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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
Musing....
The earth is many orders of magnitude older than the time humans - or even mammals - have been here. And who knows what the future may bring. As far as I can tell, any thought that we are not the first to inhabit this planet belong in the realm of science fiction - but we may not last, and there could therefore be other sentients after us. If we wished to leave a notice that we'd been here, the best place might be in orbit; by the time another sentient form reached that level, they might be able to decipher and understand whatever we decided to leave. Low orbits decay - I assume higher ones do as well, just more slowly. Could we place a satellite such that it would still be up there, say, a million years from now? How about 100 million years? |
#3
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
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#4
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
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#5
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
The 2nd object put into earth orbit back in 1959 is still up there going
around the earth. -- There are those who believe that life here, began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans, who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that they may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens. The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond Telescope Buyers FAQ http://home.inreach.com/starlord Sidewalk Astronomy www.sidewalkastronomy.info The Church of Eternity http://home.inreach.com/starlord/church/Eternity.html "Shawn" wrote in message ... wrote: Musing.... The earth is many orders of magnitude older than the time humans - or even mammals - have been here. And who knows what the future may bring. As far as I can tell, any thought that we are not the first to inhabit this planet belong in the realm of science fiction - but we may not last, and there could therefore be other sentients after us. If we wished to leave a notice that we'd been here, the best place might be in orbit; by the time another sentient form reached that level, they might be able to decipher and understand whatever we decided to leave. Low orbits decay - I assume higher ones do as well, just more slowly. Could we place a satellite such that it would still be up there, say, a million years from now? How about 100 million years? Cool idea. One of the Earth/Moon Lagrange points, L4 or L5, ahead of or behind the Moon along its orbit around Earth might be a good choice. It would be someplace some future astronomer might look for captured asteroids in Earth orbit. Such an extraterrestrial time capsule would be more likely to be found, and stay in orbit. Also, that high up it would less likely to get nailed by some other satellite crossing its path. Shawn |
#6
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
"Starlord" wrote in message . .. The 2nd object put into earth orbit back in 1959 is still up there going around the earth. For heaven's sake, don't tell the Chinese about it! |
#7
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
I'm sure they know about it, but while not running, it is still in orbit and
has been tracked. -- There are those who believe that life here, began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans, who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that they may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens. The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond Telescope Buyers FAQ http://home.inreach.com/starlord Sidewalk Astronomy www.sidewalkastronomy.info The Church of Eternity http://home.inreach.com/starlord/church/Eternity.html "L.A.T." wrote in message ... "Starlord" wrote in message . .. The 2nd object put into earth orbit back in 1959 is still up there going around the earth. For heaven's sake, don't tell the Chinese about it! |
#8
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:04:14 -0700, Shawn
wrote: Cool idea. One of the Earth/Moon Lagrange points, L4 or L5, ahead of or behind the Moon along its orbit around Earth might be a good choice. It would be someplace some future astronomer might look for captured asteroids in Earth orbit. Such an extraterrestrial time capsule would be more likely to be found, and stay in orbit. Also, that high up it would less likely to get nailed by some other satellite crossing its path. I believe the masses of the Earth and Moon are sufficiently close to one another that, with perturbations from the Sun, the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points aren't terribly stable over long periods. Also, their tendency to accumulate other bodies might make them an unsafe place to park for millions of years. A simple high Earth orbit is probably cleaner, although even there I doubt something would survive millions of years without being hit by something major, being perturbed by something major, or simply being sandblasted to death by space dust. The inner Solar System has quite a lot of debris in it. _________________________________________________ Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com |
#9
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:00:17 -0800, "Starlord"
wrote: I'm sure they know about it, but while not running, it is still in orbit and has been tracked. I think he was worrying- tongue in cheek- about them turning it into a debris cloud for practice. (Been following the news the last few days?) _________________________________________________ Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com |
#10
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How long could a man-made earth satellite stay up?
wrote in message ...
Musing.... The earth is many orders of magnitude older than the time humans - or even mammals - have been here. And who knows what the future may bring. As far as I can tell, any thought that we are not the first to inhabit this planet belong in the realm of science fiction - but we may not last, and there could therefore be other sentients after us. If we wished to leave a notice that we'd been here, the best place might be in orbit Only in the mind of a space buff. Why would a future sentient look into space for a sign of previous life on Earth? Numerous notices of previous ancients have been found on earth in the form of hundred million year old fossils. I suspect a million years from now some posthuman archeologist will have no problem stumbling over one of our many land fills. I doubt he'll confuse a golf ball or empty Disani bottle for a geological formation. -- Rick Evans --------------------------------------------------------------- Lon -71° 04' 35.3" Lat +42° 11' 06.7" --------------------------------------------------------------- Webcam Astroimaging http://mysite.verizon.net/hiltonevan...troimaging.htm |
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