Nasa employee warning on solar flares

reply to post by watcher3339


I have been a CBRNE speciailist in the past. Hated the job. But your Marine friend is speaking the truth. If a EMP were to strike the Earth frying all satellites and electrical grids, you will quickly find yourself, back in the 60’s, if not earlier. And the system is not built for that.

Anyone who depends upon refrigerated meds will die shortly afterwards. Since communications are down, there will be riots, shootings between towns as fear sets in. etc. More will die as the result of the lack of fuel for generators, food poisoning, Nuclear meltdowns, etc.

It’ll take years to get our act together.

Originally posted by shadwgirl
Hello, First let me start by stating that I'm not the most eloquent writer so please forgive grammer, typos, and incorrect sentence structure. I speak better than I write. Second, let me state I'm not sure that I believe what I was told but the timing was perfect as I was surfing the web and reading about this same subject.

I work for a local cable company in customer service and receive about 80 calls a day. The first customer that I assisted today was calling to ask about getting the nasa channel. While I was putting a request for the station to be added to our line up, this gentleman mentioned that not only does he work for nasa but that maybe I should start to prepare for some major change. I asked him what he meant and he stated that nasa and the government are preparing for a major solar flare.He then spent a couple minutes discussing everything that a solar flare can damage. The one thing he said that I can still remember pretty much word for word was that he was worried about the astronauts. He told me that they would have exactly 8 minutes to take shelter before they would be fried to death. He didn't mention where they would take cover but I assume the ship would have some sort of protection against this. He also told me that their biggest fear was the satallites. He said that the loss of communication would be devasting but there is more danger than that. He said the damage they could do if they fell out of the sky would be horrendous.

Of course, I couldn't wait to get home to type this up. Things like this never happen to me and I wanted to share this with ATS. I know that I will receive mostly thoughtful and courteous debate about this. I will admit that it is very odd that a stranger will say this over the phone to a company that records all conversations.

edit on 8-7-2011 by shadwgirl because: recommended new title for thread

Lol I love how some people says the suck at grammar, then type in perfect grammar. Good post though very interesting. I think everybody pretty much knows and feels that something is happening and will happen soon. Interesting times we live in. Be well.


Deebo

The problem is the speed of light. That "8 minutes" it takes for light to reach Earth will be the first indication that a "frying event" has occurred. It's about 8.2 minutes and energy does not travel faster than light so there would be nothing possible to trigger the splatter toward the shelters before the light struck Earth. A closer satellite sensor still has to relay the data back to earth, again, with radio waves at the speed of light.

reply to post by tkwasny


I'm not quite sure what you are saying. Does this mean there wouldn't be time for any kind of warning? Is the time frame that the man gave me implausible? Or would it be plausible if we were to ascertain the flare exactly as it occurred?

OP, your posting history makes me believe this.

33 posts in over 6 years, that's what, 1 post every other month?

If you were a BS'er you wouldn't have that kind of patience.

Obligatory NASA poke-

NASA TV = SATAN V

reply to post by shadwgirl


I believe what he is saying, to summarize.

We will have no warning whatsoever.

Originally posted by shadwgirl
reply to post by tkwasny

 

I'm not quite sure what you are saying. Does this mean there wouldn't be time for any kind of warning? Is the time frame that the man gave me implausible? Or would it be plausible if we were to ascertain the flare exactly as it occurred?

There is not possible any method of warning devised by man that can travel faster than light. Gravity is estimated to be instantaneous throughout the Universe and changes detected herold electromagnetic energy to soon follow (maybe) at the speed of light. For this man to say you have 8 minutes to get to a shelter means someone does not understand the speed of light. A flare will not generate a gravity fluctuation, per se, which is instantaneous on Earth, then we have 8.2 minutes before the electromagnetic energy (light) impacts.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by shadwgirl

 

I believe what he is saying, to summarize.

We will have no warning whatsoever.

