Space junk coming to a street near you

[DJM83]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-five-science/

Traci Watson

for National Geographic News

Published September 9, 2011

It's coming from outer space.

Sometime in the next few weeks, pieces of a defunct NASA satellite will rain down on an unlucky patch of Earth.

Precisely where and when the space debris will hit home are not yet known, though the U.S. government will have a better picture of the so-called "debris footprint"—expected to be roughly 500 miles (805 kilometers) long—as the satellite's date with destiny draws near.

The doomed spacecraft, known as the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), was carried aloft by the space shuttle Discovery in 1991 to study Earth's atmosphere.

When the satellite was switched off in 2005, it became another piece of potentially hazardous space junk, so NASA nudged it toward Earth, aiming for a downward trajectory that would cause the craft to burn up in the atmosphere.

Now the satellite itself will become a type of experiment: Can an uncontrolled 6.3-ton object plummet out of orbit without hitting anybody?

At a press briefing Friday, NASA said there's generally little danger of death by space debris. Since the dawn of the Space Age some five decades ago, no human has been killed or even hurt by an artificial object falling from the heavens.

Many space objects experience a carefully controlled demise. Russia's Mir space station, for example, was steered into a remote patch of ocean in 2001. (Related: "Space Station to Fall to Earth—Find Out How and Where.")

But other pieces—old rocket segments jettisoned in orbit and abandoned spacecraft—fall toward Earth unguided. Last year one object a day, on average, made an unshepherded dive into the atmosphere, said NASA's Nick Johnson.

To date nearly 6,000 tons of human-made material have survived the fiery journey through our atmosphere, according to the Aerospace Corporation, a space-research center.

[fmc351]

Skylab II. If at first you dont succeed, try again

[Franco Cozzo]

Couldn't they just blow it out of the sky with a missile or something? Didn't China do that with an old satellite?

[GhiaEB]

And then have even more uncontrolled debris is space?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by GhiaEB

And then have even more uncontrolled debris is space?

Hit it when it comes into the upper atmosphere over the ocean? Surely with todays technology being able to place a missile up a camels *** from 1000 miles away, you could destroy some 6 tonne object entering the atmosphere in a certain place.

Could use it to show some millitary might too

[gtfpv]

supposed to be hitting the ground from now to the next 1/2 hour .

[GasoLane]

Sounds like the good old days when F111's were falling from the sky.

The word was if you wanted one just buy a block of land and wait for one to fall in

[fmc351]

Looks like it might hit somewhere over Sth East ...

[Franco Cozzo]

I wonder if we can see it enter the atmosphere and burn up?

[ebxr8240]

Ahhhh !!!

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Hit it when it comes into the upper atmosphere over the ocean? Surely with todays technology being able to place a missile up a camels *** from 1000 miles away, you could destroy some 6 tonne object entering the atmosphere in a certain place.

Could use it to show some millitary might too

Well there may be a problem as it will be going faster than most missiles and will probably be in several pieces which are strong enough to survive re-entry so will be a bit hard to vapourise using conventional weapons.

Of course there is the issue that if the attempt to blow it up just changes course and it does something nasty like landing in the middle of a city or hitting a nuclear power station.

Unfortunately the real world is neither a playstation game nor a hollywood blockbuster.

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by flappist

Unfortunately the real world is neither a playstation game nor a hollywood blockbuster.

reminds of a quote (possibly from said blockbuster lol) "trying to shoot down a comet is like trying to shoot a bullet with another bullet"

[DoreSlamR]

Sounds like it came down over Canada.

[Road Games]

Yay, i'm still alive .. Praise Jesus...

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by flappist

Unfortunately the real world is neither a playstation game nor a hollywood blockbuster.

Its nice to dream though right?

[Spanrz]

Supposed to come over Melb at 3:15pm, didn't see it. Knew it was coming down faster in the last orbit or 2. We missed out by 30-40 minutes.

[DJM83]

Apparently they lost it
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-2...fornia/2941106

[Jason[98.EL]]

full story here

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technolog...-towards-earth

Originally Posted by ninemsn

The satellite fell back to earth on Saturday but the precise re-entry time and location "are not yet known with certainty", NASA said.

"The satellite was passing eastward over Canada and Africa as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans during that period," the space agency said in its latest update.

On its Twitter feed, NASA said that if debris fell on land Canada was the most likely area.

The two dozen parts of the UARS that may have survived re-entry could weigh anything from one to 158 kilograms, the space agency said, and the debris field is expected to span 800 kilometres.

The tumbling motion of the satellite has made it difficult to narrow down the location. And given that the world is 70 per cent water, an ocean landing was considered likely.

Jason

[TheInterceptor]

Funny how one has more chance to be hit by a satellite than winning lotto :(

[flappist]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Funny how one has more chance to be hit by a satellite than winning lotto :(

No actually the figure quoted was the odds of any person being hit not a specific person being hit and in that the majority of lotto draws have at least one winner the odds of that happening are far greater.

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by flappist

No actually the figure quoted was the odds of any person being hit not a specific person being hit and in that the majority of lotto draws have at least one winner the odds of that happening are far greater.

Was a bit of humour not based on fact but well said flappist

[Bucknaked]

I think any falling Satellite when it comes back to earth, some come back as returned to Sender.

[Riksta]

At a press briefing Friday, NASA said there's generally little danger of death by space debris. Since the dawn of the Space Age some five decades ago, no human has been killed or even hurt by an artificial object falling from the heavens.

What has she got to do with anything you might ask?
Well:

On June 27, 2003 (at the age of 18) during the lunch break of her first day of work, George was struck by a zero-G toilet seat dislodged from the de-orbiting Soviet space station Mir, incinerating all of her but one shoe.

[Burnout]

Which Shoe?