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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
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. ************************************************** ************************************************** *********** 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. |
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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 -- Brian Gaff - Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! wrote in message ... 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. ************************************************** ************************************************** *********** 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. |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
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 |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
On Nov 1, 1:27 am, "Brian Gaff" wrote:
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 As of decades ago we've trashed our environment anyway, so what's the difference? (is that what you're saying) ~ BG |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant, expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message om... 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. An astronaut just tossed it overboard? We should send our Local Authority street wardens up their to issue a few on the spot fines. ;-) -- Graham. %Profound_observation% |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
************************************************** ************************************************** ************
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. This is much ado about nothing.. Any ammonia falling down would be welcome. Ya'll need to realize that farmers spray ammonia on their fields as fertilizer. It's a good thing. |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
On Nov 1, 7:20 am, lorad wrote:
************************************************** ************************************************** ************ 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. This is much ado about nothing.. Any ammonia falling down would be welcome. Ya'll need to realize that farmers spray ammonia on their fields as fertilizer. It's a good thing. Unless it lands on your home, shortly before exploding. ~ BG |
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Trash from Intl Space Station, tank of toxic ammonia coolant,expected to strike earth on 11/2. No other way?
BradGuth wrote:
With new and improved technology, why doesn't ISS orbit above 500 km? A maximum of about 425km is due to the rendezvous operational limits of the Soyuz (Soyuz can hit 460km, but is lower due to fuel consumption during rendezvous). Add the heavy-lifting limits of the shuttle and you see the altitudes stay down in the mid 300km range. Granted, the shuttle can reach a theoretical altitude of 960km, but that's pretty much emptying the tanks to get there with practically zero cargo. IIRC, the current record is around 600km (one of the Hubble flights). I'm sure the sights would be quite interesting from an altitude over 900km--I recall the one comment in a documentary about the flights to Hubble where the crew were surprised with how different things (Earth) looked compared to ISS flights. |
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