Space Litter To Hit Earth Tomorrow 443
A refrigerator-sized tank of toxic ammonia, tossed from the international space station last year, is expected to hit earth tomorrow afternoon or evening. The 1,400-pound object was deliberately jettisoned — by hand — from the ISS's robot arm in July 2007. Since the time of re-entry is uncertain, so is the location. "NASA expects up to 15 pieces of the tank to survive the searing hot temperatures of re-entry, ranging in size from about 1.4 ounces (40 grams) to nearly 40 pounds (17.5 kilograms). ... [T]he largest pieces could slam into the Earth's surface at about 100 mph (161 kph). ...'If anybody found a piece of anything on the ground Monday morning, I would hope they wouldn't get too close to it,' [a NASA spokesman] said."
Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
As opposed to that non-toxic, safe-to-eat, oh-so-good-for-you ammonia they sell down at the cleaning supplies store?
Nasa Suess (Score:5, Funny)
A star is falling
With nasty goo
It's kinda sticky
It smells like poo
It may hit a house
It may hit a mouse
And if you don't look out
It will hit your spouse
But you can't duck
And you can't run
'Cause it's falling faster
Than a Bullet from a Gun
It might hit with a thud
Or a squishy "smoosh"
It may make a hole
Or knock out a tooth
Quickly Quickly!
Find somebody to sue
For the fast and smelly
Outer space goo!
Re:clue ? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't expect for people to RTFA here, but at least RTFS. It's not rocket science, you know.
Re:Current data on object (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Could/Should we push all the junk back at earth (Score:5, Funny)
They don't have a big enough shark to mount the laser on at the moment.
Hrmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Andromeda strain (Score:4, Funny)
There mught be some alien microoganism clinging to the debris, that could clot all your blood in seconds (unless you're a wino with an ulcer taking asprin...)
The World Will End? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
Space trash wins. Next question.
Re:clue ? (Score:5, Funny)
A 40 pound child is a little more...yielding than a 40 pound chunk of metal. Also, the 40 pound chunk of metal would presumably be falling on the car from above, not hitting the car head-on. So yah, it may not actually reduce the entire car to a smoking crater, but it would likely total it.
So, while I have no doubt you have plentiful experience striking 40 pound children with vehicles, I'm not sure that experience is directly applicable to the situation at hand.
Re:Could/Should we push all the junk back at earth (Score:2, Funny)
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
Windex is a lot less bad for you than cat piss. Believe me.
Of course ingesting either one is a seriously FUBUAR proposition, but I digress.
Re:An important detail (Score:5, Funny)
I'm going to go out on a limb and say... yes, someone probably does.
Re:Could/Should we push all the junk back at earth (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty sure I know how to find out where it will land.
*reconfigures the cell towers to do continuous triangulation on Ellen Muth [wikipedia.org]*
Re:clue ? (Score:4, Funny)
M_car * V_car = (~1000 kg)(44.7 m/s) ~= 44700 kg*m/s
M_child * V_child = (~20 kg)(44.7 m/s) ~= 894 kg*m/s
The fact that the child is a lot more *squishy* than the car has little to do with it. If you want a comparable situation, think of throwing a turkey at 100mph at a parked car. I guarantee you that car's not going to come out looking to good.
Re:clue ? (Score:3, Funny)
Totally destroy yes [nasa.gov], but it might also increase it's value [mail-archive.com].
Re:clue ? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
Newton.
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
17 kg at 160 kph could hit the earth anywhere?
What if it hits SOMETHING, like a car in the highway or an airplane?
A Boeing 747 with mass 340,000 kg takes off from JFK airport at 3:00 pm and heads towards Los Angeles at a cruising speed of 800 kph. A refrigerator-sized tank of toxic ammonia with mass 17 kg jettisoned from the ISS 560 days prior is about to achieve re-entry at 160 kph. Where and when will they meet?
I hate these stupid questions.
Re:clue ? (Score:5, Funny)
> If you want a comparable situation, think of throwing a turkey at 100mph at a parked car. I guarantee you that car's not going to come out looking to good.
Is that a frozen or thawed turkey??
Re:Cloudy (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
This sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY at The Coliseum!
Re:TFA Problems (Score:3, Funny)
toxic ammonia is only redundant if you know ammonia is toxic, how many people know Obama is muslim? or any manner of other well knowed things.
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
So NASA is raining down piss waste on us all.
