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Total lunar eclipse Wednesday night



 
 
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Old February 19th 08, 06:46 PM posted to talk.bizarre,sci.astro,sci.military.naval,soc.culture.usa,sci.econ
(David P.)
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Posts: 14
Default Total lunar eclipse Wednesday night

Adam Funk wrote:

Viewers in the N. Pacific will
generally miss the eclipse but might
get to watch the space-age shoot-out.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02..._airspace_warn...


Comments on 'US declares 1400-mile
Pacific sat-shoot exclusion zone'

Airspace bar from surface to 'unlimited' altitude
By Lewis Page
Published 19 Feb 2008 09:59 GMT
==========
Taped off area out at sea
By Lewis Page
Posted 19 Feb 2008 10:12 GMT

I did not write that. Before you all start.
==========
A nice big rubberneck-free zone
By Joe Harrison
Posted 19 Feb 2008 10:43 GMT

The "dodgy satellite" gives them a
perfect excuse to kick nosey parkers
out of a huge and rather remote area
for a couple of hours. I'm surprised the
Roswell people haven't been asking
just what, exactly, is expected to be
incoming at that time.
==========
Taped off
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 10:48 GMT

That's a lot of tape.... does this come
out of a special DOD budget for
dumb ideas.
==========
Any trans-Pacific airliners....
By zedee
Posted 19 Feb 2008 10:57 GMT

going nearby should get a decent
fireworks display, looking out the
correct window.
Three of the largest sparklers this
side of a NEO deflection attempt!
==========
Taped off area out at sea
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:11 GMT

But... but... Lewis, that sounded rather cute.
==========
Moon
By Tim Spence
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:11 GMT

Is it a coincidence that this is happening
at pretty much the exact same time as
the eclipse of the moon, on pretty much
smack bang the opposite side of the earth?
Is it? Hmm?
==========
@Joe Harrison
By Matthew
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:13 GMT

I haven't yet checked but if this area is - as I
strongly suspect - international waters, it will
only keep out the rubberneckers who are
scared of being hit on the head (either by the
satellite or by the US forces in the area).

It's good advice to stay away but outside
national boundaries, totally unenforceable.
I don't expect this to stop the septics from
trying though....
==========
star wars?
By John Macintyre
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:18 GMT

I thought the point of all that hype over a
star wars thing the us wanted to shoot
down missiles from the sky would do
this for them? Or is this in a part of the
world they haven't bent to their will
/installed the system yet?
==========
Coincidence?
By Ian Ferguson
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:23 GMT

That's the exact same time as the total
eclipse of the moon - obviously no
coincidence! Them damn US military
are obviously shooting down the moon
itself while we can't see it! Sneaky *******s!
That's no moon... etc
==========
@Matthew
By DZ-Jay
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:25 GMT

"It's good advice to stay away but

outside national boundaries, totally
unenforceable."

Hum, with a couple of destroyers and
other battleships patroling the area, I'm
thinking there may be ways for them to
enforce it. Sure, it may not be politically
or diplomatically correct to do so, but
neither is shooting down the satellite,
and that didn't stop them with that.

So my guess is that the heavy naval
hardware will keep out the rubber-
neckers who are scared of, hum,
being shot at by warships.
==========
John Macintyre
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:28 GMT

The new missile shield is not fully
operational yet. The Aegis cruisers
and their Standard Missiles are
actually a component of the "multi-
layered" approach they're using
since the Regan era space-based
weapons never got off the ground.
==========
ebay killing
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 11:38 GMT

if parts of the satellite fall in US, expect
to see it on ebay selling for millions
(prob to a russian buyer)
==========
Youtube vid?
By Stu
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:11 GMT

Are we likely to see a youtube video
of the missile launch, plus one of those
NASA style long distance visual tracking
type videos that record the Shuttle as it
goes into orbit?
I like watching things get blowed up. ;-)
Or is it likely to be totally top secret?
==========
satellite? what satellite?
By Tawakalna
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:22 GMT

for *satellite*, read alien spacecraft,
being sneaked in under the cover of a
lunar eclipse for a maritime rendezvous
with the US military. The warships are to
prevent us seeing what's going on, not
to shoot down some pretend sattelite.
This is the next step in the lizard takeover
of Earth, the landing of the cloaked
alien mothership in the Pacific.
==========
Won' it be a larf if they miss.
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:35 GMT

Who will they hit in another friendly
fire episode?
Will they try again next time round?
==========
NOTAMs and Reasoning
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:36 GMT

NOTAMs are a standard warning system
used whenever a military force intends a
firing of any sort. They are used for
civilian hazard warnings, too. They
can be (and are) used in both
designated exercise/firing areas and
on the "high seas". It's a bit unusual
to see one this large, though.

As for enforcing them - well, it's your own
stupid fault if you ignore a NOTAM and
ending up wearing some shrapnel. But,
in international waters, it's not legal to
stop you, IIRC. It's been a while though
and I'm a bit rusty on my maritime law.

