UARS Satellite re-entry

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[0a]

It would be just my luck that this will land on me on the way to the pub tomorrow night.

[Simpo Two]

'Unlucky Alf'

[rhinochopig]

I've never quite understood how they get approval to send RTG powered satellites into space with regards to un-planned re-entry. Any one in the industry care to enlighten me?

[Mojocvh]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html

"The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 36 hours."

Well would they care to give someone a bit of advance warning then?

[Eric Mc]

Is it not solar powered?

[TheEnd]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1500...

[Mojocvh]

[TheEnd]

I love that way they have calculated what will survive, and also catagorised it into "round thingies" and "square thingies"

[rhinochopig]

Eric Mc said:

Is it not solar powered?

This one is, but a few aren't, and most probes / landers are RTG powered.

[Mojocvh]

Heavens Above gives the all clear for the next ten days [no visible passes] bugger!

[FourWheelDrift]

Imagine though if it fell on China or even North Korea!

[Eric Mc]

rhinochopig said:

Eric Mc said:

Is it not solar powered?

This one is, but a few aren't, and most probes / landers are RTG powered.

Then there isn't an issue. Space probes and landers are not in earth orbit so there isn't any liklihood of them re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Obviously, there is some danger during the lift off from earth if something goes wrong with the booster rocket but otherwise once a probe has reached escape velocity it ain't ever coming back down.

Interestingly, NASA's latest probe to Jupiter (Juno) is in fact, solar powered - with some of the biggest solar panels ever put into sapce. Sunlight out at Jupiter is a lot weaker than near earth. All previous Jupiter probes had been powered by nuclear isotopes.

[rhinochopig]

Eric Mc said:

rhinochopig said:

Eric Mc said:

Is it not solar powered?

This one is, but a few aren't, and most probes / landers are RTG powered.

Then there isn't an issue. Space probes and landers are not in earth orbit so there isn't any liklihood of them re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Obviously, there is some danger during the lift off from earth if something goes wrong with the booster rocket but otherwise once a probe has reached escape velocity it ain't ever coming back down.

Interestingly, NASA's latest probe to Jupiter (Juno) is in fact, solar powered - with some of the biggest solar panels ever put into sapce. Sunlight out at Jupiter is a lot weaker than near earth. All previous Jupiter probes had been powered by nuclear isotopes.

There are some RTG powered sats...and occasionally they [the delivery system] do go pop on the way up.

[BuzzLightyear]

A little research shows that UARS (YouArse?) has an orbital inclination of 57 degrees which, if I understand correctly, means that its path could include anywhere 57 degrees above or below the equator: UK and most of Europe, USA and South and Central America, Africa and large parts of Asia.

Fortunately, there are also large expanses of ocean, too so probably only about a 35% chance of landing somewhere populated.

As you were.

[Eric Mc]

rhinochopig said:

Eric Mc said:

rhinochopig said:

Eric Mc said:

Is it not solar powered?

This one is, but a few aren't, and most probes / landers are RTG powered.

Then there isn't an issue. Space probes and landers are not in earth orbit so there isn't any liklihood of them re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Obviously, there is some danger during the lift off from earth if something goes wrong with the booster rocket but otherwise once a probe has reached escape velocity it ain't ever coming back down.

Interestingly, NASA's latest probe to Jupiter (Juno) is in fact, solar powered - with some of the biggest solar panels ever put into sapce. Sunlight out at Jupiter is a lot weaker than near earth. All previous Jupiter probes had been powered by nuclear isotopes.

There are some RTG powered sats...and occasionally they [the delivery system] do go pop on the way up.

Compared to the large number of satellites that are launched each year, there aren't that many. The number of launchers that fail to deliver satellites to orbit is about 10%, of which RTG powered spacecrft would be a very small amount.

[Simpo Two]

BuzzLightyear said:

Fortunately, there are also large expanses of ocean, too so probably only about a 35% chance of landing somewhere populated.

Even less. Spin the globe round in Google Earth a few times at random, then zoom in and see where you land. If you don't land in the sea first, you'll be surprised how much land is empty.

[anonymous-user]

TheEnd said:

I love that way they have calculated what will survive, and also catagorised it into "round thingies" and "square thingies"

Sounds sensible to me, after all, we all know from banging our elbows into the corner of tables "square" things hurt much more when they hit you............. ;-)

[bobthemonkey]

rhinochopig said:

I've never quite understood how they get approval to send RTG powered satellites into space with regards to un-planned re-entry. Any one in the industry care to enlighten me?

Almost all of the nuclear powered birds in Earth orbit are Soviet, launched in the cold war. Almost all of the US RTG powered missions now orbit other bodies.

To be honest, the RTG powered birds are nothing compared to some of the Russian RORSATS equipped with liquid sodium cooled nuclear reactors.

[Simpo Two]

bobthemonkey said:

To be honest, the RTG powered birds are nothing compared to some of the Russian RORSATS equipped with liquid sodium cooled nuclear reactors.

If they are orbiting in a vacuum at about absolute zero, what can cooling do?