Huge Defunct Satellite Falling to Earth Faster Than Expected, NASA Says

[Synicus Maximus]

Source: space.com

NASA space junk experts have refined the forecast for the anticipated death plunge of a giant satellite, with the U.S. space agency now predicting the 6 1/2-ton climate probe will plummet to Earth around Sept. 23, a day earlier than previously reported.

The defunct bus-size spacecraft is NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), which launched in 1991 and was shut down in 2005 after completing its mission. The satellite was expected to fall to Earth sometime this year, with experts initially pegging a weeks-long window between late September and early October, then narrowing it to the last week of this month.

Read more: http://www.space.com/12982-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-earth-sept-24.html

[gateley]

1. Fascinating! Although I find it kind of scary that it's going to

leave debris over a 500 mile swath, and we don't really have the room for it (even if it falls in the ocean as they predict is most likely), I'm glad it's not another piece of space junk we're leaving up there.

[BeHereNow]

5. As if the Earth didn't have enough of our garbage to contend with...

Humans are so destructive to this planet-
makes you wonder how much longer until she
gets rid of us.
BHN

[gateley]

6. I know -- and I've often wondered the same thing. Like a dog

shaking off its fleas.

[BeHereNow]

7. LOL! That the very same phrase I use!

A dog shaking off its fleas- we are a very bad case of fleas indeed.
And for every action, there IS an opposite and equal REACTION, if
I recall.

Mother of a karma load heading toward the human race in
my estimation.

:hide:

BHN

[a la izquierda]

8. I wish she would keep those of us...

who don't treat her like total crap.

[gateley]

10. Well, we brought it on ourselves, honestly, and too many

don't even care.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. That's because it's part of a very old George Carlin skit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4

[BeHereNow]

18. My Dad has said it for years- wonder if he got it from Carlin?

I love George- I think he tried very hard to warn us-
especially in the last years of his life.
Thanks for the clip- I never tire of watching him.
BHN

[left on green only]

20. That is exactly what is happening, haven't you noticed?

[onehandle]

2. Obama's fault.

Beat you to it, Fox News!

Ha!

[BeHereNow]

3. Any GOP/Teabagger events scheduled on that day?

:evilgrin:
BHN

[glinda]

4. that is frightening

[postulater]

9. Maybe they could have boosted it out of orbit and directed it into the sun.

Then it could be recycled into energy easier.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. exactly how would they have done that? nt

[postulater]

19. Attach some boosters to it and aim.

Shouldn't be too hard to hit the sun.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. and they would attach...

the boosters with what, exactly?

[eomer]

24. Duct tape?

Probably could also use a squirt or two of WD-40 before we send it off.

[joshcryer]

25. It's actually a lot harder than it sounds! We're in orbit around the sun.

The energy necessary to make something "fall into the sun" is actually pretty high, since you have to slow down the orbit. In fact, it requires more delta v to send something to the sun than it does to escape the solar system!

Think about it this way, the planet, where you are right now, is moving 67 thousand miles per hour! To get something to go to the sun requires enough energy to slow it down to approximately zero!

[PavePusher]

41. Did you take any math and/or science in high school or college? n/t

[left on green only]

21. You would have thought that the "space nerds" who designed it

would have initially been conscientious enough to have designed it with thruster clusters and fuel tanks to have sent it off on a course for the sun *immediately* after their use for it was terminated. And there are many in human kind who would give pigs a bad name. Imagine!

[boppers]

28. There's a faster, cheaper, way of destroying it.

It's called "atmosphere", and it eats space vehicles up with surprising efficiency.

[left on green only]

29. Duh! Apparently not if there is concern that life will be threatened by the remainig debris.

There is nothing quite as disconcerting as a nerdist, half ass answer to a life endangering and environmental threat to our only planet.

[boppers]

30. "a life endangering and environmental threat" Oh noes!

And another anti-intellectual potshot.

Yeah, we're done.

[left on green only]

31. It probably won't be a threat to you, if you are lucky.......

So then why should you give a damn if it happens to some other life on this planet? At least you are not a lurking repuke, oh wait.....

[boppers]

32. The universe doesn't care.

http://johnnybtruant.com/the-universe-doesnt-give-a-flying-fuck-about-you/

[left on green only]

33. The inane content of your latest taunt doesn't even dignify a response

May you dwell in bliss, consumed for an eternity by your universe.

[PavePusher]

35. Don't waste your time.

You are trying to talk to people who can't count past ten without removing a shoe, and who's understanding of physics is that when they lift both feet at the same time, they get an owwie on their butt.

[boppers]

36. I don't think of them as being quite that ignorant.

However, I do delight in watching them buy Geiger counters, and realizing that their coffee cup is "radioactive", as are their walls, and (if they have one) garden, and everything around them.

Bonus points if they figure out that all humans are radioactive.

[KeepItReal]

11. Somebody call up the Air Force and let them have ASAT practice

Maybe they can break it into smaller chunks for the atmosphere to take care of

[Nihil]

42. That should be good for a laugh!

> Somebody call up the Air Force and let them have ASAT practice

I somehow doubt that the builders put "Here-I-Am" radar beacons
on all of the major pieces and, as the OP shows that the trajectory
is not quite "trustworthy", that means that none of their stupidly
over-expensive "ASAT" projects will have a chance of hitting it ...

:rofl:

[rocktivity]

12. Since they've missed the boat on exactly WHEN the thing would crash

Why should I believe that there's a "1-in-3,200 chance of satellite debris hitting a person on the ground"? Even that were true, the debris could hit a house or land in a field and start a fire!

:headbang:
rocktivity

[unkachuck]

13. who's space junk....

....is more threatening and junkier, Communist space junk or capitalist space junk?

"There is a 1-in-3,200 chance of satellite debris hitting a person on the ground,..."

....I'd say, capitalist space junk, it's wall-street dangerous.

[daleo]

22. I doubt those odds

Beats me who computed them or how, but they seem absurd to me. It implies one out of evey 3200 square meters of the Earth's surface will be struck by debris from this satellite. A football field is about 3000 square meters.

[Xtraneous]

15. Calling NORAD

We can depend on them, right? Or will they fail again and reap yet another large budget line as a reward?
:evilfrown:

[AtheistCrusader]

17. What would you like them to do?

Shoot it down? Nuke it?

[BadgerKid]

26. Sooner, not faster, than expected.

Mistake on science editor's part.

[unionworks]

27. how we fix problem in russia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPF0533Dw3A :evilgrin:

[XemaSab]

34. .

[sweetapogee]

37. remember

This reminds me of the time when Sky Lab fell to earth. I think it was the summer of 1979.

[Hoosier Daddy]

38. Duck!

;-)

[Evasporque]

39. Republicans killed it because it showed proof of human caused global warming....nt

[Xithras]

40. I don't know if that was a joke or not...

...but just in case someone thinks you were serious:

UARS was launched in 1991 for what was originally planned to be a three year mission. In 2005, after 14 years of service, with four of its ten instruments dead, and with its fuel tanks on fumes, NASA used the last of its propellant to carry out one final deorbit burn in order to prevent it from becoming long term space junk. There wasn't even enough fuel on board to bring it down quickly, and the best they could manage was a 6 year deorbit.

UARS was a resounding success. It was shut down because of age and fuel, not politics.