There is not possible any warning to any one. It will just get very bright and very hot. If your out in it your smoked. Real science, not theory. Speed of electromagnetic radiation is not theory.

reply to post by tkwasny


Thank you. I think I understand what you're saying. I am not the brightest star in the sky when it comes to physics.

reply to post by tkwasny


I know, and that's why I don't worry about it. Don't you love how Hollywood makes people think they'll have time to prepare?

Man made disasters and Earth borne disasters I can deal with. But something from space? Chances are, we are toast.

reply to post by shadwgirl


The part about the astronauts frying in 8 minutes is an exaggeration, when there is a big solar flare there is also a stream of protons that shoot out at near the speed of light (hence the 8 minutes).
Astronauts on board the ISS are in low earth orbit so they are protected by the earths magnetic field, the ISS is also shielded too.

science.nasa.gov...

I was under the impression that a solar flare isn't a death sentence if you are on earth. I thought our atmosphere would protect us. Wasn't there a solor flare in the 1800's that took out the telegraph system?

What I don't understand is that he is worried about the astronauts but he don't expect the solar flare til next year. They come back in 12 days.

I don't think he meant these astronauts. Just astronauts in general. I am aware that this is supposed to be nasa's last mission but that doesn't mean other countries aren't going to space.

reply to post by shadwgirl


We've been grazed before recently, with spectacular effects. However, we have not been subjected to a direct hit anytime recently. And it also depends upon the size of the burst.

You are correct. The burst in the 1800's fried the telegraph lines. Imagine what it would do now. The military might survive a planet wide EMP, but I don't think that the planets nations are hardened agaist it.

reply to post by TDawgRex


I agree with you there. I have always felt that we have made it too easy for ourselves. I think without all of the modern conveniences that we enjoy, people would basically panic and be reduced to animals. Of course, we have already seen this.I couldn't imagine this scenario on a global scale.

But wouldn't a flare of this magnitude only affect the part of the planet facing the sun? Excuse my ignorance, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't sure of the answer.

One thing that jumps out at me is why would the satellites crash to Earth? It's not like they're constantly firing boosters to stay aloft. There are plenty of decommissioned satellites orbiting Earth, not to mention plenty of other space junk that has no power source whatsoever. I'm thinking the guy was pulling your leg.

reply to post by shadwgirl


The ISS is the only place there are astronauts.

The ISS is shielded and inside earths gravity field.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Only long span transmission lines and steel pipelines will be affected.

Transformers on these transmission lines will blow and that's about it.

The USA is covered in these long distance lines, as is Australia and China, thing is though, America is much closer to the north pole so will feel the greatest effects from a large solar storm.

Originally posted by shadwgirl
I was under the impression that a solar flare isn't a death sentence if you are on earth. I thought our atmosphere would protect us. Wasn't there a solor flare in the 1800's that took out the telegraph system?

Yes. My understanding is that a flare won't fry or hurt us directly but that we have become so dependent on certain types of technology that would be fried that there would be aftermath issues.
Our magnetic field shields us from most of what the sun throws at us. ( As a sort of side note this ties in to axis shift 2012 etc. because some theorize that our magnetic shield might go down for a few days and that if it does and we get hit by a massive solar flare then the damage would be much worse).
My understanding (and again, this isn't really my area other than buying beans...)is that the day side of the planet would be hit and the night side would be fine. If there were multiple separate events than we could have multiple outages of electricity (which also is required to keep water and sewage systems running). Transformers could be fried and the electrical grid could go down in large areas for long periods of time. Parts of the system that might need replacement in such an event are currently on a six month back order and guess what: they aren't made in this country! Shocker, I know. So, if China needs one or more for their grid they are going to take care of themselves before they export to us.
Satellites would also take damage and so cell service, computers, digital tv (remember how they made us get rid of our antennas!) could all go out. That is why my marine friend fears societal break down.

It's no joke. It really could happen. And then the questions are: how big is it? Where does it hit? How much damage does the hit do? And how do people react?