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A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March, government officials said Saturday.The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. It was not clear how long ago the satellite lost power, or under what circumstances.
Disabled Spy Satellite Threatens Earth [news.wired.com]
Yep and if lands in my back yard, well all I can say is, watch Ebay.
Only one trouble - it won't you who would be selling remaining parts of the satellite and your house...
I am very much looking forward to purchasing your "slightly used spy satellite", it will be a welcome addition to my current collection of "slightly used spy satellite"s. As for the shipping, I have employed the services of an international shipper in (your area) and have sent you certified funds from my banc to cover the purchase and the shipping charges. Please forward the shipping charges immediately to my shipping provider in (your area) so that they may schedule the delivery of my new "slightly used spy satellite".
Many thanks,
Prince Abadabalobouber Smith
"Hydrazine could be harmful to humans"
[pcl.ox.ac.uk...]
Sounds like just about any other solvent/fuel.
Sounds like just about any other solvent/fuel.
Hydrazine is also known as "geptil" - this is an extremely dangerous fuel for humans, used extensively in Soviet military <snip> because geptil has got very high burning properties, so it is highly tempting "technical" solution. There was at least one big missile accident in USSR during fueling of one big missile - around 50 people died back then.
It is extremely toxic - not like any other "fuel", because you can breath diesel or petrol without risk to die there and then (and even so it might happen), but with heptil you got not much of a chance.
[edited by: lawman at 5:27 pm (utc) on Jan. 27, 2008]
I remember Skylab falling to earth, landing in the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.
Why can't they recover it/destroy it before it hits earth?
If its out of control then you can't recover it or do a controlled descent. Well, you probably can if you urgently launch Shuttle mission, but this will cost a lot of money, introduce risk to crews etc, so who would take responsibility for this step? People in charge of that thing are probably already too busy covering their backs for the time when investigation will commence on why top secret thing was allowed to drop off the sky potentially into territory of people who would love to get their hands on this tech (even if it's half burned).
You can't use missile (even if it is available) to blow it up as it will cause huge contamination of space that will endanger other satellites.
There may well be self-destruct stuff inside it, triggering it near or at re-entry would have been ideal as small pieces would burn up nicely, but if control is lost completely then it is hard to trigger it.
If it falls into the ocean then you can be sure there will be a sub mission though.
Now I was going to post more, but there is a black car in front of my window and 2 men in black glasses knock on the door. I will go answer that...
But, they knew about this some time back.
Those guys at the door; tell them to go get the satellite sorted before it lands on their heads! ;)
I told the guys at the doors that they got the wrong number - I gave them your address :)
Ta! ;) Tea, anyone?
It really needs a solution to the problem, which will happen again. More lives and habitats will be put at risk.
Anyway back to work for me...
if it drops on your backyard: no eBay!
[amarillo.com...]
Actually, that's a completely viable solution and I don't doubt it would have been exercised but for the fact that a year ago this month, America got blue in the face scolding China for shooting a satellite out of the sky. America would seem to have enough trouble on the World Stage already, without adding "hypocrite" to the list.
Of course one could ask politely China if they would use kindly test their missiles on this satellite, but it is hard to do without losing face :)
Why don't they send up a shuttle, attach a missile to it and push it into a safe orbit.
If nothing can really be done to control something simple like this then we are deep in the cack when the next "Dinosaur Killer" asteroid comes along. Let's hope those friendly aliens who are making all the crop circles have the technology to help us out. :~}
BTW if it lands on my house my surviving relatives have been instructed to sue.
Why don't they send up a shuttle, attach a missile to it and push it into a safe orbit.
Too late, too risky, too expensive - NASA budget was not exactly doing too well recently (comparing to secret services), and I doubt CIA would pay all expenses for shuttle launch from their own budget: it costs $450 mln per shuttle mission.
What all this shows really is that our planet needs a rapid reaction space force that can deal not only with small 12 ton slowly falling satelliets, but also with big fast asteroids that can wipe out life here as we know it.
Of course one could ask politely China if they would use kindly test their missiles on this satellite
Ooops. Please accept our sincerest apologies. We hit the wrong satellite/s. Our engineers are trying to figure out what went wrong so it never happens again. We'll send a formal apology to Secretary Rice as well. .