Yep, sounds like the government at work all right.
Re:Cloudy (Score:4, Funny)
To be honest, my daughter thought I was crazy...
In her algebra class, she got the "Train Question"! I was so excited!
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, it's called salmiak and it's probably an acquired taste. I have heard of a person who said that it tasted like catpiss. But on the other hand, the Americans invented McDonalds so I guess that makes us even :)
Re:TFA Problems (Score:3, Funny)
And since when did the refridgerator become a unit of measure? Is it a bar fridge? The sort of mini fridge you have in the back of your SUV? A double door fridge-freezer combination?
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
Is idiocy a prerequisite for getting mod points?
No, but it helps! After all, I've been modded up quite a few times over the years...
Re:clue ? (Score:5, Funny)
> If you want a comparable situation, think of throwing a turkey at 100mph at a parked car. I guarantee you that car's not going to come out looking to good.
Is that a frozen or thawed turkey??
That reminds me of the story about when they were testing high speed electric trains for what happens when a bird-strike occurs. To do this, they got hold of a linear accelerator, put a turkey in it, and fired it at the front of the train, head on. The bird went straight through the windscreen, the driver's seat, and embedded itself deep within the transformer block behind! To say that the train engineers were dismayed misses the point by a country mile, but they cheered up rather a lot when the realized that they'd forgotten to defrost the turkey first, and that repeating with a fresh bird resulted in a safe splat with no danger to human life.
I'll let someone else karma-whore with the link.
Re:Could/Should we push all the junk back at earth (Score:5, Funny)
Assuming a capable laser system, would a gentle laser push towards earth be a good way to clean up space junk? Would away from earth be better?
A laser which would simply annihilate the junk would be admittedly cooler, but could de-orbit be accomplished with much less power?
Last time I tried to get my car to roll backwards by turning on the headlights, it took a really long time....
Re:clue (Score:5, Funny)
So, while I have no doubt you have plentiful experience striking 40 pound children with vehicles, I'm not sure that experience is directly applicable to the situation at hand.
We start by assuming a perfectly spherical 40lb child of uniform density...
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
I have heard of a person who said that it tasted like catpiss
I don't know anyone that knows what cat piss tastes like. Do you?
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:3, Funny)
Windex is a lot less bad for you than cat piss. Believe me.
Cheesing is bad, mmkay?
Re:Cloudy (Score:4, Funny)
That's the same reason I don't care what's behind my target when I go shooting.
Re:Cloudy (Score:3, Funny)
Basically the NASA equivalent of driving down the highway, peeing in a can and throwing it out the window...
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
It's not gravity; it's Intelligent Falling. Science can try to explain, but if science is real, then why is there no fossil record for gravity?
See, you've got no answer for that, so therefore I win.
Re:clue (Score:5, Funny)
Odds Of,,, (Score:5, Funny)
Considering the uncertainty of where it will hit, what does the /. community think would be a good line to place on any of these occuring:
1. Debris Hits John McCain in the head? /. anyway?
2. Debris Hits John McCain AND Sarah Palin in the head?
3. Debris hits Barak Obama in the head?
4. Debris Hits Barak Obama AND Joe Biden in the head?
5. Debris Hits George Bush in the head?
6. Debris Hits Osama bin Laden in the head?
7. Debris hits nobody in the head?
8. Debris hits nobody's house?
9. Debris causes zero real damage to everything?
10. Who cares what we talk about on
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:4, Funny)
I know what cat piss tastes like, but I've never tried salmiak.
Re:Odds Of,,, (Score:4, Funny)
11. Debris hits Cowboy Neal on the head
Then, we can have a real poll.
Re:Cloudy (Score:5, Funny)
The Silver Lining (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Could/Should we push all the junk back at earth (Score:5, Funny)
Last time I tried to get my car to roll backwards by turning on the headlights, it took a really long time....
Well next time, try taping some cardboard over the taillights or something.
Re:"toxic ammonia"? (Score:5, Funny)
I need the insurance money... (Score:3, Funny)
PleaseLetOneHitMyCar... PleaseLetOneHitMyCar... PleaseLetOneHitMyCar...
Hmmmmm..... (Score:5, Funny)
A single sheet of newspaper blows off my boat into the water and I get a $100 fine for littering.
NASA intentionally hurls a "refrigerator-sized tank of toxic ammonia" weighing 1400 pounds into the ocean and nothing happens to them.
Something doesn't add up.