Approaching Asteroid May Be Leftover Apollo 'Space Junk'

From www.jamesoberg.com

The suggestion has been raised in the last few hours that the '100-ft
asteroid' due to near-miss Earth in a few hours is not a'natural' space
rock, but a leftover space booster or 'SLA' (one of four panels encasing the
Lunar Module during launch) panel, from the Apollo program. If so, since
these 20 to 30 ft objects were painted white, they would be able to reflect
as much sunlight as a relatively DARK asteroid that would have been of the
estimated size, based on the observed brightness.

Two years ago, the Saturn 4B last stage of the Apollo-12 mission (1969),
sent into a shorter, quicker orbit of the Sun, 'lapped' the Earth and showed
up again (33 years later), spending several months swinging back and forth
around the Moon before drifting off into interplanetary space again. An
earlier 'asteroid' that flew past Earth, 1991-VG, was long suspected of
being of similar origin.

Spectroscopic and infra-red observations should be able to confirm this
quickly. They will be able to recognize the characteristics of the paint
used on the old space objects.

There IS a lot of natural 'space junk' out there, more than any amount of
man-made stuff, but the orbit of THIS object is special enough (see note
from the Science Applications International Corporation scientist, below) to
be suspicious, at least. The BBC piece, attached also below, raises this
possibility too.

The original SLA panels accompanied the Apollo capsules on the way to the
Moon, and were observed and commented on my astronauts. These comments
freaked out a lot of 'UFO nuts', especially from Apollo-11 and Apollo-12
air-to-ground conversations, who saw the lights as 'fleets of UFOs' keeping
formation with the Earth's moonships. These stories are still passed around
on the Internet UFO pages as grist for the weak-minded and the
eager-believers.

A view of the 4 'SLA Panels' unfolded is at
http://apollomaniacs.web.infoseek.co.../sla/SLA05.jpg (also see
mek.kosmo.cz/pil_lety/usa/ apollo/ap-7/a7s4b2.jpg) with the hardware
explained at http://apollomaniacs.web.infoseek.co.jp/apollo/slae.htm

The entire S4B last stage is seen at perso.wanadoo.fr/max.q/apollo/
vaisseaux/sat5.htm, and this is probably what came back to Earth two years
ago. After Apollo-12, all the S4B stages were impaced onto the moon to ring
the seisomometers, but the S4Bs from Apollo-8, Apollo-9 (YES!), and 10, 11,
and 12 were sent into solar orbit.


EASY TIGER: 2004FH MAY BE MAN-MADE ROCKET BOOSTER

Robert Matson

With all the excitement regarding the impending close approach of
2004 FH, I wonder if anyone besides me has considered the possibility
that the object might not be natural? Look at these orbital elements:

Epoch 2004 July 14.0 TT = JDT 2453200.5 MPC
M 28.04230 (2000.0) P Q
n 1.33238790 Peri. 62.95163 +0.84229753 +0.53901279
a 0.8179290 Node 264.43190 -0.49463736 +0.77274043
e 0.2884138 Incl. 0.01662 -0.21416991 +0.33516778
P 0.74 H 25.7 G 0.15 U 3
From 22 observations 2004 Mar. 16-17, mean residual 0".86.

Aphelion is 1.0538 a.u. and the inclination is practically coplanar
with earth. Together, these two factors should raise an eyebrow or
two. Perhaps Goldstone or one of the other tracking stations will
be able to collect some good radar data on it. Additionally, the
high brightness at close approach should permit good visible and IR
spectrometry, which ought to provide an unambiguous answer either
way. --Rob


SPACE ROCK MAKES CLOSEST APPROACH
BBC News Online, 18 March 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3523200.stm

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

Astronomers are watching a small object as it makes the closest approach to
the Earth of any space rock yet discovered.

Called 2004 FH it is estimated to be only 25m across. It was found by an
automated sky survey on Tuesday.

At 22.08 GMT tonight it will pass just 43,000km from the Earth. There is no
danger of a collision, say scientists.

Such close approaches probably occur quite frequently but go unnoticed. If
it were to strike the Earth it would burn-up in the atmosphere, say experts.

'Guaranteed miss'

The asteroid will make its closest approach while streaking over the
southern Atlantic Ocean. It should be visible through binoculars to
stargazers across the southern hemisphere, as well as throughout Asia and
Europe.

But it poses no danger. "It's a guaranteed miss," says astronomer Paul
Chodas, of the near-Earth object office at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Astronomers around the world scrambled on Wednesday to prepare for the
flyby, which could provide an unprecedented chance to get a close look at
the asteroid.

2004 FH was found by the Linear sky survey based in New Mexico. It
immediately became clear it would pass very close by the Earth.

Astronomers have not ruled out that the asteroid and our planet could meet
again sometime in the future.

Some experts have doubted that the object is a space rock suggesting that it
could be a discarded rocket booster.