Stealth Pilot wrote:
On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:53:50 +1100, Sylvia Else
wrote:

BradGuth wrote:
On Jan 26, 4:24 pm, Sylvia Else wrote:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...116226-5001028,...

""We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage
this satellite may cause," he said."

I wonder what options they might be.

Sylvia.
I think China could help, or possibly our ABLs.
- Brad Guth
It's not clear to me that blowing it to pieces is a good idea. I think
all the debris would soon re-enter, but I'm not sure.

Of course, there's a clear risk that you'll end up with a large piece
intact which then lands where it can do a lot of damage, and people will
say it should have been left alone.

On balance, I suspect attempting to shoot it down is a bad idea.

What's clearly required is something that can snare it and apply a
controlled de-orbit burn to bring it down somewhere safe, but developing
such technology is not going to be on anyone's priority list until after
the first city takes a hit.

Anyone know what kind of orbit a spy satellite would be in? Would they
always be polar, or might Sydney be safe?

Sylvia.

if you can catch it why not refuel it and push it back into a stable
orbit?

Leaving aside the complexity of a refuelling, the problem in this
instance is that there is no communication with the satellite. Pushing
it into a higher orbit would defer the problem, but sooner or later it's
going to make an uncontrolled re-entry.

Sylvia.