Posted on 02/12/2009 5:40:00 AM PST by Freeport
WASHINGTON - Iridium Satellite LLC confirmed today that one of its satellites was destroyed Tuesday in an unprecedented collision with a spent Russian satellite and that the incident could result in limited disruptions of service.
According to an e-mail alert issued by NASA today, Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite slammed into the Iridium craft at 11:55 a.m. EST (0455 GMT) over Siberia at an altitude of 490 miles (790 km). The incident was observed by the U.S. Defense Department's Space Surveillance Network, which later was tracking two large clouds of debris.
"This is the first time we've ever had two intact spacecraft accidentally run into each other," said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It was a bad day for both of them."
The collision appears to be the worst space debris event since China intentionally destroyed one of its aging weather satellites during a 2007 anti-satellite test, Johnson told SPACE.com. That 2007 event has since left about 2,500 pieces of debris in Earth orbit, but more time is needed to pin down the extent of Tuesday's satellite collision, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
The location is not at all suspicious -- it's a simple matter of orbital mechanics.
These were two polar-orbiting satellites in different planes: it's precisely where you'd expect a collision to occur. (Or, equivalently, over Antarctica.)
This was the subject of a show on Discovery or History channel within the last week. Very informative show for the Boob Tube. This will make another big jump in the amount of space junk that jeopardizes every other thing in orbit.
Andromeda Strain?
That'll work for chucking stuff into orbit. It still won't give them a state-of-the-art, secure, redundant, efficient space-based military communications system, for example.
Or maybe they could do it, what do I know? I still don't think this was intentional on the part of the Russians. A chain reaction of space debris collisions would be a disaster for them and us and everybody else who has equipment up there.
They are not our bestest buddies, but neither are the suicidal psychos like the muzzies.
Well... now you're getting into design goals rather than capabilities.
We Americans tend to build seriously high-end hardware that works splendidly, albeit at extremely high cost. The question is whether that's the only way to get the job done -- and the Russians showed that you can get the same basic services using low-end, less capable hardware. Their capabilities aren't anywhere close to ours, but it's good enough for them.
As for redundant .... well, the prize there goes to the country that can replace failed satellites most easily. The US satellite industry is rather ineffective these days, especially for military programs -- cost, schedule, and technology issues have been a very serious problem for the DoD. The Russians might be in the same boat ... the Chinese may have the upper hand there.
And thus, Microsoft Windows ME was created. (smile)
Of course it is *IF* the Russians were somehow able to lower or raise their satellite's orbit. They *may* have selected this particular satellite (COSMOS 2215) precisely because its orbit could potentially intersect with the U.S. (Iridium) satellite's over Siberia where they could more easily monitor a collision (if the altitude was 'adjusted' just right). However, based on an excerpt I followed up with from the Space.com article, the Russian satellite was apparently 'non-maneuverable'. But I don't buy that quite yet.
Which they apparently could not.
You're making this way too complicated. An accidental collision is a far more plausible explanation for what happened.
“Someone in the observation community dropped the ball on this one.”
Likely true, unless the orbit of the Russian bird was maneuvered fairly quickly to intercept the Iridium satellite.
We're dealing with the Russians here. No scenario is too complicated. They are masters at the game of chess. Most of us, unfortunately, have difficulty understanding checkers.
“...which is demonstrably false.”
OK. Demonstrate it to me. I’ll supply the monkey and the typewriter. Get back to me when you are finished! ;)
And some of us are apparently unwilling to accept the most plausible explanation. It was bound to happen at some point -- and now it has happened.
But that's just the problem. The analogy fails precisely because it must be taken literally.
"Infinite time" analogies are prima facia false, because no real, man-made object remains unchanged and functional to infinity.
The typewriters break down. The monkeys die. The paper runs out. The ink dries up.
In the real world, the 2nd law of thermodynamics trumps the "infinite time" fantasies and stops them in their tracks.
Can you honestly claim that given two objects, sent flying in opposite directions within the emptiness of space, would eventually hit each other, given engouh time? It's just false. It would never, EVER happen. Even with infinite time.
Why? Because time is not the only variable involved, when you're talking about reality. Said objects would not collide, because they would hit something else first, or they would lose their momentum.
There are many imaginary events which could never, ever occur in reality, regardless of the amount of time thrown at them. Other variables preclude them.
Yeah, I'll get right on it. :-)
;-)
But if you had an infinite number objects sent into an infinite number of directions in space, two of them would most definately collide over time.
Oh, it only takes one. It was my turn. :-P
Given the Russian bird had been orbiting for some 15.6 years, that's impressive durability for those thrusters and their control system.
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