Dude you totalled my satellite!

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**Frazzled**

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/11/tech/main4792976.shtml

U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
Communications Satellite Hits Russian Satellite; International Space Station Deemed Safe

(CBS) By CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A commercial Iridium communications satellite collided with a Russian satellite or satellite fragment, Tuesday, creating a cloud of wreckage in low-Earth orbit, officials said Wednesday. The international space station is not threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other satellites in similar orbits.

"Everybody is saying the risk is minimal to NASA assets," said an agency manager who asked not to be identified.

Once source said U.S. Space Command was tracking about 280 pieces of debris, most of it from the defunct Russian satellite. A spokesman for U.S. Space Command was not aware of the incident but he said he would try to track down additional details. Calls to Iridium Satellite LLC were not immediately returned.

Iridium operates a constellation of some 66 satellites, along with orbital spares, to support satellite telephone operations around the world. The spacecraft are in orbits tilted 86.4 degrees to the equator at an altitude of about 485 miles.

The space station circles the globe at an altitude of about 215 miles in an orbit tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator. Other civilian science satellites operate in polar orbits similar to Iridium's and presumably could face an increased risk as a result of the collision. But again, details were not immediately available.

**Phoenix**

It was going to happen eventualy. I mean, come on, how many traffic accidents occur down here? It was only a matter of time till there was a fender bender in high orbit. Or in this case, a head on collision.

**Anung Un Rama**

The international space station is not threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other satellites in similar orbits.

Sometimes it saddens me, that we still have such a low level of technology in this day and age. Shouldn't they have, dunno, deflector shields or somethin'...

**whatwhat**

Phoenix wrote:It was going to happen eventualy. I mean, come on, how many traffic accidents occur down here? It was only a matter of time till there was a fender bender in high orbit. Or in this case, a head on collision.

Yeh but one they supposedly plan these things out so no two satellite orbits conflict and for another at the height there at the sphere of the earth is a lot bigger than it is on ground level, so the chances of something the size of a wheely bin colliding with another is pretty low.

**Anung Un Rama**

whatwhat wrote:
Phoenix wrote:It was going to happen eventualy. I mean, come on, how many traffic accidents occur down here? It was only a matter of time till there was a fender bender in high orbit. Or in this case, a head on collision.

Yeh but one they supposedly plan these things out so no two satellite orbits conflict and for another at the height there at the sphere of the earth is a lot bigger than it is on ground level, so the chances of something the size of a wheely bin colliding with another is pretty low.

Then maybe they collied because the earth is moving out of it's orbit!
Or I'm just talking gak, because I don't know a thing about stuff like that....

**Phoenix**

Well something went wrong somewhere, otherwise they wouldn't have hit. And of course there's plenty of room for error there. Maybe someone screwed up the calculations somewhere (mars lander incident with unit conversions). Maybe someone was looking at an old version of the orbit chart for all the satalites and didn't realize another one got put up with a conflicting orbit. Maybe they don't even have some internationaly published map of satalite orbits. Can someone find one? Maybe when the satalite (one or the other) got put up, it didn't end up in exactly the orbit it was supposed to go into. There are lots of places where error could have entered the system. Sooner or later is was going to happen, regardless of how unlikely it should be.

**whatwhat**

Yup, no doubt something went wrong. Probably some cowboy russian scientist missed a decimal point on his calculator. " Hey look, you turn upside down it say hello."

**Lorek**

The first person who can make use of really cheap thrust is going to be rich salvaging all that junk.

RICH.

**ptlangley**

Phoenix wrote:It was going to happen eventualy. I mean, come on, how many traffic accidents occur down here? It was only a matter of time till there was a fender bender in high orbit. Or in this case, a head on collision.

Yeah the difference down here is the collision debris doesn't continue moving at 7 km/s for many many years after the accident.

**focusedfire**

But it will make for some pretty fire works when the orbit decays.

**with an iron fist**

There is the possibility that "we don't know as much about stellar physics as we'd like to believe we do."

Anyone whose been paying attention to astronomy news in the last decade may have heard of the anomaly influencing deep system satellites?

**Anung Un Rama**

whatwhat wrote:Yup, no doubt something went wrong. Probably some cowboy russian scientist missed a decimal point on his calculator. " Hey look, you turn upside down it say hello."

Cowboy russian

Isn't that an Oxymoron....

**focusedfire**

In the past 18 years, Russia has been more of a wild west than the U.S. has been in the past 80.

Does this constitute a Hit&Run> If so, then who prosecutes?

**whatwhat**

Anung Un Rama wrote:
whatwhat wrote:Yup, no doubt something went wrong. Probably some cowboy russian scientist missed a decimal point on his calculator. " Hey look, you turn upside down it say hello."

Cowboy russian Isn't that an Oxymoron....

cowboy as in someone who does a half assed job. Sry, thought that term existed outside of Britain.

**malfred**

"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it. "

**Destrado**

Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

It's the Hot War!