Satellite deorbiting

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

(I did start a v. similar thread but as this is going to be interesting for a few days (and I'm being ignored in chat) I'm duplicating )

UARS is deorbiting

tracking info so we know when to duck

Thanks - Have cancelled holidays in the Gambia, Belarus and Tierra del Fuego...

Thanks - will watch with interest -and possibly a hard-hat

one can never be too careful chaotica!

So how deep do I need to build the shelter?

hmmm, looking at this a couple of metres should do it.

Well I won't be giving my bit of satellite back if some lands in my garden!

thats what I said ILT. No way jose. Finders Keepers is what I reckon!

It says here, "Since the beginning of the space age, there has been no confirmed report of an injury resulting from reentering space objects."

But there's always a first time!

Um, that's quite scary. What sort of force does a piece of satellite have at (presumably) terminal velocity? Will it be hot? smooth or sharp edges? (forget that question, if it's going at 100mph when it reaches the earth it could be any shape and it'll still whop you senseless.

I will be keeping an eye out on Friday for where its track is!

Looks like tomorrow night is the night!

nasa update

From the tracking link above it does not look like we can see it from the UK so does that mean it will not be falling here?

If you look at the link at the moment you can see that it does get as far north as the uk. It is in low earth orbit which means that it circles the earth many times a day and the point above the earth at which it reaches its most northerly point varies from orbit to orbit

Thank you

I will get my hard hat on now then.

when it does re-enter I guess it will look like a meteor shower, do you think?

Any guesses??
Its all a bit 'up on the air' isn't it?!

I'd have thought so lex!

ILTiffany

Quite a good little blog on UARS

That's a good blog (DH and I are at the space website they mention, 'heavens-above.com' ~ great name!) Good video that's been taken of the falling satellite too.

Very funny update from NASA this am "It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 hours."

well duh - it may well have crashed by then! Makes predicting rather defunct.

Maybe they just dont know and are watching like the rest of us?

NASA say it won't crash over North America.....well that's fine then....

Info from the bbc website.

according to the bbc story - we'll be ok - well those of us in scotland :-)

Latest update from NASA says there is a small possibility it will land in the US now! It's descent appears to be slowing and so it will probably be in the early hours of tomorrow our time that it lands.