Space Junk May Force Astronauts To Take Shelter

Astronauts To Take Shelter, projected time of impact would be at about 1:17 p.m. Today.

www.clickorlando.com

piece of space debris moving toward the International Space Station may force astronauts to take shelter in an escape pod, according to NASA TV. If NASA officials determine the space junk poses a serious threat, the two-man crew -- which is not aware of the threat -- will be alerted at about 10 a.m. The astronauts may then be told to take shelter in the Soyuz escape pod.

NASA officials said the possible projected time of impact would be at about 1:17 p.m.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 1-12-2009 by Hack28]

There is nothing we can do, if you are a praying person please say a prayer for these people. If your a well wisher, all the best wishes to these people. If you obstain from society, so do these Astronauts, everyone can put positive thoughts out into the universe for these Astronauts and their families at this time.


www.clickorlando.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, that's keeping them busy. It was ony 3 days ago they were conserned about a collision with "part of the rocket that launched NASA's Stardust mission toward a 2004". It came within 5 1/2 miles of the space station.

"Old Rocket Junk Poses No Threat to Space Station"
www.space.com...


[edit on 12/1/2009 by Larryman]

reply to post by Larryman


Yeah, admittadly i am not an expert on this issue but i have read many articles about the amount of debris that cirlces our planet, that we put up there. One cant help but think this will begin to be a common occurance for our cosmonauts circling the globe.

reply to post by Hack28


I'll be praying.
Considering all of the space junk up there, I'm sure this happens quite a bit.

Originally posted by Hack28

Astronauts To Take Shelter, projected time of impact would be at about 1:17 p.m. Today.

www.clickorlando.com

piece of space debris moving toward the International Space Station may force astronauts to take shelter in an escape pod, according to NASA TV. If NASA officials determine the space junk poses a serious threat, the two-man crew -- which is not aware of the threat -- will be alerted at about 10 a.m. The astronauts may then be told to take shelter in the Soyuz escape pod.

NASA officials said the possible projected time of impact would be at about 1:17 p.m.

They think the crew are not aware?

Those guys get bored, and they have access to the internet up there.
I know, because a friend of mine a few years back was spending all her spare time cybering with one.

I wouldn't be surprised if they read ATS. After all, it's more interesting than most forums.

I wish them safety. It would be horrible for them to have a disaster way out in space. Perhaps all of us who believe in such things should be visualising a fluffy pink blanket of protection around the space-station.

the two-man crew -- which is not aware of the threat --

Now that's just not cool if I were up there I would want to be advised of any potential threat.

NASA: Space Junk Won't Threaten ISS
2-MaCrew Will Not Need To Move Into Pod For Shelter

POSTED: Tuesday, December 1, 2009
UPDATED: 1:24 pm EST December 1, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. -- According to NASA's Twitter account, there is no longer a threat of space junk colliding with the International Space Station.
UPDATE

The threat has passed.

I wonder why there was no mention of simply moving the ISS slightly to avoid the threat in the first place?

The ISS has two navigation and control systems working in tandem, one in the Russian Zvezda Service module and one in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory module and SO (center) truss element. These systems operate simultaneously with one designated as the master system at any given time, but with both systems exchanging data continuously for fault detection and redundancy. Both systems have the capability to navigate and to control the station’s orientation or attitude, but only the Russian segment has thrusters allowing it to raise the altitude of the space station to overcome the decaying effects of atmospheric drag, or to avoid orbital debris.
Boeing - ISS (pdf)

EDIT: It seems in my haste I skimmed over that they apparently did, in fact, say that they discovered the threat too late to move the station out of the way.



[edit on 12/1/2009 by AlienChaser]