Rocket debris washed up in my backyard

too cool , hope they let you keep it . Here is a brief list of their launches en.wikipedia.org...(2010%E2%80%932019)

en.wikipedia.org...(2000%E2%80%932009)

www.arianespace.com...

I completely agree that selling it at this moment would be a bad thing to do. Once you contact them, see what they say. If they want to come get it, tell them it's gonna cost em', lol. Maybe just tell them it's a small panel from the rocket, and maybe they will let you keep it. Technically that isn't lying, since small is a subjective term.

If you do end up selling it, I would make sure that the guy who found it gets a cut, but that's just me, as you could get away with not paying him, but it wouldn't be the right thing to do. Whatever happens, it is still a cool find, and a great story, and you can never lose that.

Far fetched but how crazy would it be if this was ruins from a space program before our current civilization. I'm sure it would have been more corroded and older looking, but just what if....

Every once in awhile, pieces of the Space Shuttle Challenger Still was ashore in Florida. The Challenger wreckage is interned in a missile silo at Cape Canaveral.

It is illegal (was put into US law), if you find pieces, to posess or sell any recovered pieces of either Challenger or Columbia.

Originally posted by raiders247
Far fetched but how crazy would it be if this was ruins from a space program before our current civilization. I'm sure it would have been more corroded and older looking, but just what if....

Thats the type of Sci Fi that I dig. I love that type of stuff.

i'd definitely be taking that home and making a feature out of it! if you don't, someone else will! (infact I bet it's no longer there now!)

excellent topic, thanks for posting

You might wanna contact the "Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies": www.aero.org...

They would probably be best placed to tell you if you can keep it.

Part of Ariane 5...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2a99664a5560.jpg[/atsimg]

edit - you'll have to view the image to see it all.

or see it here...







edit 2 - looking at more pics and com paring with the things on the panel, its actually from the side that faces the launch tower, not the outward side.
as seen here...

and here...
www.arianespace.com...

Once you touch it and say "Black, Black, no take backs." Then it is legally yours forever.

A more pics and I think I've found your exact actual piece...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6d2c9bacd063.jpg[/atsimg]

The marks on the panels look perfect to match this. The image above is cropped from here...


Another view of this same panel, half hidden by a walkway...


and the whole rocket...


If I'm right, its the Ariane 5 carrying Yahsat Y1A and Intelsat New Dawn.
launched April 22, 2011.

reply to post by alfa1


I would exercise caution if I were you,
as rocket fuel tends to be nasty stuff,
and if there is residue as a by-product of combustion,
it may not be good to be in close proximity to.

If intent on keeping,
power wash thoroughly,
lest ones' testicles fall off

That's pretty cool! Nice beach too! I shudder to think if my husband found such a thing, he'd put it in the frontyard as decoration along with the fighter jet. Or sell it on ebay.
I laughed at the "black, black no take backs" comment!

reply to post by daisyglaze


As a precaution, I would check it with a Geiger counter, please.

There is a lot of radiation in the upper atmosphere, and this could be affected.

reply to post by daisyglaze


You had better hope it didn't have leaking rocket fuel because it is highly highly toxic to be exposed to.

HEY!

before you give it back...

REMOVE AND KEEP ALL WIRING

That piece of debris has wires all over it! strip it bare, I GUARANTEE YOU EVERY BIT OF WIRING IS MADE OF PURE PRECIOUS METALS

Gold, Palladium, and Silver...

Then, scour the beach for more debris, notably, wire scraps mixed in with seaweed bundles.

The amount in weight that I can determine in your images looks to be about 5 lbs, once stripped to bare metal 2 - 3 lbs...

You're sitting on a REAL opportunity here - rich guy. let's hope they used gold... 10 thousand dollars U.S. - is a nice chunk of change.

reply to post by daisyglaze


Arianespace.
See their web page.
Have their launch site in French Guiana.

Originally posted by LightAssassin
reply to post by daisyglaze

 

As a precaution, I would check it with a Geiger counter, please.

There is a lot of radiation in the upper atmosphere, and this could be affected.

reply to post by LightAssassin


I didn't touch it for that very reason, though my flatmate was all over it, examining the wires and bolts and honeycomb thingie, looking underneath as best he could... I hadn't thought about the possibility of space germs as one commenter suggested but I've seen enough episodes of X-Files to be paranoid! Because it's in the open-air I didn't worry too much about breathing in something lethal but believe me, it crossed my mind and I opted for hands-off examination. Also, as I said I wasn't 100% sure it was a rocket part - it just seemed too good to be true! Then I got in and found a forum link with a similar discovery of an Arianespace part and I knew I had to share it.

We haven't contacted the company as yet, and since the guy who alerted us posted it on his Facebook page, chances are others have already visited and spread the word. Who knows, it might not even be there anymore. I haven't been awake long enough to check, but I'll try to find out what - if anything - becomes of it later on.

Glad you guys enjoyed the pics. Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

It's a part of the Ariane 5 payload fairing. Here's some info about it, if you want to know what part it played in the launch:

www.esa.int...

The fairing is positioned on the very top of the Ariane-5 launcher. Its function is to protect the payload against aerodynamic, thermal and acoustic phenomena as the launcher rises from the launch pad through the atmosphere to an altitude of approximately 100 km.

Once the launcher leaves the Earth’s atmosphere, approximately three minutes after liftoff, the fairing is jettisoned. This lightens the remaining launcher’s load as it loses approximately two tonnes of this no-longer required structure.

It's been in space, but didn't have a chance to reach orbital velocity. Nice find!

This is how the film "Invasion" with Nicole Kidman started..
..Beware.

3rd

reply to post by daisyglaze


So much for keeping technology secret