Satellites Collide In Orbit 456
DrEnter writes "According to this story on Yahoo, two communications satellites collided in orbit, resulting in two large clouds of debris. The new threat from these debris clouds hasn't been fully determined yet. From the article, 'The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. Each satellite weighed well over 1,000 pounds.' This is the fifth spacecraft/satellite collision to occur in space, but the other four were all fairly minor by comparison."
First collision (Score:4, Funny)
Satellite smoke (Score:5, Funny)
Satellite smoke. Don't breathe this.
In Soviet Outer Space (Score:2, Funny)
The satellites collide YOU!
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In Soviet Outer Space (Score:4, Funny)
Better get Geico (Score:4, Funny)
Did Russia have Geico? 15% off public liability insurance for satellites...
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
Except in Oregon, where the first one to exhibit politeness in a manner consistent with their last four stops gets to wait on the other, regardless of left, right or weaponry. Chevy Suburbans are excluded, as usual, and get to go thru without stopping, signaling or giving a healthy shit.
Token MS reference: Investing in MS is risking having your own money used against you in the marketplace.
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:4, Funny)
Nope. It's not a road.
The Russian Satellite should have been transmitting "starboard, you arsehole", or the robotic Russian equivalent.
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
"Space Chicken!"
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
IIRC from Driver's Ed, the vehicle to the right has the right of way.
The Russian satellite had lights and siren going, so the Iridium was supposed to pull over.
Re:First collision (Score:0, Funny)
Hundreds of individual pieces? RTFM, man! It was just two satellites, so it's only two pieces. Well, like, duh.
Haven't you ever seen Space Cowboys? (Score:3, Funny)
a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning.
It's a cover-up, Soviet nukes are falling from space, run for your lives!
Re:Obama's first test from Putin? (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone know what these particular satellites were each being tasked to do? (prior to one of them becoming a single-use kinetic energy space-based weapon system projectile)
Now, I do wear my tin-foil hat a lot, so I'll try to answer your question.
What are the chances that a satellite was launched in 1993 so that it would collide with a satellite launched in 1997, in 2009? As an attempt by Putin to test Obama?
I don't know the exact numbers, but I'd suggest that it might be more profitable to put your entire savings into Powerball tickets.
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
They couldn't talk to each other because someone took out a communication satellite. Obviously.
Re:A good question.... (Score:5, Funny)
The question is, did anyone have any specific knowledge of the likelihood of this specific collision prior to the event?
Maybe they're like slashdot dupes. Everyone knows they're coming, they just can't be certain when.
Don't worry... (Score:4, Funny)
James Bond has safely crashed that Iridium satellite into the Russian cold war doomsday device satellite somewhere over Siberia.
After that, he has as usual returned to having sex with female scientists that look like supermodels.
All is well with the world once more.
Metre vs Meter. (Score:5, Funny)
These guys [starrett.com] sell micrometers that can measure things as large as five feet across and ones that can only measure up to an inch across. It seems to me that something is the size of a micrometer is somewhat vague.
That settles it..... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Expanding debris cloud (Score:2, Funny)
"It could spur development to clean things up"
Are you vying for a part of the stimulus package?
Re:Was this really bound to happen? (Score:2, Funny)
Most likely the Russians would not object to American lawyers being sent to Siberia to file whatever they would like. Most Americans would probably even donate money for leasing jets to get them there, especially if they could be assured of no empty seats.
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
That's why you fire two shots from the ion cannon first to clear a lane!
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, you got iridium in my K-2251 (22675)!
No, you got K-2251 (22675) in my iridium!
Time for a new tasty treat....
Cause? Tractor beam from Alien Craft (Score:2, Funny)
The US Air Force has posted the video evidence on YouTube. The Soviets are going to the World Court to seek damages for infringement of copyright of said video.
Re:That settles it..... (Score:5, Funny)
It's time for MegaMaid. Get NASA started on that Spaceball-1 project STAT.
This thread just went from suck to blow.
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:2, Funny)
It would have been way cool to observe the collision!
If a man sees a satellite collision in space and there is no woman there to witness it, is he still wrong?
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Obama's first test from Putin? (Score:3, Funny)
As soon as I realized that one of the satellites was Russian, a flag went up.
Could it be worth $100 million to take out one of their satellites, then blame it on an "accident"? Maybe the Iridium was basically just what you said, a weapon, in disguise the whole time.
I wonder if tinfoil hats protect oneself from falling space debris as well...
What would be the odds (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obama's first test from Putin? (Score:4, Funny)
Now, I do wear my tin-foil hat a lot, so I'll try to answer your question.
Tinfoil won't work. It needs to be lead.
Re:Obama's first test from Putin? (Score:5, Funny)
Not to troll or to dwell into politics here, But does anyone here know any numbers for the *actual* chances/probabilities that satellite A will collide with satellite B in orbit around the Earth?
