On Oct 31, 9:51 pm, wrote:
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.

A one year loss of orbit is pretty impressive drag. Can we assume
they'd pushed it towards Earth?

With new and improved technology, why doesn't ISS orbit above 500 km?


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.

************************************************** ************************************************** ***********

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.

Doing the right thing has never been any big part of our NASA.
Perhaps China or India will take on that responsibility. We've
outsourced most everything else, so why not trash collecting?

~ BG