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Kazakhstan's Spaceship Junkyard 307
Richard W.M. Jones writes "What happens to the booster stages of rockets?
They fall back to earth, and in most cases
into the oceans. But not in Baikonur, Kazakhstan,
where the first stages fall over populated
farmland. The locals have become rich
dealing in the titanium-rich scrap metal
as this
article and this
remarkable photo essay show.
So far the only casualties seem to have
been a few
dead cows."
In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Funny)
Dead cows... (Score:5, Funny)
Server going down? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Server going down? (Score:5, Informative)
KAZAKHSTAN'S SPACESHIP JUNKYARD
A EurasiaNet Photo Essay by Jonas Bendiksen
Text by Laara Matsen
On April 16, Russia announced that it would henceforth launch military satellites at the Pletsnesk cosmodrome in northern Russia, ending the practice of launching satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This shift will deprive Kazakh children of the chance to watch some satellites take off, though Baikonur will remain the launchpad for commercial "birds" and manned missions. As these photos show, it will also spare Kazakhs the fallout, literal and otherwise, that occurs in a launch's wake.
All space-bound rockets consist largely of fuel tanks and booster stages that fall back to earth when spent, never reaching orbit. In landlocked Baikonur, Russia's primary launching complex in Kazakhstan, these spaceships crash to earth. This photo essay visits the areas where the supporting rockets land, and shows the people living under the flight paths who contend with flaming spaceship wrecks several times each month.
Apart from the fear of having a spaceship crash through their roofs, residents in the area complain of the ill effects of leftover toxic rocket fuel. With the relocation of Russian military launches, more than half of which currently take off from Baikonur, these people may get some relief. However, one group of people is probably sorry to see Baikonur lose business; the region's scrap metal dealers are getting rich trading metal from the rockets' titanium alloy hulls.
Re:Server going down? (Score:5, Funny)
Since you were the first to most graciously post the article from the (so predictably) now-slashdotted server, you win.....(drum roll)....
ONE SIDE OF KAZAKHSTANI BOOSTER-SMACKED BEEF!
Yes good comrade...Kazakhstani beef. Not a substitute! This beef was slow-marinated in pure slavic hydrazine - no oxygen here! - after being gently but firmly caressed by a 13-ton booster moving at terminal velocity! Range-smacked! Bones and cartillage removed or pulverized in a split-instant! No abattoir farm for the Kazakhstani!
Bon Apetite!
Re:Server going down? (Score:2)
Re:Server going down? (Score:5, Insightful)
(apologies to the original poster; yours just happened to be the one showing up as such right now)
Re:Server going down? (Score:2, Insightful)
You Will Burn In Heckla... (Score:2)
HERETIC! You'll be telling us that Cowboy Neal isn't Cmdr Taco's earthly incarnation next, or that the "Natalie Portman covered in hot grits" meme wasn't originally carved into the face of the earth by divine lightning. Or that the original 3 Star Wars films are no m
Re:Server going down? (Score:2, Funny)
Mooo! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mooo! (Score:3, Funny)
Must... resist... yo mama... joke...
cultofthedeadcow (Score:2, Funny)
Re:cultofthedeadcow (Score:2)
Re:cultofthedeadcow (Score:3)
Probably because the usual barrage of In Soviet Russia, hot grits, Step #3 profit, welcomed overlords, beowulf clusters, duped articles, petrified Portman, misspelled articles, Micro$$$oft anything, Jon Katz, Slashdotter virginity, and SCO Madness seem shriveled and flaccid in comparison.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just making a point. If Slashdotters could recycle plastics and aluminum th
Iron Eyes Cody was NOT an Indian (Score:2)
The actor who posed as an Indian, and claimed to be of Cree/Cherokee descent, was in reality a Sicilian [snopes.com]. And the tears were fake.
-cp-
Wow.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, a certain government might turn their lemonade into military action when they decide they want a piece of the pie.
If spent stages from a US rocket hit some home in the US, it would be removed overnight, the family would be given a check for 20% of the value of what they lost, forced to sign an NDA, and no one would ever hear about it again.
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
--
Evan
Re:Wow.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Don't forget then selling the rights to their story to Fox in order to make it into a movie-of-the-week, where while the main stage falls in some cornfield in central Nebraska, killing three chickens in the process, some part inexplicably fal
Re:Wow.. (Score:3, Insightful)
And then somehow manage to be back in the poorhouse within two years...
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Somewhere in my family, someone was awarded about $100,000 in medical damages for gross negligence when their doctor did some really stupid shit.
