(meteorobs) Expect some debris over the next few years...

[daniela daniela]

I think the Iridiums are abandoned, the satellite phone service is
being operated by whoever took over and uses the satellites (not sure
if it's one company or a bunch of them) since they're up there.
Anyone has a Iridium phone?

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Marco Langbroek
<marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl> wrote:
> Leo S schreef:
>> Wouldn't at least a few pieces have been shot almost directly downward?
>>
>> I would have expected there to be a constant 'trickle' (albeit small to
>> start off with), gradually increasing with time, and with some
>> re-entries having already occurred?
>>
>> Whatever the energy involved in this cosmic fender-bender, it must have
>> been quite a bang!
>>
>> Leo
>>
>> Alister wrote:
>>> Of course pieces exploding "backwards" against orbital motion will drop
>>> faster, but that's got to be pretty small compared to orbital velocity.
>
> This collision happened at about the same orbital altitude as the Chinese asat
> test on Fengyun 1C. So the general scenario of debris scatter will be similar. A
> detailed analysis of the Fengyun 1C situation is given here:
> http://www.celestrak.com/events/asat.asp
>
> The collision occurred with both sats moving at about 7.5 km/s under an 83.5
> degree angle.
>
> What is amazing in all this is that apparently the people at the Iridium
> Consortium have been sleeping. Both the Kosmos and the Iridium are well-tracked
> objects, so the collision danger really should have been clear beforehand,
> allowing mitigation procedures (a safety manoeuvre) by the Iridium. All that
> apparently did not happen!
>
> - Marco
>
> -----
> Dr Marco Langbroek  -  SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands.
> e-mail: sattrackcam at wanadoo.nl
>
> Cospar 4353 (Leiden):   52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL
> Cospar 4354 (De Wilck): 52.11685 N, 4.56016 E (WGS84), -2 m ASL
> SatTrackCam: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/satcam.html
> Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com
> -----
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