.

Geosynchronous orbit means that the satellite is spinning around the Earth at the same speed as the Earth spins on it's axis. Thus allowing it to stay in place over one specific area on the map. This is tricky to do when not on the equator. It is a higher orbit that most of the other satellites. It is actually cheaper to run multiple satellites at a lower orbit and just cover an area by overlapping their passes. When they run out of fuel they would just fall into a lower orbit that was no longer geosynchronous, then eventually come down like the one above.

[Agent Minivann]

But we are talking about an object intended to stay in orbit over a span of years vs a spacecraft doing tactical maneuvers. Those are different animals.

[Yodaking]

The Enterprise was also not doing any tactical maneuvers in the final battle, it was dead in the water. Watch the movie again.

[Ryougabot]

We are all overlooking the purpose of that particular plot element. That was the situation that allowed the Enterprise to emerge from the clouds with a full orchestral fanfare. That entire scene was a nod to the fans and an excuse to create a cool, memorable shot. It was also a throwback to the 2009 movie where the enterprise emerged from Saturn the same way. He was more interested in being awesome than being accurate.