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Duck! Falling Satellite Arrives on Sunday

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posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 10:43 PM
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Just came across this article and figured I'd post as a "heads up".



It’s called GOCE (GO-chay), for Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Observer—which is why its friends prefer a simple GOCE—and it’s currently only 105 mi. (169 km) up and descending fast.


Not nearly as big as UARS, which fell in 2011 - only 1 ton as opposed to 6.



What’s more, while GOCE weighs about a ton, most of that mass will break up and vaporize on the way through the atmosphere. A maximum of 45 pieces are predicted to survive, none more than 200 lbs. (90 kg), with a ground footprint no greater than 190 sq. ft. (18 sq m) for the whole mess.


But, you never know.



None of that is to rule out all risk. A 200 lb. slab of molten metal crashing through your living room ceiling would be a very bad way to start a Sunday morning. The same piece of ordnance landing in, say, Times Square or a packed Soldier Field would be a bigger problem still. But that won’t happen. Really. (Probably.)


Still too early to estimate where or when it will hit - they're predicting sometime Sunday to Monday, but I figured it'd be interesting to follow.

Tacking site -
www.esa.int...

science.time.com...
www.cnn.com...



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 10:54 PM
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I cant for the life of me figure why the military does not treat this as a drill and vaporize the darn thing. See what we got in a real gotta blow it up situation. Waste it over the ocean, no damage on the ground....Test this hardware, see if it can do it..



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:20 PM
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i'll be sure to carry an umbrella



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:32 PM
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reply to post by teslahowitzer
 


Considering how much junk is up there - and the potential threat - sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, our military is a bit too focused on "enhancing certain pockets".



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:35 PM
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For some reason the satellite has been gaining in altitude. I don't know if this is something peculiar to the GOCE satellite in polar orbit or other satellites in general.

Tracking of Satellite

Anyway, it will be interesting to see where it hits. Hopefully not in a populated area.



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:39 PM
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reply to post by teslahowitzer
 



I cant for the life of me figure why the military does not treat this as a drill and vaporize the darn thing. See what we got in a real gotta blow it up situation.

Theres no way to predict the rate at which its orbit will decay. As it drops lower into the atmosphere, it a) slows down, and b) the angle it is entering gets steeper. Every time it comes around the horizon its relative position from the last time it appeared has changed just enough to make it hard to hit with a kinetic energy weapon. Ground launched satellite killers are reserved for satellites in stable orbits that are predictable. Or for incoming missile warheads which are also predictable.

Its hard enough to meet an object head on traveling at closing speeds of 10 miles per second, let alone change the orbit to match an object which may be decelerating.

As far as lasers, thats Buck Rogers. They don't have anything powerful enough to "vaporize" it in orbit. Besides if you did hit it with something now you have debris from two objects raining back down. Or a bigger debris field from one with debris spread over a wider area. More likely something valuable could get hit. If somebody were struck it would be a Guinness world record, its never happened before from a bit of satellite.

This particular satellite was shaped like an aerodynamic dart, literally. So it will have a smaller impact area if allowed to just fall on its own (they say).

Anybody know if it has an RTG aboard?

PS: I'm sure I got some part of this wrong and you can correct it for me.



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:39 PM
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reply to post by spirit_horse
 


That site is pretty cool! Thanks for the link.



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:41 PM
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Most likely it will hit in the ocean right?



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:52 PM
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reply to post by teslahowitzer
 


I'm with you on that. I know the possibility of getting hit by something like this is extremely low. However no one taking it serious is what scares me. It may not be this one, it may not be the next one, but what happens when something does happen? Are we going to wait for someone to actually be injured or killed to take any action?

Seems to me this would be a good time to test our tech.


antar
Most likely it will hit in the ocean right?


Yes the Ocean covers 71% of the Earths surface.


edit on 9-11-2013 by Pimpintology because: he answered a question.



posted on Nov, 9 2013 @ 11:55 PM
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Good to know
Thanks ffor the heads up.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:00 AM
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reply to post by spirit_horse
 



For some reason the satellite has been gaining in altitude.


