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Old November 1st 08, 10:27 AM posted to sci.space.station,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,soc.culture.usa,alt.politics
Brian Gaff
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Default Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant, expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?

So what is the difference between this and normal ammonia? I'm not saying
this is what they should have done, I thought at the time it was a bit
silly, but was told then that no fixings were available to secure this tank
into a shuttle.
In this case are we saying it will make it through interact? I'd doubt it
personally, and in the grand scheme of things, the small amount of gass when
taken against the volume of the atmosphere is hardly any concern. Of
course, like anything, I have felt that using the heat of re entry to get
rid of junk was a risky and short sighted business, as this is how we ended
up with rubbish mountains in the plare stations and indeed contaminated the
environment generally. IE we start small and get bigger and nobody rethinks
it until something bad happens.

Brian

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27479972/

An excerpt from the article for fair use and to pique the interest of
readers and those who are alarmed at the amount of trash that has been
left in space and is defiling "the last frontier". Have we not
learned ANYTHING about the defilement of Earth? Apparently NOT!

By Tariq Malik
Senior editor

updated 8:15 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 31, 2008
A piece of space station trash the size of a refrigerator is poised to
plunge through the Earth's atmosphere late Sunday, more than a year
after an astronaut tossed it overboard.

NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object —
a 1,400-pound (635-kg) tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the
international space station — to make sure it does not endanger people
on Earth. Exactly where the tank will inevitably fall is currently
unknown, though it is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday
afternoon or later that evening, NASA officials said.

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In the article, NASA says it would not be a good idea for anyone to
touch it. Apparently NASA is taking the responsibility for the refuse
entering earth's atmosphere. According to Wikipedia, a total of 17
countries participate in the International Space Station. It would
seem it would have been a very high priority of all those countries to
have a process in place to take care of the trash that is generated by
the Space Station. IIRC, there has been a space shuttle mission to
the ISS since it was thrown out, so that toxic ammonia coolant tank
could have been loaded up on the space shuttle and brought down to
earth, where the refuse could be dealt with more efficiently and
morally.