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ISS Ditches 2.9-Ton Pallet of Batteries, Creating Its Most Massive Piece of Space Trash
Gizmodo ^ | George Dvorsky

Posted on 03/16/2021 9:50:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin

It wasn’t the original plan for the pallet to be discarded like this. The failed launch of a Soyuz rocket in 2018, in which NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were forced to make an emergency landing in the Kazakh steppe, caused a disruption to the spacewalking schedule, leading to the leftover pallet.

NASA’s spacewalk on February 1, 2021, involving astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover, was notable in that it concluded a four-year effort to upgrade the space station’s batteries. These batteries store energy collected by solar arrays, but in 2011 NASA decided to make the switch from nickel-hydrogen batteries to lithium-ion batteries. Production of these batteries started in 2014, and the process of swapping them out began in 2016.

Normally, the old batteries would be placed inside an HTV and jettisoned from the ISS, and the items would mostly burn up on re-entry. But the [2018] Soyuz launch failure disrupted the pattern of spacewalks and the intended schedule such that, in late 2018, an HTV cargo freighter left the station without a battery pallet, according to SpaceFlightNow. The battery-replacement mission continued, and HTVs continued to depart the station with pallets, but now with an extra one perpetually attached to the station. With the mission done and no more HTVs coming (at least none of the old design—they’re being replaced by the HTV-X cargo spacecraft), mission planners had to jettison the pallet on its own.

(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: alexeyovchinin; astronomy; batteries; elonmusk; htv; htvx; iss; mikehopkins; nasa; nickhague; roscosmos; science; soyuz; spacejunk; spacex; victorglover
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1 posted on 03/16/2021 9:50:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

But they still have a fit if you throw them away in your trash.


2 posted on 03/16/2021 9:57:58 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: BenLurkin

Litterbugs.....................


3 posted on 03/16/2021 9:58:57 AM PDT by Red Badger ("We've always been at war with Climate Change, Winston."..............................)
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To: BenLurkin; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ..
They should try a really, really long USB cable...

4 posted on 03/16/2021 10:03:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BenLurkin

INCOMING!


5 posted on 03/16/2021 10:06:09 AM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: chaosagent

Somehow they will find their way to Elon Musk’s Tesla.


6 posted on 03/16/2021 10:09:26 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Keep the Faith. Everything happens for a reason.)
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To: BenLurkin

At only 265 miles up it’s interesting that it will take 2-4 years to get to the atmosphere though. I’m surprised they couldn’t get it moving a little faster, I know 2.9 tons but still even at .125 mph it would only take maybe 90 days or so.


7 posted on 03/16/2021 10:12:23 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: BenLurkin

So it appears that the next round will be Lithium Dirty bombs.


8 posted on 03/16/2021 10:14:02 AM PDT by Revel
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To: Revel

Chemtrails Confirmed!


9 posted on 03/16/2021 10:16:29 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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To: BenLurkin

Lithium batteries explode when they get hot.
Reentry should be a hoot.


10 posted on 03/16/2021 10:20:00 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
/snort damn you...
11 posted on 03/16/2021 10:20:24 AM PDT by Chode (Ashli Babbitt - #SayHerNAME)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Somehow they will find their way to Elon Musk’s Tesla.


Who knows. He may figure out a way to land them safely.


12 posted on 03/16/2021 10:21:04 AM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: Revel

Incoming!


13 posted on 03/16/2021 10:21:31 AM PDT by Chode (Ashli Babbitt - #SayHerNAME)
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To: BenLurkin

14 posted on 03/16/2021 10:24:12 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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To: Abathar

I would think that a spare air bottle and some duct tape would provide enough a nudge to speed things up a little...

Be nice to know when it would actually get low enough to start generating friction. There is potential for a quick yet nice little light show.


15 posted on 03/16/2021 10:25:58 AM PDT by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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To: outofsalt

These are nickel-hydrogen batteries. Their replacements are lithium. You’ll have a little while longer to wait.


16 posted on 03/16/2021 10:26:44 AM PDT by Campion (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't they understand?)
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To: BenLurkin

What do they care. It’s not their money.


17 posted on 03/16/2021 10:27:26 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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They are really green sobs...


18 posted on 03/16/2021 10:44:02 AM PDT by TnTnTn
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To: BenLurkin

Hazardous waste in space?


19 posted on 03/16/2021 10:47:46 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The nation is in the grips of incurable hysterical insanity, as usual.)
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To: Abathar

Problem is, if they pushed on the batteries to make them go faster, it would equally push back on the space station and send it flying in the opposite direction.


20 posted on 03/16/2021 11:19:03 AM PDT by Boogieman
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