On Sep 22, 8:57*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 9/22/2011 1:22 PM, Andre Lieven wrote:

scientifically the study of very long term space exposure on such a
well documented vehicle could be useful

LDEF did that. Duh.

If they could recover Vanguard 1 or 2 they could get pretty much the
ultimate data on micrometeor impact probability on a spacecraft on a
yearly basis; their spherical shape would be ideal for this.

Yep. It would also be wicked kewl, and it would not be that hard to
do;
Surely recovering a 2KG object in Earth orbit is far, far easier than
trying
to corral something hugely bigger and father away...

Andre