Comments on: Another satellite will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the coming months

By: twency

twency — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:35:00 +0000

@boingboing-38d15f3f6091875e7c0ec844d37db656:disqus ”My google-fu tells me anywhere from 1 to 3% of the world’s surface has been urbanized. That’s not 1 in 2,000. Those sound more like the odds of it hitting an individual human on the noggin”

Which is why they said “odds of hitting someone” and not “odds of hitting an urbanized portion of the earth’s surface”.

“That means the odds of it hitting someone will be slightly higher than from UARS, about 1 in 2000.”

By: dainel

dainel — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:59:00 +0000

If it’s coming down under control, and if they were to aim for the Pacific. Would I increase my 1 in 2000 chance by going to Hawaii?

By: quitterjunior

quitterjunior — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:19:00 +0000

My google-fu tells me anywhere from 1 to 3% of the world’s surface has been urbanized. That’s not 1 in 2,000. Those sound more like the odds of it hitting an individual human on the noggin. A little misleading, I think. And an 800 mile dumbo-drop along the eastern seaboard isn’t quite the same as banana-gamma cancer. More than anything, though, I’m scared of math.

By: Aeron

Aeron — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

“Dad… Are you in space?”

“Yes, now we are a family again.”

By: Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

This one looks like it’s powered by Briggs & Stratton.

To spiderking’s point, NASA may not have people dedicated to directing defunct tech down, but they do have people dedicated to tracking orbital debris. (shoutout to my old school pal Mark)

By: spiderking

spiderking — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:20:00 +0000

There’s so much dangerous space junk in orbit right now, I wish more old satellites would re-enter. I think at some point there’s going to have to be some sort of ongoing mission whose purpose is to redirect defunct tech toward the atmosphere.

By: zombienietzsche

zombienietzsche — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:23:00 +0000

… really?… I mean… REENTRY HOT.

other than that “catching” it in space would waste resources, time, and you would wind up with outdated and potentially non-functioning components. Micro-meteor showers do a lot of damage. Then there is also strikes by other small debris from old launches. AND you would have to bring it back down to retrofit and ship it back up or ship up the repair parts and hope it is salvageable.

By: eryximachus

eryximachus — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:16:00 +0000

I wonder if they could set up some kind of recycling system up there… catch the defunct satellites and use the still-useful pieces to build others. Surely the solar panels are still in perfectly functioning order, and they are fairly expensive to make an no doubt expensive to send skywards.

By: Max

Max — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:57:00 +0000

No news about whether ROSAT is coming down under control or not. If it’s under control then it’s not a big problem. UARS was completely out of control, which is why there was no way they could predict where it would land until about 2 hours after they noticed the splash.

By: Michael Birch

Michael Birch — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Still waiting for it to rain men. :(

By: Hugh Johnson

Hugh Johnson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:36:00 +0000

Is that a picture of the satellite? It kinda looks like a photocopier with a lawnmower engine stuck on it.

By: saint_al

saint_al — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:22:00 +0000

The DEVO reference; hope summon’ll be leave satisfied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iktsVGg0-w0