I just googled why that would happen - but, I'm not educated well on this stuff. Could this be the reason? Looking for you more knowledgeable people to provide insight because I'm interested in learning more.



Due to constant changes in Earth's upper atmosphere, scientists cannot yet predict where and when GOCE will re-enter.


en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com...



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:03 AM
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www.n2yo.com...

Type in GOCE into search box and get realtime tracking info. using link above.

Oops! I see someone already posted a link as well sorry to double up.
edit on 10-11-2013 by Godfather1965 because: (no reason given)



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:05 AM
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reply to post by Maluhia
 


Gaining in altitude could be due to the landmass its currently above. Here is a way to track it however this will not tell you when it makes reentry.

www.n2yo.com...

Link is directly to GOCE.

The reason I say it will not tell you about reentry is because I have watched other reentries in the past and either their is a conspiracy afoot about giving real data out or there is nothing on the web that gets the real data. When UARs reentered we had a scientist live stream his best data and we still didn't know. Was an exciting incident and I went out and watched it fly over my house.


edit on 10-11-2013 by Pimpintology because: formatting was needed.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:06 AM
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Looking at the map it looks like it will hit ocean. Anyone who wants to do some math might be able to figure out where it's going to hit based on its altitude and speed of travel. Worse case it appears it could hit South Africa - not good. I'm gonna trust the experts planned for it to crash into the ocean.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:11 AM
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reply to post by antar
 

Probability is yes. I think the excitement comes from the possibility of finding a piece on your front lawn. No damage and pretty cool story to tell.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:19 AM
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reply to post by Pimpintology
 




When UARs reentered we had a scientist live stream his best data and we still didn't know.


Wow. That's eye opening! Thanks for the info or not - lol.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:30 AM
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Altitude was declining as it neared equator. After passing equator altitude is climbing.
Best guess is that the equator is the widest point of earth and due to curvature of the earth, the earth is falling away from the satellites current orbit.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 12:57 AM
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reply to post by teslahowitzer
 


I get what you are saying but chances are this mess won't hit anywhere populated. Most of the time the orbits spend vast amounts of time over the ocean, meaning it has an extremely high probability that's where it's gonna come down when it does. As well, when a satellite is retired and either intentionally relieved from orbit or allowed to come down, Complicated maths, a few dozen to hundreds of small adjustments and gravity bring the satellite down in an area it's intended to be.

I think it would be rad to see the great ICBM shield type missiles take a satellite out, but two problems.

Those missiles tend to be quite expensive, yeah patriots are cheap but they don't have quite the ceiling needed to take down a satellite or even a nuke with out huge potential of collateral damage on the ground.

Would you be okay with the government wasting a multi million dollar missile to shoot down a satellite that can guide itself back to earth with a rather small risk of harming any one, or saving that missile for when it really counts.

Me personally, they spent so much money developing, building TESTING, then stock piling those weapons, why let them waste live ones. This is what training exercises and training munitions are for.

Keep the good scotch in the cupboard for when the # gets harry, I'm good with the cheap thrill the satellite will provide as it burns itself up and lands most likely harmlessly outside of anyones way.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 05:20 AM
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reply to post by Hijinx
 


I get what you are saying but people miss the point on this. One coming down yeah the odds of it hitting anything are extremely remote. However its happening over and over and over now. How many times does something have to happen before the odds change to possible or probable? TPTB even realize this and have started requiring satellites to have reentry maneuverability so they can control where they fall in the future.

However we sent A LOT of stuff up without this capability and I'm not sure other countries will even bother to follow our lead. I believe this one was sent up in 2009. They could have easily built it into this system and did not. One thing these incidents do get is people looking at the sky. People get interested in space and stuff floating around up there. So there will be an explosion of news over the next two days.



posted on Nov, 10 2013 @ 07:30 AM
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Well that's aggravating! The tracking site is down!

www.n2yo.com...




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