Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) and it's gonna hit America.

reply to post by Observer99


What you fail to understand is that the very act of driving your car to work tomorrow has a greater chance of killing a person than this satellite. So by your definition you are an evil unethical scumbag, as we have not asked you to drive, so we should not have to live with the chance you might kill us. So on behalf of the entire world’s population, whom you are putting at risk daily, I now request that you never drive a motor vehicle again.



EDIIT ****


For perspective:

In 2009 in the state of California alone, there were nearly 10 deaths from automobile accidents per day. California is actually lower than the national average on this as well. You can see that driving a car is far more dangerous that this satellite.

nevermind.

reply to post by Phage


He was right. The number you are giving is the percent chance that YOU will be hit. His number was the chance that someone will be hit.

Either way.. not much of a concern.

Originally posted by byeluvolk
reply to post by Observer99

 

What you fail to understand is that the very act of driving your car to work tomorrow has a greater chance of killing a person that this satellite. So by your definition you are an evil unethical scumbag, as we have not asked you to drive, so we should not have to live with the chance you might kill us. So on behalf of the entire world’s population, whom you are putting at risk daily, I now request that you never drive a motor vehicle again.



EDIIT ****


For perspective:

In 2009 in the state of California alone, there were nearly 10 deaths from automobile accidents per day. California is actually lower than the national average on this as well. You can see that driving a car is far more dangerous that this satellite.

The difference is that I pilot my vehicle and have control over where I go and how well I drive/maneuver.

What was the figure again? 1 in 3200 chance of a fatality from this thing?
And we have no control over where it lands and who it lands on?

Just sayin.

reply to post by amnislupus


Well in that case you are even more evil than NASA. As you are in control and still manage to have a far greater chance to kill a person than this uncontrolled satellite. You must be banned from driving, you are menace to society.

Just sayin’

UARS RE-ENTRY UPDATE: NASA's massive UARS satellite remains on track to re-enter Earth's atmosphere during the late hours of Sept. 23rd. The fireball will probably miss North America, according to latest estimates of UARS orbital elements, but almost every other continent falls under a possible re-entry ground track. Better estimates are expected in the next 24 hours. As it makes its last orbits, the tumbling satellite is flashing brightly in the night sky, attracting the attention of stargazers and photographers. Check SpaceWeather's satellite tracker for last-chance sightings over your location: spaceweather.com... .

Let me remind you of the plot from the movie Andromeda Strain!



And the latest ONE! Contagion.



If I would want to make a global pandemic without creating any blame on the governmental agencies, I would use the space originated viruses, where no earthly antibiotics may help. It is also a very good reason to condemn or quarantine and kill those who is infected. Werent the movies like The Simpsons, Quarantine, AVP2 or Resident Evil all about quarantine and kill the infectious ones! May I also remind you that according to latest studies, the middle age pandemic black death was supposedly came from a meteor debris too!

So, I would watch this case very carefully!

If someone gets killed over this it will be a major news event.NASA will look bad.Highly unlikely but you never know.

reply to post by Jobeycool


If someone gets killed by it, NASA will have a press conference, they will state that it was a freak and unfortunate accident, they will offer their heartfelt sympathies to the family, and they will explain that this is one of the many risks we take in our pursuit of science and the exploration of our solar system.

reply to post by byeluvolk


I'm not certain I understand how I'm the evil one, or for that matter, a menace to society because I am forced to drive to work every day. Don't blame me for this. If I could avoid it, I would, trust me on that... I've had a sibling who was backed over in my own driveway by a cousin, it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life and if I could remove the burden of having to own and operate automobiles, I would.

Are you taking your anger out on me because you lost someone in an auto accident?
I'm sorry for that but I had no control. I wasn't behind the wheel and if I was, I'm willing to bet things would have ended differently.

When you drive, do you think about how you would maneuver to avoid a collision? Would you be willing to steer into the ditch or through a guard rail to avoid another vehicle? I do... I fear that I will hurt someone with my giant death machine on wheels every friggen day and I plan to do my best to avoid that.

Regardless, this topic has nothing to do with the probability that someone will die in a car collision.
There is a giant hunk of metal hurtling through our atmosphere. I didn't say I hoped it would kill someone, I'd rather it land harmlessly in one of our vast oceans... I'm just accepting the fact that the likelihood of it causing a fatality is far greater than it should be.

reply to post by amnislupus


No anger what so ever just putting this into perspective. People are up in arms about how irresponsible NASA is and asking if they are above the law and why they are allowed to risk human life in this way. I am just putting it in perspective. Those very same people, who are gnashing their teeth and foaming at the mouth over this, are actually putting more people at risk every time they drive their car than this satellite has done in its entire life span.

UARS has been in operation for 20 years. In this 20 year time frame it has a 1:3600 (1:36000? Have seen it both ways now) chance to injure someone. Yet every time anybody gets in their car they have a greater chance to injure someone. And this is a daily event for them. In fact in most cases it happens more than once per day. In the U.S. alone during 2009 there were 33,808 deaths. This number is down from 2005, with 43,510. That is basically 120 per day. Then add in the number of non fatal crashes, which is not reported on the NHTSA page, and this number of injured people per year is a hundred times higher. I do not have these numbers at my disposal right now as the NHTSA web page only reports fatalities, not injuries. Also keep in mind this is only the U.S. Take these numbers and add the rest of the world in… and now compare that to UARS who in a 20 year life span has a mere 1:3200 chance of injuring a person. All those complaining about the reckless abandon, and disregard for human life at NASA need to really take a look at their own life.


NHTSA WEB PAGE

reply to post by byeluvolk


In fact, if they had left UARS up there, it would have posed a greater threat to astronauts aboard the ISS (as soon as we put a few back up there) than to people down here by being allowed to fall. That's why it was allowed to fall in the first place.

Unless, of course, people don't care about the people on the ISS.