• Question: have you ever had a project involving wheels and if what?

    Asked by Mr Grin to Phil on 8 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Phil Allen

      Phil Allen answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Outside of work I’ve worked on a project car which involved an engine swap amongst other things. Within work though (ironically) every project has wheels! Reaction wheels are used on our satellites to turn them around with respect to its centre of mass in orbit. They are also used to stop them spinning when they have been ejected from the launch vehicle. This works via the conservation of angular momentum, if you spin the wheel in one direction it will start to spin the satellite the other direction.

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