NASA To Investigate Mysterious 'Space Ball'

redletterdave writes "In mid-November, a hollow space ball fell from the sky and crashed into the earth in Namibia, the African nation situated above South Africa and west of Botswana and Zimbabwe. Authorities recovered the sphere in a grassy village north of Windhoek, the country's capital. The hollow ball, which appears to be made of 'two halves welded together,' has a rough surface, a 14-inch diameter and measures 43 inches around. The strange globe created a crater 13 inches deep and almost 12.5 feet wide, but was found almost 60 feet from the landing spot. Paul Ludik, the police forensics director investigating the case, says the dense ball weighs 13 pounds and is made of a 'metal alloy known to man.' NASA and the European Space Agency will both help investigate the strange occurrence."

Already solved

[Anonymous Coward]

The Great Space Ball Mystery Has Been Solved [yahoo.com]

"For anyone wondering what it actually is, it's likely a 39-litre hydrazine bladder tank (based on its apparent size; there are also much larger hydrazine tanks)," he wrote. "They're used on unmanned rockets for satellite launches, which would explain why they're falling down in such a specific geographic footprint."

Re:Already solved

[Brett Buck]

That's a pretty good guess. I would guess it was a pressure vessel of some kind from a Russian liquid ullage motor from an upper state, that have an unfortunate habit of exploding after a decade or so on-orbit.

      One "nipple" is the liquid fill/drain, the other is the pressurant fill/release.

        Brett

COPV

[Donwulff]

It's a COPV, see here [nasa.gov] or page 11 here [space.com]. The wrapping has probably shielded it enough during the atmospheric re-entry and then ripped away, or it could be from lower altitude flight. In fact NASA and ESA have already studied this object, and most responsible news outlets [discovery.com] have explained it along with the newsreport. The only real question is which mission or ship it is from, but unfortunately that might never be found out.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Already solved

[twosat]

There was a spate of "space balls" discovered near the town of Ashburton in New Zealand in the early 1970's. A government report concluded the balls were part of the Russian rocket Kosmos 482 which failed when launching a Venus probe. The balls, which had Russian markings, were used to pressurise fuel tanks or as stabilisation jets, the report stated. A local farmer has one of the balls in his lounge, and there are also some on display at the Ashburton Aviation Museum. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/the-kiwi-x-files/4542804/Government-report-on-space-balls-released www.newzealand.com/int/article/for-high-flyers-and-aviation-fans

Above?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Namibia, the African nation situated above South Africa "

I think you mean "to the north of South Africa." Otherwise, the real story here is how Namibia came to be floating over South Africa.

Of course it's a tank.

[Animats]

As someone else pointed out, most of the re-entered objects that are reasonably intact [aero.org] are spherical tanks. They're one of the few components of a spacecraft that are very solidly built. Most are titanium, or titanium wrapped in Kevlar, so they can take re-entry temperatures. Spheres have good re-entry aerodynamics. Nose cones have been hemispherical since the late 1950, after it was discovered that pointy noses look cool but don't work well. (See the X-3 Stilleto [wikipedia.org], an unsuccessful jet plane from 1952. Looks it was designed by George Lucas.)