Be prepared to duck sometime around February

[McLeodGanja]

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Satellite could plummet to Earth

McLeodGanja Reviewed by McLeodGanja on 01-27-2008. Be prepared to duck sometime around February BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Satellite could plummet to Earth Rating: 5

[BurninKush]

I'd punch a satellite in the face.

[beginerbuddah]

where u gonna find a satelite with a face?

[beginerbuddah]

''In his estimate, the satellite weighs about 20,000 pounds (9,072kg) and is the size of a small bus.''
dude i wouldnt try an punch that

[BurninKush]

Damn, I better make it a sucker punch then.

[beginerbuddah]

Damn, I better make it a sucker punch then.

hahahah :thumbsup::jointsmile:

[McLeodGanja]

No sucker punch necessary, the war hawks are going to shoot it dang.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US plans to shoot down satellite

They are saying it contains harmful toxins that kill humans (no shit).

Conspiracists are saying that it's because they don't want any rogue states getting their hands on the technology.

I'd go further and say that there is no threat from a satellite and the US made it up because they want to test some new star wars weapons without drawing any unnecessary media attention.

We'll find out either this month, or maybe in 30 years...

[dragonrider]

I'd go further and say that there is no threat from a satellite and the US made it up because they want to test some new star wars weapons without drawing any unnecessary media attention.

I'm pretty sure there is a real satelite coming down, but I would not be surprised if they decided to blast it more as a way to test their anti-satelite weapons than out of a concern for public safety. The Chinese blasted one of their own satelietes into smithereens last year, so this might just be a chance to show we can do it too. The problem with the Chinese test was that it was on a satelite in a high orbit, and it created thousands of bits of space junk that will be in orbit for a very long time, creating a hazard to other satelites and spacecraft. This spy satelite is already on a decaying orbit, so it's a good chace to blow one up without having the junk float around forever. All the bits will be comng down soon anyway.

[McLeodGanja]

That could be potentially lethal if your on a space walk! Or even in a space craft. Typical of the Chinese government, no respect for the environment.

[dragonrider]

That could be potentially lethal if your on a space walk! Or even in a space craft. Typical of the Chinese government, no respect for the environment.

Right now collisions between space junk and functioning satelites or between space junk and other space junk are relatively rare, but they do happen. There is a theory that if there is enough space junk, then eventually it will reach a "tipping point" or "critical mass" in which collisions create more fragments, which make more collisions, and more fragments, and so on unitl we have a lethal layer of fragments. They refer to it as a "cascade."

Somtimes one part of the Chinese government does not know what another is doing. One part of the Chinese government was set to host an international conference about how to avioid the theoretical space junk "cascade" at about the same time another part decided to blow a satelite into a thousand pieces. It served as a great embarrassment to the Chinese at the conference that their own government had committed an act that may yet make a debris cascade inevitable.