As for why they're shooting this thing
down? Pretty obvious really. The US
military budgets to shoot a certain
amount of ammunition each year -
I wouldn't be surprised if they budgeted
for three SM-3s this year, hence sending
three ships with one shot each. That
money (for the ammunition accounting
line) absolutely *must* be expended
this financial year, so they just had to
find *something* to shoot. Accountants
rule the world, unfortunately.
==========
Aegis?
By Kenny Millar
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:41 GMT

Aegis? Surely they won't be trying
to do an insurance job on it?
I can see the claim form now..
Item: A big secret satellite.
Cost: $100M
Damage: Totally destroyed
Cause of damage: I smacked it with
a big explosive rocket.
CLAIM DENIED - Damage self inflicted.
=========
Ha - you've all missed the point...
By Dalek13
Posted 19 Feb 2008 12:42 GMT

Look at the positioning, trajectory,
hardware. This is all a cover story
cunningly engineered to capture
attention away from the true objective:
the final and long awaited removal of
that pesky Canada and the creation
of the New North American Sea!!!!
Mwwwwaaahahahahahaahahahah!!
=========
Why isn't...
By The Gritter
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:07 GMT

....there a self destruct sequence?
=========
Yikes
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:15 GMT

1,400 miles long and nearly 700 miles

Hmm, average yacht travels at say
8 knots over the ground, so if you are
in there already it could take (weather
permitting) at least 87.5 hours (3.6
days) to get out of the way.

As for policing it with a couple of
destroyers, have you any idea how big
that area is and how hard it is to located
an intruder, not to mention even a
destroyer doing something like 40 knots
could take 1.5 days to get to the intruder.

Thats why it takes sooooo long to rescue
people when it all goes tits up out there &
you just have to hope there is someone near!

Guess anyone out there will just have to duck.
=========
@The Gritter
By daniel
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:26 GMT

The sat is electronically dead... it
cannot be piloted, recharged,
deployed... or self destructed...

Unless it is not a satellite
=========
What about the poison gas?
By Christoph
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:26 GMT

All these fake conspiracy theories are
obscuring the real problem.

The US has openly admitted that the
hydrazine on this spacecraft is so
dangerous that they have to spend
a fortune shooting it down.

But it has been widely reported that
lots of similar craft fall back all the time.

Why has the US not shot these down
too, since it has explicitly stated that
they are deadly dangerous? Why are
they bombarding the whole planet with
deadly poison gas?? Will your children
be poisoned on their way to school by
falling US poison satellites??????
=========
Impossible shot!
By Nev
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:31 GMT

How can they possibly hit any Iranian
civil airliners from that far away?
They should at least give themselves
a sporting chance!
=========
Lunar Eclipse
By James Smith
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:41 GMT

I'm no space expert, but wouldn't the
positioning of the moon affect the
trajectory of the satellite? The timing
is such that the moon being directly
opposite would bring the satellite
closer to the Earth around the point
where they're going to shoot at it.
=========
@ Yikes by Anon Coward
By andy gibson
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:45 GMT

I would imagine that an "average yacht"
would travel at 0 knots over the ground.
Unless it had wheels.
=========
NOTAM updated (add 24 hours)
By Alan Clegg
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:55 GMT

On the mailing list where I was made
aware of the original NOTAM, an
update has been posted by John Locker:

New NOTAM issued for the same period
24 hours later.....similar track...similar
acquisition time so they have ignored the
1330 GMT shot & are keeping daylight attempts.

02/067 (A0708/08) - AIRSPACE
STATIONARY RESERVATION WITHIN
AN AREA BNDD BY 3145N/17012W
2824N/16642W 2352N/16317W
1909N/16129W 1241N/16129W
1239N/16532W 1842N/17057W
2031N/17230W 2703N/17206W SFC-UNL.
22 FEB 02:30 2008 UNTIL 22 FEB 05:00
2008. CREATED: 19 FEB 12:30 2008

Compared to

02/061 (A0693/08) - AIRSPACE
STATIONARY RESERVATION WITHIN
AN AREA BNDD BY 3145N 17012W
2824N 16642W 2352N 16317W
1909N 16129W 1241N 16129W
1239N 16532W 1842N 17057W
2031N 17230W 2703N 17206W SFC-UNL.
21 FEB 02:30 2008 UNTIL 21 FEB 05:00
2008. CREATED: 18 FEB 12:50 2008

Looking at the predictions this could go on
for five days or so, with the time of the shot
getting a little earlier each day. John
=========
Sell on eBay?
By Andy
Posted 19 Feb 2008 13:56 GMT

If a piece were to come down anywhere
close to me I'd phone the American embassy
and ask them to collect it and please not to
torture me.

Anybody stupid enough to believe the U.S.
government would mobilize three warships
to shoot down something and then just allow
the person who finds the pieces to keep
them probably deserves to be waterboarded
by the CIA until they confess.

Sure it wouldn't be legal to kidnap and
torture the moron trying to sell pieces of
satellite but what are you going to do
about it? How many missiles did that ship
fire? Five? Six? Are you feeling lucky punk?
Well are you?

