Giant satellite will hit earth tomorrow
Look out Nearly Nuts!
Experts say there is a one-in-3,200 risk of the six-ton space junk hitting someone.
However, its speed means that there will only be a 20-minute warning before it strikes.
Debris is expected to scatter across a 500-mile area, with the biggest chunk weighing 300lb, the weight of a large refrigerator.
NASA spokespeople have stressed that the risk to human life and property from UARS is small.
They cite the statistic that in 50 years of space exploration no one has ever been hurt by falling space junk, while they claimed that people were much more likely to be fatally struck by lightning.
Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at NASA, said: "We know it is going to hit somewhere between 57 north latitude and 57 south latitude, which covers most of the inhabited world unfortunately."
The biggest piece of space debris to fall from orbit was America's 75-ton Skylab which hit Earth in 1979.
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NASA has warned people not to touch the debris if they come across it because it is likely to have sharp edges.
OMG! SHARP EDGES!
And, there are some nasty rumours, that there is some serious radio active stuff in it too.
N
Perry -
Metro Maine seems to be able to go bare headed but are AFBs needed in south Pacific ??
Look here: http://spaceweather.com/
TNAI
What the most interesting thing about this is that they actually have an "orbital debris scientist". That wasn't on my high school counselor's potential job list!!! Boy, did I miss out. 🙁
Who would want a job where it is your fault if the sky falls on somebody?
Please excuse my ignorance,because it is probably well-known. But why can't they destroy a satellite while it is still in orbit if they know it is destined to fail and fall? Is it not feasible to destroy something that high up?
A few years ago the Chinese wanted to show off, so the sent a missle into space to blow up one of their abandonded satellites, so it's possible. Problem was, it sent out a debris field that endangered other satellites and passed very close to the space station.
> ...why can't they destroy a satellite while it is still in orbit if they know it is destined to fail and fall? Is it not feasible to destroy something that high up?
Just a guess....the possibility of a miss might be fairly high, in which case a lot of $$$ spent for nothing.
Second, maybe hitting it and breaking it into lots of smaller oieces is wiorse.....perhaps slowing the re-entry might allow more pieces to survive the plunge through the atmosphere.
Sometime Friday
But, not over North America.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A 6.5-ton satellite falling out of orbit will hit Earth Friday, and 26 pieces of it have a good chance of surviving the heat of re-entry, NASA said.
The exact location of its re-entry is impossible to pinpoint because the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite travels thousands of miles in a matter of minutes, Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team told CNN.
On its Web site, NASA said the bus-sized 20-year-old satellite would not be flying over North America during the anticipated re-entry period.
Skylab into the Indian Ocean?
Wish the journo got his/her information correct - Skylab didn't tumble into the Indian Ocean. Large parts of it hit this little island called Australia!! Debris was spread thankfully over a wide area of mostly uninhabited desert in Western Australia.
Giant satellite will hit earth tomorrow - Nearly Normal
Some of the guys were talking here last week or so about Nearly Normal and his story about the meteor that supposedly hit him in the arm. I went back and found the post and it was truly humorous.
Then the other day I heard an interview on the radio with a lady from Oklahoma that did actually get hit by a meteor...only it was actually a small piece from a Delta rocket that had exploded on takeoff that had re-entered the atmosphere. The lady being interviewed wasn't too enthused to learn that they had no real idea of where the damned thing is going to hit.
Also found it interesting that whoever sends up a satellite is ultimately responsible for any damage caused by its re-entry, even punitive damages?
