U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

This is an all the time debris pic from a univ.

Why do universities have more debris?

Just wonderin'

joke

[classicman]

So Merc whats the point exactly? I don't understand. When was that pic taken -
before, during or after?

[TheMercenary]

This is the web site: http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~jeffery...rth/earth.html

The point was to show a graphic picture of space debris. It is a general pic of all the debris circulating the earths atmosphere, note from the link it is in a two-dimensional area photo.

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I didn't know that 500miles was considered low orbit. I am surprised that things don't fall into the atmosphere with more frequency.

ISS really is not in space. Do to compromises to give the Air Force a space plane (Space Shuttle), ISS really sits in earth's upper atmosphere some 200+ miles up. ISS must constantly fire rockets to push itself higher.

LEO (low earth orbit) I believe is below 1000 miles.

About a year ago, the US military tested a satellite destruction weapon. Last week, I believe the Air Force said the debris was mostly gone.

Curious is how devastating that collision was. Military officers who monitor this stuff expected the collision to result in many larger pieces. That's another 800 pieces - any one of which can take out any manned space vehicle - space shuttle, ISS, etc. Just another 800 particles that must be tracked constantly for generations so that not one tiny particle gets within miles of any satellite or manned mission.

Littering laws are not enforced.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today's paper said the junk might endanger the Hubble.

[glatt]

Today's paper had a lot more information.

The cloud of debris from this collision is actually two clouds, each roughly following the previous orbit of each satellite, because it was a glancing impact. Military radar picked up roughly 700 pieces of debris larger than 4 inches, but experts estimate that there are millions of smaller pieces not seen by the radar.

They expect that the debris field will continue to spread, and some of the debris will get as high as 1000 or 1500 miles of altitude.

The most amazing thing I saw in the article was this quote.

Johnson said that four or five satellites a day pass within 300 yards of debris or some other satellite.

[Griff]

From what I've read, now that we've had one very unlikely collison the odds get better for another. They will snowball as debris takes out satellites, creating more debris, taking out more satellites... Basically the human race is trapping itself on earth. We need a clean up effort.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Today's paper said the junk might endanger the Hubble.

That would be a sad thing indeed.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

They will snowball as debris takes out satellites, creating more debris, taking out more satellites... Basically the human race is trapping itself on earth. We need a clean up effort.

Dwayne Hickman (aka Dobie Gillis) did a TV show where he was captain of a spaceship that collected garbage. The show was far fetched. The concept not so absurd considering how legal it is to fill space with debris.

The collision of two spacecraft means debris has been ejected in numerous other directions. These two spacecraft apparently struck at right angles to each other. Debris is a threat to every other spacecraft, in part, because nobody knows yet where some of it has been redirected.

[glatt]

At least this dead bird fell out of the sky before it reached orbit. It sucks that it died though.

NASA Satellite Crashes Before Reaching Orbit

A NASA satellite designed to monitor carbon dioxide emissions with unprecedented accuracy failed to reach orbit and crashed into the Indian Ocean near Antarctica this morning.

"To say that it's extremely disappointing would be an understatement. This was a really important science mission," said a dismayed Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science.

[TheMercenary]

That was really a sad day for a bunch of people.

[ZenGum]

Oh come on, people, WAKE UP! That bird was sabotaged by the fossil fuel industry!

[tw]

From ABC News of 12 Mar 2009 entitled "Space Station's Close Call With Junk: More to Come":

The near-hit of space junk Thursday was a warning shot fired across the bow of the international space station, experts said. There's likely more to come in the future. With less than an hour's notice, the three astronauts were told they'd have to seek shelter in a Russian capsule parked at the space station in case a speeding piece of space junk hit Thursday.

If it hit and they were in the main part of the station, they'd have only 10 minutes of safety, ...

The crew moved so fast that they may have left their instruction manual on the other side of a closed hatch. Inside the Soyuz, they waited for 10 minutes, ready to flee to Earth if the worst happened. On the ground, space debris experts fretted.

Chinese were warning of this problem using a low orbit example to accentuate their point. Back then, extremists were in routine denial. America was leading the charge that also included stifling stem cell research and quantum physics. Instead, extremists wanted to militarize space because that is what their partisan politics dictate.

What is good for science is good for extremists? Of course not. What is good for extremists is good for science.

Like a need for pollution controls in the 1960s and elimination of ozone destroying chemicals in the 1980s, another serious problem exists - obviously. Space junk is routine. Even rocket launches leave some rocket stages in space. One astronaut lost her tools in space.

Do we take this problem seriously? Do we ignore political extremists and deal with the problem internationally? Finally America has leaders that would cooperate with the world. The worst thing we might do is military space. Littering in space may finally become illegal. Yes, nations currently do nothing to minimize their rubbish. It is a problem.

NASA operates a super computer whose only function is to predict when space debris threatens the ISS. Therefore they had how much warning? Littering already is a serious problem that is even worse at altitudes that man does not (yet) go.

The space station and space shuttle have been hit by debris in the past. But so far the only holes have been in the station's solar panels and in the shuttle radiator

[glatt]

I wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the space age. Here. In this thread. At least the geosynchronous satellites are high enough to be fairly safe.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

I wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the space age. Here. In this thread. At least the geosynchronous satellites are high enough to be fairly safe.

Geosynchronous are the worst offenders. The reason for only a 10 minute response was due to debris getting sucked into earth's atmosphere. Geosynchronous debris remains forever AND is much harder to track. Furthermore the future of space is not manned space travel. The future is robots - such as the spacecraft that must somehow survive in a debris strewn geosynchronous orbit.

Like the anti-ballistic missile treaty, a non-proliferation treaty, an international agreement to modify nuclear power plants all over the world to make its uranium less bomb grade, the Oslo Accords, stem cell research, innovations in energy consumption, quantum physics, global warming, etc; we had an administration that advocated more litter in space because the political agenda dictated militarization of space. We needed bigger dics. Litter is not a threat (or deficits don't matter - same mindset).

An extremist legacy directly traceable to politics and with open contempt for science lives on. As if Obama does not have enough American advocated disasters to deal with.