Dirty American Harry is quite correct:
A loaded six-shooter aimed at the cranium
is a trump in any argument on international law.
=========
Why isn't...
By Steve
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:00 GMT

"...there a self destruct sequence?"

Probably got damaged at launch when the
Damge Control System shorted out due
to a sloppy conversion to imperial units.
=========
Area
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:09 GMT

That is a huge area... think of it this way:

john o groats to lands end: approx 1000 miles

lands end to lowestoft: approx 500 miles

Therefore, this exclusion area is over
3 times the size of the UK (yes, I'm
including northern Ireland to help make
the thing more rectangular)

I'm just wondering if they've considered
what will be slightly higher in orbit at the
planned time - they're sure to miss (they
are Americans) and those missiles will
keep going until they hit something!
==========
I wonder if...
By g e
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:10 GMT

It'll be worth watching that area on
google maps for a while... just in case..
==========
friendly fire?
By Tim Blair
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:16 GMT

lets hope there's no British troops
around for them to kill....
==========
@ Christoph
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:31 GMT

Usually a satellite comes back to earth
only when it has run out of maneuvering
fuel - it may still contain nasties such as
radioisotopes (or just a lot of mis-placed
kinetic energy), but it wouldn't contain the
few thousand pounds of hydrazine that this
satellite does.

What effect that has on the real reasons for
the planned sat destruction is completely unknown.
==========
Thunderbirds Are Go
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:51 GMT

Has anyone warned International Rescue,
or will the Americans take out Thunderbird
One with friendly fire?
==========
@ Anonymous Coward
By Christoph
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:56 GMT

How are we supposed to get a good
conspiracy theory going if you keep
introducing these ridiculous "fact" things?
==========
@The Gritter
By Paul
Posted 19 Feb 2008 14:57 GMT

"Why isn't there a self destruct sequence?"

It's a cunning ploy designed to "out" those
El Reg readers who just look at the headlines
and then jump straight to the comments section
without really having a clue what they're talking
about.

Bloody hard to issue a self-destruct command
if the sat is unresponsive and out of control,
which is how they got into this pickle in the
first place.
==========
Boosters and other misc.
By Remy Redert
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:02 GMT

Satelites rarely reenter the atmosphere with
more then a tiny amount of fuel left, that is
absolutely true.

Now if only we could stop using those huge
hydrazine filled liquid boosters that are
common to many multiple stage rockets
and are often discarded into decaying orbits
with quite some fuel (Many more times then
the maneuvering fuel for a lousy little
satellite) left in them.
==========
If they miss
By Anonymous Coward
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:13 GMT

If they miss the said satellite their
missiles will hit the moon, causing
the moon to vier from it's normal orbit
around the earth, hence in a few weeks
time the moon will impact a specific country
=========
@ Paul
By Christoph
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:21 GMT

Simple to do a self destruct in those
circumstances. "If you are still in
free fall and have not heard from
Control after X days, go BOOM"
=========
Totally taped off
By b shubin
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:33 GMT

perhaps a chalk outline would be more
effective. easier to clean up after,
and more eco-friendly.
=========
Except that...
By Andy Gates
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:43 GMT

...it's not thinking at all. So it doesn't
know if it's in free fall, what time it is,
or the price of apples.

The self destruct for these things is
usually "fire the thrusters into a
de-orbit burn", by the way.
Exploding it would be a debris hazard
& pain in the diplomatic arse.

A de-orbit burn is tricky with dead
electronics and a frozen (hydrazine)
propellant tank. This thing is as
responsive and as controllable
(and about as big) as a VW Camper
with a flat battery. Tumbling through
space. Full of seekrit tech.

Are any bookies offering odds yet?
=========
@Christoph
By RRRoamer
Posted 19 Feb 2008 15:57 GMT

Only if the electronic watch dog timer is
still running. Here's a test for you:

1) reach back and find the power cord
on your computer. You know, the one
between the wall socket (or UPS) and the
back of the power supply in your computer.
2) Yank it out.
3) Type in "format c: RTN"
4) Plug that power cord back in.
5) Reboot computer
6) Verify that your C: drive was formated.
7) If not, type in "format c: RTN"

@Anonymous Coward

Actually, all they are trying to do is destroy
the Top Secret computer technology that is
on the Apollo 11 lander. They don't want the
Chinese to get it and use the information to
build there own moon lander. Or, they are
****ed that Directv raised their rates again,
so they are going for the 101 sat!
=========
We gots gooder gunz
By Bob C
Posted 19 Feb 2008 16:05 GMT

"I'm just wondering if they've considered
what will be slightly higher in orbit at the
planned time - they're sure to miss (they
are Americans) and those missiles will
keep going until they hit something!"
- anonymous coward.

We be dumb americuns, buts our guns is
really gooder than y'alls.
=========
Just Called my sports book, no proposition.
By Disco-Legend-Zeke
Posted 19 Feb 2008 16:13 GMT

The Imperial Palace Sports Book here in
Las Vegas does NOT have a proposition
on the event. I read that the odds are
4 to 1 that it will hit on the first try.
Then there are all the little side bets
about where the pieces land. Better
double up on the tinfoil hats this week.
..
..
--
 




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