Posted on 02/25/2019 7:38:40 AM PST by BenLurkin
Cosmos 482 was a sister probe to Venera 8,which in July 1972 became the second craft to land successfully on the surface of Venus, said Don Mitchell, who studies Soviet space history and has a keen interest in that country's Venus exploration missions.
But Cosmos 482 got stranded in an Earth parking orbit, Mitchell told Space.com. Some hardware from that failed flight — a heavy frame of tanks and equipment that was jettisoned — fell into Earth's atmosphere in rather short order. But some remained aloft.
Still adrift around Earth, making one lap every 112 minutes, is the wayward Cosmos 482 Venus entry capsule, a contraption built to withstand the heat of diving into that cloud-veiled planet's thick atmosphere. The errant Venus lander mass is 1,091 lbs. (495 kilograms) and carries significant thermal protection.
And this piece of space junk will likely survive its inevitable descent back to its home planet, experts said.
Cosmos 482 is in an orbit that swings it out from Earth over 1,700 miles (2,735 km) away, but the low point, the perigee of the orbit, is just 125 miles (200 km) above our planet. Another rough estimate suggests that what's left of the failed Venus probe might stay up for another 2.5 years, even with such a low perigee.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
That’s the point, IT MAY NOT BURN UP.. its designed to survive entry into VENUS’s atmosphere, much hotter and denser than ours... Depending on how it re-enters is may not burn up and basically become a giant bomb should it strike land.
As a side note, Cosmos 482 is not the original mission name. The USSR classified anything they launched as “Cosmos” if it became stuck in Earth orbit, regardless of what the original mission profile was.
It would hurt more than an electronic organizer that was tossed from a passing limo.
Good to know. I remember when that Soviet spy satellite crashed in Northern Canada back in the 70’s. Supposedly the contamination was pretty significant.
Skylab was NOT a lander, it was not designed to enter the atmosphere, this thing has a lander, not only does it have a lander, it has a lander that was designed and built to survive entry into Venus’s atmosphere and touch down on its surface... an atmosphere far denser and hotter than earths. While the main ship my burn up, the lander very well may survive reentry to earth in tact.
Making it a giant kinetic bomb, should it strike land.
@AOC and Kamalalamadingdong demanding the fedgov distribute free hard hats to all poor people.
I guess Earth just has a case of Venus envy.
Was this the part of the ‘mision’ which was to orbit Venus and relay the lander data?
Oh, heck yeah! That was Cosmos 954. The recovery effort was a joint US-Canadian operation dubbed “Operation Morning light.” The recovery teams scoured an area of about 48,000 square miles. One of the recovered pieces emitted 500 R/h.
If you think a Soviet spacecraft is the summit of beauty and love ...
earthlings have irresistible urge to probe venus...
“Making it a giant kinetic bomb, should it strike land.”
Or it could be a large cannon ball it it hits the ocean! (71% of earths surface)
It wont work like that. A kinetic weapon has to enter steeply and aerodynamically and reach impact before atmospheric air resistance slows it to a sedate terminal velocity.
This thing is going to brush the upper atmosphere several times and then take a very long lazy arc to the surface. It may really wreck anytthing it hits but its not going to hit like a “rod from god” weapon.
Interesting. Thanks.
What goes up, must come down. Just wait until some space junk crashes in the middle of Times Square.
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