Black Knight, ancient satellite ?
Discussion
Brigand said:
jmorgan said:
Slipping by planets can increase speed depending on how you approach it. It has been used by satellites around the system to gain speed.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/grav/primer.php
True, you can 'slingshot' your way faster using an orbit, but if a body was to 'graze' a gravitational field, it could well sap a little speed from it, and perhaps alter it's course slightly depending on how strong the field was where it entered.http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/grav/primer.php
NASA has used this technique (called "aerobraking") a couple of times with some of its Mars probes. The "skimming" has to be exactly precise for the probe to lose just the right amount of speed to allow it to be captured by the planet. If it loses too much speed it will enter the atmophere too steeply and burn up. If it doesn't slow down enough it will be deflected onto a new path by the planet but it will not enter orbit.
Identification
Mission: STS088 Roll: 724 Frame: 66 Mission ID on the Film or image: STS88
Country or Geographic Name: OCEAN
Features: PAN-SNGLNT., SPACE DEBRIS
Center Point Latitude: Center Point Longitude: (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Stereo: No (Yes indicates there is an adjacent picture of the same area)
ONC Map ID: L-05 JNC Map ID: 51
Am I reading that wrong ? Not sure what half of that stuff means tbh.
Mission: STS088 Roll: 724 Frame: 66 Mission ID on the Film or image: STS88
Country or Geographic Name: OCEAN
Features: PAN-SNGLNT., SPACE DEBRIS
Center Point Latitude: Center Point Longitude: (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Stereo: No (Yes indicates there is an adjacent picture of the same area)
ONC Map ID: L-05 JNC Map ID: 51
Am I reading that wrong ? Not sure what half of that stuff means tbh.
Westy Pre-Lit said:
So it should be cataloged then and be able to be identified ?
Most space debris is catalogued and monitored. Debris that is roughly in the same orbit as the Intrenational Space Station needs to be watched carefully in case there is the possibility of a collision. Every so often, the ISS is lifted or lowered in its orbit to avoid such conflicts. Not that lohg ago, the satellite that's coming down soon, UARS, was the cause of one such alert and the ISS was moved out of its way.Westy Pre-Lit said:
A star chart which would have been plotted from earth 13,000 years ago, and focused on the Epsilon Bostes star system.
I reckon that dinosaurs evolved more than we thought and it's a dinosaur travel beacon to direct their ships to a new home in the stars 
It'll explain the historical climate change as a result of the dino-heads driving around in their V8s
There are over 11,000 pieces of "space junk" orbiting the earth - ranging from dead satellites, discarded upper rocket stages, payload shouds, space suit gloves, a tool box, a Hasselblad camera, nuts, bolts, washers, bits of wire, flakes of paint etc etc.
The US Air Force monitors nearly all of the larger items (over a couple of feet in size) using sophisticated radar and optical tracking devices. They are monitored for a number of reasons.
Space junk is dangerous to other active spacecraft, especially manned ones.
Space junk needs to be monitored so that any additional stuff being launched by potential enemy states can be recorded and tracked - mainly spy and other sorts of military satellites
As we are aware tonight, a lot of space junk eventually falls back to earth so keeping an eye on this stuff so that it can be deduced when and where it is going to fall down.
The US Air Force monitors nearly all of the larger items (over a couple of feet in size) using sophisticated radar and optical tracking devices. They are monitored for a number of reasons.
Space junk is dangerous to other active spacecraft, especially manned ones.
Space junk needs to be monitored so that any additional stuff being launched by potential enemy states can be recorded and tracked - mainly spy and other sorts of military satellites
As we are aware tonight, a lot of space junk eventually falls back to earth so keeping an eye on this stuff so that it can be deduced when and where it is going to fall down.
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