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Re: (meteorobs) OT---Thoughts on Iridiums
At 03:31 AM 7/16/99 +0100, Steve H wrote:
>
>I wonder. Perhaps the US Space Command would, indeed, just leave any such
>uncontrolled satellites alone.
That's it... consider that there are many, many 'dead' payloads, spent
boosters, etc. floating around up there... Check out
http://hea-www.harvarddot edu/~jcm/space/log/satcat.txt a listing of what's
been launched, and note the many entries going back to the dawn of the
space age that are still in orbit.
>In the best case, Space Command could make a strong case for
>reestablishing the cancelled satellite-killer program(s) and put any such
>uncontrolled bird out of our misery....
Aaaaahhhhh! That's the worst thing that could be done! Orbital debris is a
large and growing problem. We can track and avoid dead satellites, but a
bazillion little fragments are almost as deadly, and impossible to track.
For some good perspective on the problem, check out:
http://sn-callisto.jsc.nasadot gov/newsletter/news_index.html
NASA's orbital debris study group. The countries that produce spacecraft
are now designing their machines to hold together and not break up after
use. A good example is the Russian Proton booster upper stage ullage motor
discussed in the NASA page. They tend to burst after a period of time when
discarded in orbit. The Russians have apparently changed the design to
mitigate the orbital debris problem, but there are still about 70 of the
older versions in orbit that haven't burst.
JB
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