And you know? They kept their job (they had been living about the middle-low range of middle class before) and after they spent the $100,000, they ended up in the middle range of poor.
They still can't explain how it happened. Only thing they have to show for it is a cheap fishing boat tht cost all of 2% of their winnings.
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
It has been a major consideration for us in ensuring that our children are cared for should we die before they reach adulthood. It's difficult to ensure that ther
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know... how much titanium is there in a human body?
Re:Wow.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm...I dunno. In this situation, I'd guess several pounds, post mortem.
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
I don't know... how much titanium is there in a human body?
I suppose that depends on how hard of an impact it was...
Re:Wow.. (Score:3, Insightful)
And by Freedom I mean the common definition of freedom as applied to countries; a lack of government involvement in people's day-to-day affairs.
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
I'm sure that next time we accidentally drop a rocket stage on another country, we'll nuke the shit out of them trying to get in on the action. I mean, the whole thing makes so much sense.
That's just how we American's think, right?
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
Re:Wow.. (Score:2)
As if they had a choice. These farmers spent most of thier lives under a goverments that not only was not likely to pay restitution, it openly was contemptous of the 'rights' of it's population.
cow tipping (Score:2, Funny)
Re:cow tipping (Score:2, Insightful)
"Which of the following would you prefer: a puppy, a flower from your sweetie, or a large, properly formatted data disk."
Re:cow tipping (Score:3, Insightful)
This is Slashdot. Exactly how do you propose that question would help? We have no use for puppies unless accompanied by large amounts of duct tape and we have never seen a "sweetie" in real life unless a Mars bar counts so gimme that disk and let me post, dammit!
A large disssk, my preciousss.
In Soviet Russia (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds like... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like... (Score:2)
Slashdotted, already (Score:3, Interesting)
How's this for the ultimate conundrum: the combination of "Nobody RTFA here" and "the Slashdot Effect" taking down sites?
Maybe some people actually DO RTFA besides myself?
(sigh
Re:Slashdotted, already (Score:2)
Just act as though you're an expert on the topic like a bunch of other +5 loud mouthes.
Worth a thousand words! (Score:2)
We don't read the articles, we look at the pretty pictures.
Incidentally, pictures use up way more bandwith than text.
Re:Slashdotted, already (Score:2)
Re:Slashdotted, already (Score:2)
Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:3, Interesting)
A couple friends recently got engaged, and they had an artisan who specialized in jewelry design and make her engagement ring.
Of all the exotic materials they can make rings out of, one thing she would not do was make rings out of titanium. The reason? In case of certain medical emergencies (snagged in a machine, or crashed car, or whatever), they'd need to cut the ring off to free the finger (and ultimately the entire person). But no paramedic or even hospital wa
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:5, Informative)
Counter [e-weddingbands.com] we contacted our local hospital emergency room and asked if they were equipped to cut off a titanium ring in an emergency. Most hospital emergency rooms are prepared to handle almost anything, and ours assured us that it would be no problem for them. During our 30+ years of jewelry repair experience, we've only seen a dozen or so rings that have been cut off in hospital emergency rooms, and in most of those cases the rings had been bent out-of-round and were putting painful pressure on the finger. Titanium rings are less likely to crush or bend out-of-round, so if you shut your hand in a car door or drop a heavy object on it, it might be safer to be wearing a titanium ring than a precious metal band!
Counter 2 [cascadiadesignstudio.com] In case of an emergency, such as an injured finger, Emergency Medical Technicians, Fire Departments, and Hospital Emergency Rooms can quickly remove titanium rings. Several non-destructive methods for ring removal are available before resorting to cutting a ring. In the rare event it becomes necessary to cut off a titanium ring, emergency medical professionals carry ring cutters or rotary cut-off tools that cut through metals, including our CP and Aerospace Grade Titanium. In our testing, we found that tools that will cut through steel will also cut through titanium rings.
Counter 3 [titaniumconnection.com] Titanium rings are created with safety in mind, as there is always the possibility that a ring will need to be removed in an emergency. Tests by various manufacturers have shown that titanium rings can be manually cut with a ring cutter within a matter of minutes, and much faster using an electric ring cutting device, such as those that many paramedics use.
Counter 4 [canadianbride.com] I had heard that there is a "medical emergency" issue (i.e. they can't cut the ring off of your finger with regular ring snippers) but my friend's hubby, who is an EMT, assured me that this isn't something to be concerned about, since they have different types of cutters they can use should the need arise.
