Newton's Law
I wanted to share this news story as it may indeed represent a true collision of technology and humans:
Satellite to Crash
This stuff of a Bond film in the making. If it makes it to earth who will find it first?
As Sir Isaac said: What goes up must come down.
Satellite to Crash
This stuff of a Bond film in the making. If it makes it to earth who will find it first?
As Sir Isaac said: What goes up must come down.
I've been loosely following this story for a few days and my thoughts keep coming back to: what do we (US military) do when this thing finally hits the ground?
The articles I've read say this was some kind of spy satellite launched in Dec 2006. I'd like to think this is a pretty advanced and highly classified satellite that my tax dollars helped build if it was only just recently launched.
If this thing lands in Iran or North Korea, how much technology (competitive advantage) could we lose? Will it burn up and be useless to anyone who finds it? Or do we have a SEAL team on standby ready to retrieve this strategically-important piece of equipment before someone else gets their hands on it? I hope so.
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I think the hope is that it burns on re-entry. If not I have to believe that the the US Army Space Command or the National Reconnaissance Office have emergency reclamation teams.
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The NY Times had a related story today (Feb5'08) about a small group of hobbyists online who track these types of satellites and publish information about their orbits, etc, on the satobs.org website.
There's not much in the article about what this satellite actually does (reportedly called "USA-193"), but it's an interesting article on a hobby I've never heard about (and will never participate in).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/science/space/05spotters.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Satellites crashing. Cables breaking. What's next?
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Update on this.. The Pentagon now plans on shooting this satellite down:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UQ77F81&show_article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.
The Associated Press has learned that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a Pentagon briefing later Thursday.
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No surprises here. Can't let that fall in to the wrong hands.
Thanks for the update.
Warren
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