Yes. The actual probability is 1.
Re:In Soviet Outer Space (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Expanding debris cloud (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Satellite smoke (Score:3, Funny)
It should be pretty though. Iridium comes from the greek word for rainbow, iris [wikipedia.org]: think of all the pretty shiny bits strewn across the sky.
It's a shame it was Iridium-33 that got pummelled. If it were Iridium-192, it would have decayed into platinum [ornl.gov] and made that rainbow so much more beautiful.
Re:How about launching Chalf? (Score:3, Funny)
How about building a REALLY big magnet on the ground?
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
A: "Change your couse"
B: "No. You change your course."
A: "We insist that you change your course."
B: "We must protest. Change your course."
A: "This is a warship. Change your course."
B: "This is a lighthouse. Your call."
I'm sure this exchange fits into this whole thing somewhere....
Re:YES, they are! (Score:3, Funny)
Not anymore.. Now it's just a pile of space junk.
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
On the other hand, there was a case a few years back where a meteorite smashed into some Australian guy's house and demolished the sofa he'd only just got up from.
Why it had to pick on him, rather than Haliburton, I don't know.
Re:How about launching Chalf? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obama's first test from Putin? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How about launching Chalf? (Score:1, Funny)
There was that NASA mission that captured micrometeorites in aerogel. Wonder how much it would cost to put together a giant 3000 cubic km aerogel sponge and hold it up there while everything orbited into it.
Re:First collision (Score:1, Funny)
Hundreds of individual pieces? RTFM, man! It was just two satellites, so it's only two pieces. Well, like, duh.
Apparently you fail at common sense. Take 2 very large objects that are not a solid indestructible mass, but rather a formation of smaller components in a relatively fragile design. now slam them together at very high speed.
What you now have is a very erratic disassembly of the original objects into fragments.
duh.
Re:YES, they are! (Score:2, Funny)
There you go. Collusion to commit insurance fraud.
Irridium: Um yeah, you know those $100 million satellites? Well two of them crashed. What you don't believe us? Ask the Russians.
Russia: Yeah, they crashed. What you don't believe us? Maybe you go up there and check.
Re:Expanding debris cloud (Score:2, Funny)
It would cost an enormous amount of money, time, resources, and R&D to clear up a significant orbital debris field. All those resources would(with the exception of any spinoff tech) be squandered, spent just to get us back to where we were before.
Naw, we can just shoot a black hole from the large hadron collider into orbit. Problem solved.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
Danger (Score:1, Funny)
Clearly, one of the satellites was texting while orbiting.
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
Unless they're in New Orleans.
Re:First collision (Score:4, Funny)
That's why you fire two shots from the ion cannon first to clear a lane!
"Gentlemen, let's plow the road!"
Re:First collision (Score:3, Funny)
Re:First collision (Score:5, Funny)
That's why you fire two shots from the ion cannon first to clear a lane!
Why use an ion cannon when Mega-Maid can easily clean up the whole debris cloud? ;)
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:5, Funny)
Even my non rocket science brain can take the TLEs and figure out that they were passing way too close to each other (I put it at about 500 meters with the latest elements).
I'd put it at about 0.000 meters actually. You can tell from the size of the debris field...
Re:First collision (Score:3, Funny)
Re:First collision (Score:3, Funny)
in Soviet Russia, your sentence ends YOU. With a full stop.
Re:This was bound to happen. (Score:1, Funny)
I can't work with these modern units. How far apart is that in feet?
Re:First collision (Score:4, Funny)
Re:First collision (Score:4, Funny)
*begs forgiveness for confusing Australia and New Zealand. I know how much the two countries hate it, and I really don't want the All Blacks scrunching me up and using me for a practice rugger ball in retaliation*
Re:Satellite weight (Score:2, Funny)
No, they still have "weight", but gravitational attraction at those distances is quite weak. Those satellites' orbits - as well as the debris cloud's orbit - is the result of Earth, Moon & Satellites all falling towards each another. "Weightlessness" is an illusion of moving bodies (Freefall).
I tried to do a quick-calc on this - don't have the tools tho - to find the "weight" at MEO of 1000 pound satellites (Sea-level, Cape Kennedy FL USA) or the sea-level "weight" of 1000 pound satellites measured at MEO.
Scientists & Engineers are FAR FAR more ethical than Businessmen & Bankers, so if the press release was from NASA, then I'm comfortable weight can be assumed to be at sea level. However - if TARP bloated Banker CEOs put this out, then satellites the size of Aircraft Carriers collided.
I, for one, would welcome our new Satellite Colliding Overlords. Any chance this was the Battleship Yamato in a last-ditch effort to save Earth?