Approaching Solar Storm Forces ISS to Take Cover

vichyschwa writes "A Coronal Mass Ejection resulting from an X3 Solar Flare earlier today is forcing the ISS and Shuttle astronauts to take cover and may result in communication disruptions. Last week, the same sunspot generated what astronomers described as a rarely imaged solar tsunami. The activity began with an X9 flare Dec. 5. According to Spaceweather.com, "satellites may experience some glitches and reboots, but astronauts are in no danger." However, the astronauts were ordered to a protective area of the space station as a precaution."

Take Cover?

[Kenshin]

"A Coronal Mass Ejection resulting from an X3 Solar Flare earlier today [CC] is forcing the ISS and Shuttle astronauts to take cover..."

I may be reading something wrong, or just may not know the exact details, but how exactly would the ISS "take cover"? Aside from the orbital path around the earth, there's little to hide under up there.

Re:glitches for satellites, no danger for astronau

[DoubleRing]

Because, um, we can't? I doubt organic computing has advanced far enough. Last I heard, a mouse brain could auto-pilot a plane, but I don't think that is what scientists are really worried about. A few brief glitches doesn't justify making the enormous investment to create not only wholly organic computers, but completely organic sensors (like gyroscopes. How are we going to make an organic version of that?) We don't have the knowledge or the means to do it. Besides, I have a feeling that an organic satellite would have more problems in space than a mechanical one. A mechanical one would have to worry about a few solar storms and collisions, both of which are only intermittent concerns. Organic satellites would have to worry about a lot of things, like solar wind which would be constantly ablating the surface (think sunburn). An organic satellite would need to feed itself. The only organic means of converting sunlight into energy that I can think of requires a steady supply of water and carbon dioxide. Out of curiosity, how would we communicate with it? Moving on, I guess you could say that an organic satellite could heal itself. A big plus, until you realize that means that it can also develop cancer. I know, it sounds retarded, but there's a lot of radiation in space. Even with shielding, that's a lot of exposure. Instead of having to go on missions to replace a faulty sensor or transmitter, we'll need to send missions to perform surgeries in zero gravity. Sounds fun.

Anyways, all of these concerns are a little academic, especially considering the fact that they don't exist!

Re:Why would they take cover?

[LurkerXXX]

No, making Jessica Alba invisible is just soooooo wrong.

Look north tonight

[pedestrian crossing]

The last time one of these things happened, we had incredible views of the northern lights [wikipedia.org] even in southern Europe.

So I would suggest keeping an eye on the northern sky tonight, we might be in for a truly entertaining light show!

Re:tsunami

[Animaether]

I hope so, because unfortunately SOHO has been doings its CCD maintenance run while that tsunami occurred.

Re:BOFH - Solar Flares

[ScentCone]

Word to the wise. I'm here to tell you that you only need to do this once to appreciate the benefit of a good barrel when fish shooting.

Actually, shooting a high-powered rifle, while looking down at close range, into standing water is ... a really bad idea. Presuming that you really ARE talking about an "elephant gun [wikipedia.org]," the amount of energy being released is really quite astounding. Depending on the round you're using, you could be delivering over 8,900 foot pounds of muzzle energy [wikipedia.org]. With that projectile doing 2,000 feet per second into a barrel of water right in front of you, some interesting things are going to happen. Supersonic hunks of metal of that size tend to create some interesting cavitation effects in enclosed bodies of liquid (especially when enclosed by wooden slats!).