UARS come back now, hear?

quote
WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT on
Friday, Sept. 9, to discuss the anticipated re-entry of the agency's
decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Re-entry is
expected late this month or early October.
/quote
Earl: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_M11-186
_UARS_Telecon.html

On Sep 8, 3:54*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

It's a big honker, weighing 13,000 pounds.

When I saw the picture on the page you mentioned,

http://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/

the first thing I thought of was

http://shadolibrary.org/aspects/sid.shtml
http://goingfaster.com/gray/sid.jpg
http://ufoseries.com/artofufo/sidCutaway.jpg

orbiting the Earth, presumably at the L3 point of the Earth-Moon
system, so as to provide coverage to that side of the Earth
unprotected by the Moon;

Base, that is:
pretty girls, purple hair.

http://digilander.libero.it/guido_19...1-moonbase.htm

John Savard

On 9/8/2011 7:26 AM, Snidely wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_M11-186
_UARS_Telecon.html


There's more info on it he
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html
....and he http://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/
It's a big honker, weighing 13,000 pounds.

Pat

Pat Flannery scribbled something like ...

On 9/8/2011 7:26 AM, Snidely wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_M11-186
_UARS_Telecon.html


There's more info on it he
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html
...and he http://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/
It's a big honker, weighing 13,000 pounds.

When it breaks apart, it's suppose to slim down a bit ... possible 300
pound pieces reaching earth.

I forget, was this one supposed to have a commanded re-entry, but it died
before the command could be sent, or was re-entry one of those details
that would "take care of itself"?

Also, I'm thinking that if you wanted the maximum breakup, you should
make sure the maximum tumbling takes place as a result of atmosphere
interface ... is that something that generally holds? And if so, are the
solar panels able to provide that, or do you need something else to make
sure it happens?

/dps

On Sep 12, 4:02*pm, Snidely wrote:
Pat Flannery scribbled something like ...

On 9/8/2011 7:26 AM, Snidely wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_M11-186
_UARS_Telecon.html

There's more info on it he
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html
...and hehttp://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/
It's a big honker, weighing 13,000 pounds.

When it breaks apart, it's suppose to slim down a bit ... possible 300
pound pieces reaching earth.

I forget, was this one supposed to have a commanded re-entry, but it died
before the command could be sent, or was re-entry one of those details
that would "take care of itself"?

Also, I'm thinking that if you wanted the maximum breakup, you should
make sure the maximum tumbling takes place as a result of atmosphere
interface ... is that something that generally holds? *And if so, are the
solar panels able to provide that, or do you need something else to make
sure it happens?

/dps

already being discussed here.


http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...5f165bc92908be

Pat Flannery scribbled something like ...
On 9/12/2011 12:02 PM, Snidely wrote:

I forget, was this one supposed to have a commanded re-entry, but it
died before the command could be sent, or was re-entry one of those
details that would "take care of itself"?

It would be odd if it was supposed to have retro capability to bring
it down when and where desired; we generally only use that for our
reconsats, and then only to make sure that none of the parts will fall
over unfriendly territory and be studied - not for safety's sake.

I thought it had become common practice to reserve a portion of manouvering
fuel for last rites. Geosats move further out, now, don't they?

I'd also imagine that the larger the satellite, the more desirable the
capability is. Especially post-Skylab, and post-RuSat.

/dps

On 9/12/2011 12:02 PM, Snidely wrote:
Pat scribbled something like ...

On 9/8/2011 7:26 AM, Snidely wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_M11-186
_UARS_Telecon.html


There's more info on it he
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html
...and he http://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/
It's a big honker, weighing 13,000 pounds.

When it breaks apart, it's suppose to slim down a bit ... possible 300
pound pieces reaching earth.

I forget, was this one supposed to have a commanded re-entry, but it died
before the command could be sent, or was re-entry one of those details
that would "take care of itself"?

It would be odd if it was supposed to have retro capability to bring it
down when and where desired; we generally only use that for our
reconsats, and then only to make sure that none of the parts will fall
over unfriendly territory and be studied - not for safety's sake.

Pat

On 9/13/2011 12:19 AM, Snidely wrote:
Pat scribbled something like ...
On 9/12/2011 12:02 PM, Snidely wrote:

I forget, was this one supposed to have a commanded re-entry, but it
died before the command could be sent, or was re-entry one of those
details that would "take care of itself"?

It would be odd if it was supposed to have retro capability to bring
it down when and where desired; we generally only use that for our
reconsats, and then only to make sure that none of the parts will fall
over unfriendly territory and be studied - not for safety's sake.

I thought it had become common practice to reserve a portion of manouvering
fuel for last rites. Geosats move further out, now, don't they?

Yeah, but that's only to get them out of the way for future Geosats that
will replace their slot in the GEO orbit. Although actual collision is a
pretty tiny possibility in that high of an orbit, getting them away from
it removes the possibility of a dead one getting between a live one and
Earth, and interfering with its uplink or downlink transmissions.
Besides, once you're up that high, kicking the satellite up further by a
few hundred or thousands of miles doesn't really take that much fuel, as
you are only going to be speeding it up by a few tens or hundreds of
miles per hour.

Pat

On 9/13/2011 4:10 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
Besides, once you're up that high, kicking the satellite up further by a
few hundred or thousands of miles doesn't really take that much fuel, as
you are only going to be speeding it up by a few tens or hundreds of
miles per hour.

BTW, it would be fun to figure out what the decay time of a satellite in
GEO would be before it hit the Earth's atmosphere.
I'm guessing we are talking about something of over one hundred thousand
years in the future at the very least.

Pat

On 9/13/2011 2:11 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:

It would be odd if it was supposed to have retro capability to bring it
down when and where desired; we generally only use that for our
reconsats, and then only to make sure that none of the parts will fall
over unfriendly territory and be studied - not for safety's sake.

Here' an article about deorbiting reconsats:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1715/1

Pat