7-ton NASA satellite set to fall

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Just the fact it has batteries would be enough. I'd imagine there are multiple parts that could pose a chemical danger. The news conference is not until the 9th so I guess they will cover it all then.

reply to post by Blaine91555

I do hope you realize that that picture is just one orbit.
And the flight path over the earth is constantly changing with each orbit.

Within the next three days everyone not in the arctic areas will be under the flight path at some time.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
Glad to see all of North America is out of this loop. Break out your hardhats if you are under that line.

Take note that with each orbit, the line moves westward.
Three hours from that image, North America is under the orbit.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


You should know that the fuel of choice for RCS maneuvering engines is highly toxic and can kill you very easily. That's one reason to stay away from something that could be a hydrazine fuel cell.

As far as all of the concerns about this disposal orbit, it's essentially an orbit that causes increased drag on the vehicle through the atmosphere to bring it down. There's nothing unusual about this at all. It's actually being responsible and getting rid of old junk before they lose the ability to bring it down.

Some people really jump the gun and go for the crazy complex conspiracy theories when this is a pretty mundane course of action. Let's get it together people. Not everything is a conspiracy.

reply to post by Mapkar

I believe I'd stay away from anything that looked like a component or intact unit of any kind. Who knows what any kind of container would have, indeed. I'd only imagine scraps making it down to the ground though and by the sound of it, those wouldn't necessarily be a problem. Well then, here is hoping it tracks right over the Midwest. A small piece of metal for a keepsake box would be really interesting when we'd know when and where to look. Just my opinion and certainly not a thing to worry about in any way shape or form for breaking up in the first place.

So first the Inernational Space Station was suppose to be abandoned and let to fall, which was disclosed a couple weeks ago.... then they said they fixed it and all is well!!!

Now A satelite is suppose to fall around the same time the ISS was????? Sounds like they know something is gonna happen and are covering it up, their has been multiple satelites crashing this past year.

The only Conspiracy really big right now around that time frame is I believe Elenia (mis-spell) being at very close AU to the earth and aligning with the sun... ??? we'll just have to wait and see

reply to post by JohnySeagull


i thought they were in orbit
why are they falling??

Maybe Wall-e was right?

reply to post by Blaine91555

Glad to see all of North America is out of this loop. Break out your hardhats if you are under that line

That's just one orbit. The Earth does rotate after all.
Have a look at the link now.

reply to post by WhoDat09


Elenin is not going to impact us, but it does seem to be fulfilling it's role as a 'harbinger of doom'. The world has gone a little stir crazy and the passing of the comet fits in quite nicely.

I remember seeing Halley's comet in '86. I was in my teenage years and don't remeber a whole lot of doom and gloom around it.It was just something speial to see in the sky. I can only imagine the fuss on ATS if we were due a visit from Halleys comet. I guess we just have to wait another 50years. (Probably shouldn't say that. Someone will probably start a thread warning people to head to the hills)

Frequently Asked Questions: Orbital Debris

www.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Blaine91555
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5de94b5239ea.png[/atsimg]
Link to UARS orbital path.
Glad to see all of North America is out of this loop. Break out your hardhats if you are under that line.

Unfortunately, that's not its complete groundtrack, it increments with each orbit around the Earth:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/337e71bb4df6.png[/atsimg]
Next pass brings it right up the eastern coast of the US, and passes after that:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/af379c80c303.png[/atsimg]

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Also, something that isn't well known is the amount of nuclear radiation trapped in the upper atmosphere from Chernobyl/Fukushima and the like. There are very high amounts, something that scientists should be attributing to Global warming but are neglecting to acknowledge. Any object passing through the upper atmosphere will most certainly get contaminated with high amounts of radiation. Stay away from it.

Originally posted by RedGolem
The source article said that it was put into a disposal orbit. I was under the impression that when a satellite is decommissioned it was suppose to have its thrusters activated and pushed out of orbit. Thus another satellite could then be placed into the spot that the decommissioned one had. So my question is why was this one put in a disposal orbit?

As far as I can tell, the disposal orbit varies according to the orbit altitude of the object to begin with:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fbf937dc8489.png[/atsimg]
Satellites orbiting over 36,000km are disposed of by prograde burns, which increase their orbit altitude so that it is clear of other satellites, and places them in a high orbit that will take millennia to decay. Low Earth Orbit Satellites, such as the UARS at 585km, are normally burned retrograde, moving them below other satellites for a quicker return into the atmosphere.

In either case, the ability to make those adjustments is controlled by the amount of fuel that is remaining in the vehicle, and the duration and number of burns it is able to make:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1a06a6012ca6.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3bb429d9c6c0.jpg[/atsimg]
In this instance their appears to have been a problem with some lost fuel, and a concern over an intersecting orbit with the ISS:

UARS Weekly Status Report
The FOT and FDF have come to an agreement that there is an uncertainty
in the amount of fuel remaining on UARS. There is an uncertainty of ~
25 lbs of fuel remaining. The FOT and FDF believe there is enough
fuel remaining onboard to execute at least one more orbit lowering 18-
minute burn. Any fuel remaining after the burn will be used to
perform one last burn of unknown time length. The FOT and FDF are now
planning a phasing method to allow ISS as much reaction time as
possible if a possible burn of unknown length is required after the
planned 18-minute burn. There are two methods being considered.
There will be a meeting to determine which of the two methods has more
merit.

UARS End of Mission Plan
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/279f77fe42d5.png[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1685b96cebc9.png[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5eb7fb9860f2.png[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/648b830671b9.png[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b8cebaaa55a8.png[/atsimg]

It would be great if someone got a video of this thing re-entering the atmosphere.

Shame they cant get on board videos with live earth feeds.
Then we could all watch it in the early stages (before the plasma engulfs the whole thing) and see how the very thin atmosphere starts to effect the satellite.

How cool would that be ?

reply to post by diddy1234


I’m pretty sure that Ionization blackout would prevent this. We were only able to somewhat avoid this problem with the shuttles due to their unique shape and the use of satellite communications. Even then, when the Columbia broke up, we really did not receive much in the way of communications from them during the event outside some indicators dropping offline, and ground control was told by their press agent that the shuttle had been seen by ground tracking people to have broken up.

I thought Ionization blackout would happen as the plasma starts to build.

So my thinking was prior to this (probably less than a minute) you would be able to see the satellite start to gyrate in all axis (gradually getting more and more erratic) as the satellite travels into the denser atmosphere.

take for example this video (around the 1.30 mark) and you can see the space module start to gyrate before and after the capsule is jettisoned.

Originally posted by NervousNJerky
Hmmm, I wounder if "It" will burn blue. This being a refference to Hoppi legend.

edit on 7-9-2011 by NervousNJerky because: (no reason given)

The “Rama” of the title is an alien star ship, initially mistaken for an asteroid

Arthur C. Clarke knew a lot.

It's a satellite: a DEAD satellite. EVERY satellite will eventually crash into the earth, just like a quarter that you drop into that round-about thing at the mall eventually ends up falling into the hole.

If the helmets weren't wasted on SkyLab, they'll really be wasted on this.

Will be keeping an eye out for it. Why cant they shoot it when its over ocean or uninhabited land? OUTTA BOX---It just seems restricted up there..