ISS: The Largest moving thing ever made?

[tblaxland]

I think the largest man-made structure might actually be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch.

It doesn't "move" a lot as such, but probably gets churned quite a bit by the currents, so it might still qualify as the largest moving thing.

A prime example of humanity shg not only in its own nest, but in the nests of others.

 

[thomasantony]

Well its a bit disputed about the great wall. According to the almighty wiki:

A more controversial question is whether the Wall is visible from low earth orbit, i.e an altitude of as little as 100 miles (160 km). NASA claims that it is barely visible, and only under nearly perfect conditions; it is no more conspicuous than many other man-made objects.[13] Other authors have argued that due to limitations of the optics of the eye and the spacing of photoreceptors on the retina, it is impossible to see the wall with the naked eye, even from low orbit, and would require visual acuity of 20/3 (7.7 times better than normal).

Actually there are many other things that can be seen from space. One example is the the Nardo Ring in Italy.

From
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1084.html

The Nardo Ring is a striking visual feature from space, and astronauts have photographed it several times. The Ring is a race car test track that is steeply banked to reduce the amount of active steering needed by drivers. The Ring lies in a remote area on the heel of Italy's "boot," east of the naval port of Taranto and encompasses a number of active (green) and fallow (brown to dark brown) agricultural fields. In this zone of intensive agriculture, farmers gain access to their fields through the Ring via a series of underpasses. Winding features within the southern section of the Ring appear to be smaller, unused race tracks.

Another pics of the same thing here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nard%C3%B2_ring.jpg

~
Thomas

 

[pete.dakota]

However, neither the Great Wall or the Nardo Ring 'move'.

 

[RisingFury]

Isn't the estimate of final cost at something like $157 billion dollars? Compared on the list of expensive objects built by man:
(all found at Wikipedia, which may or may not be correct.)
2nd place is occupied by the Three Gorges Dam at $25 Billion, 3rd is the "Big Dog" tunnel project in Boston at $14.6 billion.

Mir cost $4.3 billion, comparatively speaking, and the Shuttle was apparently $1.7 billion per unit.

So, billions of dollars going literary up in flames

 

[Matt]

However, neither the Great Wall or the Nardo Ring 'move'.

The earth is moving

 

[Eagle]

Would ISS win the 'most kinetic energy' for a man-made object?

 

[tblaxland]

Would ISS win the 'most kinetic energy' for a man-made object?

Yes, see my post earlier in the thread:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showpost.php?p=36519&postcount=11

Lingofreak disagrees, and shows the importance of the reference frame:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showpost.php?p=36688&postcount=13