Colliding satellites!!!!

[Lasernerd]

check this out!
In less than an hour we will be able to hear the radar pings! aprox.2:14 PM Pacific

http://spaceweather.com/

[Laserman532]

check this out!
In less than an hour we will be able to hear the radar pings! aprox.2:14 PM Pacific

http://spaceweather.com/

what are the fricken odds

[300EVIL]

what are the fricken odds

Yeah, Like 1 in a trillion. Although there is a huge mess of satellites in orbit now. Better start your space garbage collection company now!



Each one of those dots is an artificial satellite...

[DZ]

300evil, that pic reminds me of the Wall-e movie, my daughter has seen that movie nearly 500 times now! Just the scene with all the satellites was so funny!

[buffo]

This happened on Tuesday... Made the front page of Reddit and Digg. (Pretty sure it was on the Science page on Slashdot as well.) The sad thing is that there were several tracking packages that correctly predicted the collision, but not enough people cared. They knew the birds would pass close to each other, but they weren't thinking collision... (Then again, the Iridium bird probably didn't have enough fuel to maneuver clear even if they had tried to move it, and the Russian bird had been malfunctioning ever since it's launch, so the crash may have been inevitable.)

Even so - the chances of a direct strike like that have got to be slim. Now, being taken out by debris... That's a lot more likely. (Even more so now that these two hulks have been smashed into lots of smaller pieces!)

On a different note - is anyone even using Iridium phones anymore?

Adam

[mixedgas]

o lots of smaller pieces!)

On a different note - is anyone even using Iridium phones anymore?

Adam[/quote]


The US Navy, they bought into the system big time when it had financial troubles. It got them their own personal version of Inmarsat

Steve

[DZ]

Speaking of space stuff, looks like there's a nice comet getting ready to make it's closest approach to earth in less than 2 weeks. The current guesstimate is that it will reach either mag 4 or 5, but could be brighter. Neat thing is that it will pass right by saturn, may have to drag out all my old gear for that kind of photo! With saturn near opposition and a comet's peak brightness just as it passes the planet, that will be a neat sight!

[mixedgas]

Quote
on Feb. 15th less than a day after the FAA reportedly warned U.S. pilots to watch for "falling space debris" from the recent satellite collision between Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251. Click on the image to launch a News 8 Austin video:

End quote:

OK, a flaming piece of space trash is coming at your airliner at Mach 1, evade, evade, evade, yeah right!!!

Put down the coffee, flip off the autopilot, and listen as your Airbus's safety software, which can, and does, overrule the pilot, tells you you can't evade.

Nice one FAA..

I'm being sarcastic, who now hates flying US AIRWAYS, and for good reason. Four words, Atlanta Hartsfield, and Charlotte NC

Steve

[tocket]

Another unlikely collision happened this month:
http://www.dailytech.com/Two+Nuclear...ticle14283.htm

We better watch out, that comet isn't headed for the earth, right? Or is that also "unlikely"?

[DZ]

Geez, colliding subs, colliding satellites, comets... And to top it off: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493344,00.html

Several reports I read say it was from the colliding satellites, and several others say it definately isn't. Either way, one report showed a brush fire in the area where this thing fell to earth!