Watch your head

[okarol]

Pieces of dead, 6-ton satellite to hit Earth in a week, NASA says

The Associated Press
Posted: 09/16/2011 01:55:14 PM PDT

WASHINGTON - U.S. space officials say they expect a dead satellite to fall to Earth in about a week.
NASA has been watching the 6-ton satellite closely. On Friday officials moved up their prediction for its arrival to Sept. 23, give or take a day.

NASA scientists have calculated the satellite will break into 26 pieces as it gets closer to Earth. The odds of it hitting someone anywhere on the planet are 1 in 3,200. The heaviest piece to hit the ground will be about 350 pounds, but no one has ever been hit by falling space junk in the past.

NASA expects to give the public more detailed information early next week. For now, all continents except Antarctica could be hit by satellite debris.

[jbeany]

Do they make Kevlar umbrellas, I wonder?

[Ang]

good old oz seems like a good a place as any , if history has anything to say 

[Stoday]

In 3 days time now...

[cariad]

When will they know where each piece will land? Will people be able to watch it descend and have time to clear out of the way? It is bizarre to me that there is not a quick and efficient way to handle this.

[jbeany]

Ha!  They won't even know what state/province it will be headed for until 2 hours before impact.

[Riki]

that could be trouble

[Poppylicious]

1 in 3,200 ANYWHERE on the planet?  Okay, I'm not good with numbers but that's not positive news is it?  And a 350 pound anything could cause extensive damage when dropped from a very very very high height, yes? 

Who has a nuclear bunker I can borrow for a few days?

 

[cariad]

Oh, thanks for that, jbeany. Do they know when this two hour window will open? I am the furthest thing from a paranoid person, but if these bits will start hurtling toward my house at 2AM, I'd like to have two hours notice to get the kids out of town, maybe get a jump on the Force Majeure!!! argument with my insurance. Will they sound the sirens? I cannot believe I am actually entertaining worries about this.

Wouldn't much of it burn up on the descent?  That one in 3200 stat, are we saying those are the odds for each individual piece, or those are the odds that any piece will hit someone? Because I can live with 1 in 3200, but if it's the former, I don't like those numbers....

[billybags]

I wonder if the insurance covers this if it lands on your house. May be not. Who's satellite is it any way? Could we claim off them lol

[CebuShan]

Who has a nuclear bunker I can borrow for a few days?
 

     My grandparents had a bomb shelter in one of the houses they lived in!

[okarol]

Oh my, don't you love that... "somewhere else?" That's science at it's finest! 

North America to dodge a 6-ton bullet; NASA says falling satellite will land somewhere else
Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 7:57 PM
By The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A dead 6-ton satellite is getting closer and closer, and is expected to smack down on Earth on Friday.
NASA's old research satellite is expected to come crashing down through the atmosphere Friday afternoon, Eastern Time. The spacecraft will not be passing over North America then, the space agency said in a statement Wednesday evening.
The predictions should become more precise by Thursday afternoon and certainly by Friday.
"It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty," NASA said.
An estimated 26 pieces — representing 1,200 pounds — are expected to survive.
NASA is anticipating a splashdown rather than a landing. Nearly three-quarters of the world is covered with water. The Aerospace Corporation in California, in fact, predicts that re-entry will occur over the Pacific late Friday afternoon, Eastern Time. But that's give or take 14 hours.
The 20-year-old Upper Research Atmosphere Satellite will be the biggest NASA spacecraft to fall uncontrolled from the sky in 32 years.
It is expected to break into more than 100 pieces as it enters the atmosphere, most of it burning up. The heaviest metal parts are expected to reach Earth, the biggest chunk weighing about 300 pounds. The debris could be scattered over an area about 500 miles long.

[jbeany]

Huh, they can't figure out the how, where and when a school-bus sized satellite they personally put in orbit is going to come down.  All that tech, and they've managed to figure out a 14 HOUR window - and it's maybe? landing in the Pacific?  They think.

Doesn't give ya much hope of them ever saving us from a wandering asteroid like they do in the movies, does it?

[rsudock]

House insurance would try to get out of paying for it claiming "act of God" even though man put it into the sky... HA!! 

[CebuShan]

Well, I'm still here. Must've missed me!   

[Riki]

My thoughts on it, apparently, were the same as NASA's thoughts on it.  The Earth is 2/3 or 3/4 water (I don't remember which) so the odds were pretty good that of the 25 or so pieces that they thought would survive reentry, 16 or 19 (depending on which of those ratios are correct) would hit the water.  With that, I'd say that the odds of getting hit with any of them is pretty slim.  As it was, they don't know where these pieces came down, so I'd say that nobody was hit by any of them.

[Poppylicious]

As it was, they don't know where these pieces came down, so I'd say that nobody was hit by any of them.

Isn't that a tad odd?  They don't know?!  They tracked it all that way and then just *lost* it!  The conspiracy theorist in me says that it wiped out an entire town somewhere and they're covering it up ... (I watch WAY too many films!)

 

[jbeany]

Not so good with maps, either, considering they started out saying it would land over the U.S. and then changed their minds and said maybe Australia.   Uh, hello?  Entire different side of planet?