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2, Funny)
I recall one time I saw AC/DC, a fellow next to me in front of the stage (read mosh pit) lost his glasses. Normally, one would be concerned - but not this guy. "My glasses have titanium frames, they will be fine!" We found them at the end of the show.
I still remember the look on his face when we found them - he just stared slack-jawed at the twisted ball of metal in his palm.
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2)
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2)
Too many thoughts, aaaggghhh (Score:4, Informative)
A couple of things came to mind reading the parent.
I'd have to say welding titanium is no more difficult than welding aluminum or stainless steel. They're all tricky and it takes practice.
Titanium can be difficult to work with (especially if you're not set up to do so) but you'll notice that most titanium jewelry is either formed (from wire, rod or sheet) or machined. Titanium rings/bands are machined- not cast.
Because Ti rings are machined, your local jeweler is likely unable to resize your ring. You can't size it down the way you would common alloy rings (which are cut and soldered to make smaller, stretched to make bigger) so you've got to either go back to the retailer or in some cases the manufacturer.
Aluminum was more expensive than gold, but its value is subjective, gold has been desired more than any other metal since its discovery. Side note- aluminum used to cost more because until relatively recently it was extremely expensive to extract from bauxite. (If you're interested, it's called the Bayer Process [wikipedia.org])
Unlike gold and other precious metals and alloys, I don't think titanium and other industrial metals are sold on market exchanges. There's no spot or fix for the industrial metals (that I know of.)
And lastly, my local scrap metal dealer buys Ti at $.18/pound and sells at $.24/pound. I think this is much lower than it's market value, but even o it's no wonder these farmer guys are making $$$- they have tonnage. Well, and, it's probably hard to find in that market.
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:5, Informative)
Aluminum was not known as a metal 1,000 years ago, having been discovered in 1825 and purified enough to really test its properties in 1827. But yes, until the electolytic process was developed in 1886, it was quite vaulable because it was so hard to purify.
(There were, in fact, only seven pure metals known a thousand years ago -- iron, copper, tin, gold, silver, lead, and mercury. The isolation of zinc and its recognition as a metal dates to c.1200 AD in India, and arsenic was isolated around that time in Europe.)
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2)
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2)
One day a goldsmith in Rome was allowed to show the Emperor Tiberius a dinner plate of a new metal. The plate was very light, and almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith told the Emperor that he had made the metal from plain clay. He also assured the Emperor that only he, himself, and the Gods knew how to produce this metal from clay. The Emperor became very interested, and as a financial expert he was also a little concerned. The Emperor felt immediately, howeve
Re:Titanium is a pain to weld or melt in the house (Score:2)
Re:Aluminum is verry low melting point. Here is ho (Score:2, Informative)
BTW, the whole setup would function better if you had something like a brake drum from a car (or just about any other sort of fire-resistant pot with a hole in the bottom) and some piping to get the air coming up throu
Re:old-world chemists (alchemists) (Score:2)
In soviet russia, waste manages you! (Score:5, Interesting)
Ex-Soviet Russia is famous for *not* managing its nuclear waste (hundreds of nuclear submarines slowly rotting away in Barents Sea, pissing off Finns and Swedes) ; nuclear weapons out of hand or simply "missing" ; some famous fuckups (Tchernobyl; that bio-warfare incident about 20 years ago, when a lab leaked a killer virus over a village) ; etc...
So nobody should be surprised that they let booster rockets fall on populated areas...
Thank you! (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you SO MUCH. I have found my new background.
Priceless (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Priceless (Score:5, Funny)
... or about 1.5 euros
Re:Priceless (Score:2)
(Roughly 3 Euro)
Cache (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.eurasianet.org.nyud.net:8090/departmen
Re:Cache (Score:2)
What killed the cows? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What killed the cows? (Score:5, Funny)
One cow was almost killed by a direct impact, but managed to pull through after weeks of intensive care.
I cringed (Score:2, Funny)
Gimme Back My Bullets (Score:2)
Re:Gimme Back My Bullets (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gimme Back My Bullets (Score:2)
Re:Gimme Back My Bullets (Score:2)
Selling nukes to Iran... (Score:2)
Probably not, but let's try the opposite extreme: If I sell nukes to Iran do I bear some responsibility for what they do with them? If the Pentagon or IDF caught me in the act what would be my defense against being executed as an "obvious terrorist"?
A knife has many uses and can be easily made with stuff lying around the average garden shed. Guns, (the non-hunting variety), and nukes are designed with the sole purpose of killing p
Re: We need sedition laws re-enacted? (Score:2)
I liked Kazakhstan (Score:5, Interesting)
I went to Almaty (aka "Alma Ata", the old capital of Kazakhstan) back in about 1994. I really enjoyed it and found the people to be very friendly and enthusiastic.
