Space Station Trash Plunging to Earth!!

Space Station Trash Plunging to Earth!!

news.aol.com

(Oct. 31) - A piece of space station trash the size of a refrigerator is poised to plunge through the Earth's atmosphere late Sunday, more than a year after an astronaut tossed it overboard.

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Yikes! Who knows what will happen!? This is breaking news. Another quote by this news article

""NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object - a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the International Space Station - to make sure it does not endanger people on Earth.""

LOL? I dont know why this is funny,sorry.

news.aol.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

NASA expects up to 15 pieces of the tank to survive the searing hot temperatures of re-entry, ranging in size from about 1.4 ounces (40 grams) to nearly 40 pounds (17.5 kg).

If they reach all the way to land, the largest pieces could slam into the Earth’s surface at about 100 mph (161 kph). But a splashdown at sea is also possible, as the planet is two-thirds ocean.

“If anybody found a piece of anything on the ground Monday morning, I would hope they wouldn’t get too close to it,” Suffredini said.

wow thats a little scary

reply to post by Gillespie


How much longer do we have to live with the danger of 1,400-pound cooling tanks washing up on our planet from space before someone will do something about this problem?

Stop space dumping now. Space does not belong to NASA - it belongs to all lifeforms that call it home!

Jon

Very unlikely that this will pose any danger upon impact.

NASA expects up to 15 pieces of the tank to survive the searing hot temperatures of re-entry, ranging in size from about 1.4 ounces (40 grams) to nearly 40 pounds (17.5 kg).

If they reach all the way to land, the largest pieces could slam into the Earth’s surface at about 100 mph (161 kph). But a splashdown at sea is also possible, as the planet is two-thirds ocean.

It is a good bet that it will hit the ocean and if it hits land, it probably won't hit a populated area (don't know the odds on that one)

Even if it does hit a populated area, the largest peice should be about 40 pounds traveling about 100 mph. Now, I wouldn't want that coming through my roof, but really the odds of anything really bad happening as a result of this are huge to the "against" side.

It should make a nice fireball coming through the atmosphere though

This sounds like a case of UH-OH we just admitted to dumping highly toxic chemicals into orbit, surely the technology exists to fire it into a sling shot orbit and fire it at the sun or designed to make it faster to make sure it burns up.

We got to stop just dumping everything all over the place, it always comes back and bites us, not saying this one is going to do anything, not saying that at all, I just think we need to be a little more careful with what we do.

Tin hat at the ready !

A 40 pound piece of space garbage falling at 100 mph. Sounds like instant death to me.

I resent the possibility of anyone being in danger by trash thrown from the ISS.

I'm sure this isn't the last piece of space debris to fall to earth.

Whats the chance of it hitting land? nevermind populated land...practically zero,thats the reason none gives two stuffs.

reply to post by azzllin


I'm sure the technology exists, but it's probably far, far to expensive to implement on "consumables".

Goddard Space Flight Center is currently tracking over 6200 pieces of space junk. I agree, that this is eventually going to cause a problem someday.

Just in August, the ISS had to do change course to avoid some space junk.

Space station dodges controversial junk



[edit on 1-11-2008 by Zarniwoop]

I like this part;

Space Station Trash Plunging to Earth

NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object - a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the International Space Station - to make sure it does not endanger people on Earth. Exactly where the tank will inevitably fall is currently unknown, though it is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday afternoon or later that evening, NASA officials said.

They are tracking this thing to "make sure it does not endanger people on Earth"!

Now, how does "TRACKING" this thing "make sure it does not endanger people on Earth"?

And what exactly CAN NASA do to make sure this debris "does not endanger people on Earth" if it ends up that it will come down in a heavily populated area?

NOTHING!

All they'll be able to do is give people a "heads up"!

[edit on 11/1/2008 by Keyhole]

reply to post by Keyhole


I thought that was a bit odd myself, but I think it was just a poorly written sentence. As you point out, they are really monitoring to see if it might endanger people and the "head's up" will probably encompass a huge area. Although, I'd appreciate the head's up to watch the light show if its anywhere near. It should be pretty birght coming in.

Sound like a great eBay item just in time for Christmas! Free Shipping anyone?



[edit on 1-11-2008 by ATS4dummies]

Maybe this is where the toilet seat from outerspace came from. The one that hit the girl on "Dead Like Me"

You know, people ... there are other lives on this planet that aren't human. I'm sure the sea creatures don't appreciate our sh*t we dump there as it is. They really won't like it if the stuff comes in at high velocities.

But then they don't have rights, do they? Only we in our wisdom have the right to determine who is worthy. gg us!

May it land on my neighbor's house.

Originally posted by Keyhole
I like this part;

Space Station Trash Plunging to Earth

NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object - a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the International Space Station - to make sure it does not endanger people on Earth. Exactly where the tank will inevitably fall is currently unknown, though it is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday afternoon or later that evening, NASA officials said.

They are tracking this thing to "make sure it does not endanger people on Earth"!

Now, how does "TRACKING" this thing "make sure it does not endanger people on Earth"?

And what exactly CAN NASA do to make sure this debris "does not endanger people on Earth" if it ends up that it will come down in a heavily populated area?

NOTHING!

All they'll be able to do is give people a "heads up"!

[edit on 11/1/2008 by Keyhole]

I agree with you, NASA is a tool, a very useless tool. Not to mention they cancled the Mars exploration and waste our taxpayer dollars on garbage for technology and waste the planet with this debris.

A little funny. Anyone remember when Joe Dirt found that space rock?

He ate off that thing...

Wow. You all realize that if it somehow some of those pieces miss the ocean and god-forbid it hits someone or several people at 100mph NASA is screwed right?

Originally posted by Rocco21
Wow. You all realize that if it somehow some of those pieces miss the ocean and god-forbid it hits someone or several people at 100mph NASA is screwed right?

This IS the International Space Station, ISS, or "the Space Station".

I guess a couple other countries space programs will have to also catch some flak for this if it did actually hit someone.

They must have known, when they threw this thing out into space a year ago, that it wouldn't disintegrate when it entered the atmosphere, so I guess that a year ago, they were just rolling the dice that this thing wouldn't kill anybody when it re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Earth.

Kind of irresponsible if you ask me!

Couldn't they have loaded it up into the shuttle and brought it back to Earth?

[edit on 11/1/2008 by Keyhole]