 |
| Top_Class |
on Fri 23 Sep 11, 12:23 PM to Top_Class's blog.
Update :: UARS will be 95 miles above the UK twice in the wee small hours of 24th September, firstly at 01:05:34 BST on a west to east track passing above Fort William and secondly at 02:37:26 tracking north-west to south-east from Anglesey to Stevenage to Southend-on-Sea. After that the next theoretical over-fly would be in late evening, 24th September - theoretical because NASA is reckoning UARS should have re-entered by then.
Well today's the day folks that UARS makes its much anticipated return to earth. It's 7-tons of orbiting junk about to de-orbit, smash into the upper atmosphere and mostly burn-up. The burning question, so to speak, is "where is UARS now?". At midday it was as far away as it could possibly be at 180 degrees East and 57 degrees North (over the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska). From now on its track starts drifting back towards us so that in 6 orbits time it'll be close to 0 degrees East and 50-something degrees North. NASA currently says it expects UARS to re-enter and burn-up "during the afternoon or early evening EDT today" which is mid to late evening BST today. That wouldn't happen to be in 9 hours time, would it? Or in c. 6 orbits?
Here's a picture of it being built over 10 years ago - the 5 guys working on it give a good indication of the size of the thing - medium-size Winnebago you'd say. It's powered by solar panels and NiCd batteries only. The sort of stuff eligible to hit the ground are the titanium components like the orbital manoeuvring engine fuel tanks - now empty.
Edited Fri 23 Sep 11, 11:54 PM by Top_Class
| 23 Sep 11, 1:06 PM KinkyRoly UK(OX), 3 yrs |
This is the official NASA update feed://www.nasa.gov/rss/uars_update.xml They have promised to post increasingly frequent updates as the time approaches and the situation becomes more predictable. They keep stressing that it won't hit North America, so that's OK then. They seem to overlook the fact that quite a lot of people don't actually live in North America. Edited to add The link is to an RSS feed. Copy and paste the entire link starting with feed and ending in xml Edited 23 Sep 11, 1:07 PM by KinkyRoly | |
| 23 Sep 11, 1:18 PM Lola_beedo 9 mths |
Scary. Well if the only safe place is north America. Best get there quickly!!!! A boy makes his girl jealous of other women. A Gentleman makes other women jealous of his girl. Xx | |
| 23 Sep 11, 2:22 PM Incandescence UK, 3 yrs |
I wonder how many people will be knocked out after they walk into a lamp post because they were looking skyward in order to avoid pieces of falling satellite? Probably more than will actually be hit by any of it.
I was a little disappointed to hear that if I happen to come across a piece of it, I can't sell it on ebay In the beginning god created man ... that was his first mistake ... everybody knows the lady should always come first | |
| 23 Sep 11, 3:27 PM Arceye UK(S), 7 yrs |
Imagines an old fashioned radio comedy ' The Satellite is going to leave the atmosphere and land back on Earth round about.... FX tremendous explosion, springs, tinkles, blats, clatters &c Now. | |
| 23 Sep 11, 4:15 PM Shineecouple UK, 9 yrs |
There's all sorts of junk falling from space regularly along with meteorites and loose bits falling off commercial aircraft. The fact that you don't hear of people being hit by any of it means the chances of any of it coming down on someone is very, very small. . | |
| 23 Sep 11, 5:13 PM Lj_switch UK, 3 yrs  |
they couldn't hit a barn door from ther....
be a switch, double your fun |