I did find the food to be somewhat unique. Breakfast was usually a kind of roll filled with either finely chopped vegetables and/or finely ground meat. I don't know what sort of meat it was and it wasn't even always clear which buns had meat as everything was so finely ground up. It was all tasty though.
Lunch was fairly straight forward but the dessert was a peculiar electric green sweet foam. I couldn't identify the flavor but it was also pretty good.
Supper was quite interesting as, although the menu had a variety of items, it turned out what was actually available was either steak or spaghetti. No worry though, both were quite good as was the company!
The architecture, furnishings, and decor of Almaty were very interesting. For me, it was like an instant trip to the 1950s but in a parallel universe where everything was slightly unfamiliar.
The name of the hotel I stayed at escapes me right now but it was something like "The Cosmo". I think it has been renamed "Kazakhstan Hotel" based on the pictures I can find. There was a very impressive and very large tapestry commemorating the Soviet space program in the lobby.
The main thing about my trip was my time in Kazakhstan was far too short. It took ~48 hours to get there, I had ~48 hours there, and then it was ~48 hours to come home. I wish I had time to visit Baikonur Cosmodrome (we were invited to visit by our hosts) but we didn't have time. I'll always regret that.
Anyway, if you get a chance to go to Kazakhstan, you really should take it.
Re:I liked Kazakhstan (Score:5, Funny)
Falling space junk and electric green food don't sound like that great of a combination.
Especially if it's during an air raid in 1941.
Are you my mummy?
Re:I liked Kazakhstan (Score:2)
Re:I liked Kazakhstan (Score:2)
Re:I liked Kazakhstan (Score:2)
Re:I liked Kazakhstan (Score:3, Interesting)
I was there as part of a team from ICL (now part of Fujitsu) presenting some banking software to a group of about a dozen different banks. I was responsible for the technical end of the presentation (i.e., make sure the all the hardware / software / networking functioned properly) and to answer any technical questions the banks might have.
Most of the other Westerners I met as a result of this trip were there because of oil and other mineral interests. This was relatively soon after Kazakhstan had become
Hmmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
That's a "spade" (Score:2)
Link seems slashdotted... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/culture/imag [eurasianet.org] es/sj2.jpg [eurasianet.org]
That's the second image, a smoking hunk of what must be a fallen rocket casing I guess.
There's 12 images in all, I've only seen the first two, but they seem to follow simple numeric order, so the others would end
and so on.
If anyone wants to send me a zip of the pictures if
Rehosted images. (Score:5, Informative)
http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~64ndhi/SlashdotKazakh stan/ [netsoc.tcd.ie]
Re:Rehosted images. (Score:2)
recipe for disappointment (Score:2)
Ah, well.
Exactly how much is that worth monetarily? (Score:2, Informative)
Does anyone have a rough guess about how much metal is in one of those things? Also, what do you think THEY get in Kazakhstan for the Ti? compared to what we could get here in the US??? Last I checked, Ti was going for around $1 or $1.25 / lb and that is IF you can find a buyer
In Soviet Russia... (Score:2)
An airplane factory didn't have orders for planes. But the production must go on, and order sizes for materials should be preserved, otherwise the supply will be cut and renewing the supply channel for given material will be very hard. So they produced shovels. Of titan. For sale, for common people. Costing about as much as a common shovel (and being "common goods", not "luxury", pennies by American standards.) Lighter, a bit more durable, but just a normal shovel. A friend v
Borat says... (Score:2, Funny)
I am Borat and I come from Kazshakstan. I have beeg hhhram, it is beeg like ze booster rockets. Do you want to touch my hhhram? It izsh naice.
No? Can I touch youaz?
Wow - the photos are VERY nice (Score:2, Insightful)
As for the dead cows, I bet they ate grass contaminated with rocket fuel - it can be very poisonous. I am not sure what they use, but hydrazine, for instance, is very poisonous.
The Photographer (Score:2)
Very dissapointed (Score:3, Funny)
Am I the only one who is really very dissapointed by that? I was really looking forward to some pics of some very flat cows.
Re:just wait (Score:2, Interesting)
Since the article is slashdotted, I hope they at least take care to plot where the villages are, before letting parts fall everywhere.
I wonder what Borat has to say about this?
Re:Slashdot posts this... (Score:5, Funny)
Of course,
Re:Slashdot posts this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Slashdot posts this... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdot posts this... (Score:2)