Oh, if only I could have been in Siberia earlier this week.
A retired Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium satellite (used commercially and by the Department of Defense) provided Siberians with the ultimate demonstration of the conservation of momentum by colliding 500 miles above the frozen desert. The Chief of Staff for Russian Military Space Forces reported that the crash scattered debris into orbits 300 to 800 miles above the Earth.
The blame for the cosmic crash appears to be in the hands of NASA and Iridium. Since Iridium was a working satellite, it could have been maneuvered to safety had the threat been detected.
No time for blame, though. This was no fender bender, and there could be serious implications considering the amount of space traffic that perpetually commutes at this altitude. At present, there are some 12,000 man-made objects circling the Earth. There are 65 more Iridium satellites alone, and they had better keep their eyes on the road. They are the most likely to encounter the debris cloud that is travelling in the area of 15,000 miles per hour. At those speeds a piece of debris with a radius of less than an inch can cause crippling damage.
Thankfully, the International Space Station, Captain Fink and his Terrible Towel are safe. The station is maneuverable and will most likely be able to avoid the speeding debris.
The Hubble Space Telescope, on the other hand, may be in danger. The Hubble provides those of us who are students of Earth science and art with the most unique and beautiful images of any of the orbiting photographers. It would be a shame to lose her.
The Hubble has no rockets and can not be maneuvered. NASA is feverishly calculating the risk that Hubble will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It will surely be a long list of calculations. The debris will be in orbit for over a decade- in motion until acted upon by another force. Let's hope the force isn't the Hubble.
2 comments:
if the hubble telescope was to collide with a few more satellites then hit one that sends it plummeting to earth then i wonder how many casualties will happen and at its fast speeds it will go even faster when it collects more and plummets to earth and by the force of gravity it will increase the speed of the crashed satellites
C.M.L.
how long will it take for the seas to overflow if we dont stop the pollution...and how are they sure that the guys in the int.space station will be safe...they might not see the debris coming and get hit
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