Posted on 09/03/2009 12:29:18 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
The International Space Station may have to fire its thrusters to avoid a piece of space junk that is on course to pass within two miles of the orbiting complex and its 13 astronauts.
Nasa is tracking debris from a portion of a European rocket, the Ariane 5, that was launched more than three years ago. The debris could pass close enough to require astronauts to fire thrusters to move the station and shuttle Discovery that is docked there out of the way, NASA officials said at a briefing.
The debris posed no immediate danger to the station or the shuttle, the agency said.
The debris, which is in an oval-shaped orbit that makes it difficult to track, will make its closest approach to the station at 11:06am EDT on Friday, NASA said.
The debris will not force NASA to delay the second of three spacewalks planned outside the station on Thursday. NASA might decide to take no action, or could "reboost" the station from its current orbit 220 miles above the Earth after astronauts complete their second space walk, it said.
Discovery arrived at the station on Sunday to deliver more than seven tonnes of food, supplies, equipment and spare parts to the $100 billion, 16-nation orbital outpost.
Space junk is not uncommon - about 19,000 objects larger than 10 centimetres are known to exist, according to NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office.
China's intentional destruction of a weather satellite in 2007 and the accidental collision of American and Russian communications satellites in 2009 have greatly increased the number of large debris in orbit, the office said.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If (if, mind you) I was in the mind to bite, I would reflect on the fact that the solar wind extends far beyond Pluto, and has enough of a strength to enable solar-sailed spacecraft to be built.
I would also reflect on the fact that enormous electrically charged interstellar gasses are observed stretching across light years in length.
So, if I continued to reflect, I would duly conclude that unless you actually went fully intergalactic, you'd always be in some sort of "wind" (and even then, who knows what flows between galaxies?).
But if I were then to limit my reflections to the ISS, I would probably conclude that minute variations in the earth's gravitational field would be the probable cause of the perturbations and gradual degradation of the ISS orbit, rather than ionic wind at that altitude.
Granted, I could be wrong.
But at this hour of the night, I wouldn't agree to it without being shown a lot of colorful charts to prove it.
I heard the almanac says a mild winter, but that thing hasn’t been right for years.
“But if I were then to limit my reflections to the ISS, I would probably conclude that minute variations in the earth’s gravitational field would be the probable cause of the perturbations and gradual degradation of the ISS orbit, rather than ionic wind at that altitude.”
Yep, you are dead wrong. Wind.
Funny, isn’t it?
Later all
Really? A mild winter?
Hmmmm.
That publication has a historical record of being right - and they refuse to disclose how they do it.
That’s what I heard anyways.
Truly amazing.
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