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2 big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia

Muse

Muse

Lifer
Story

Can't believe there's no threads here on this here. Seems to me it's a big BIG news story. The debris from this will be all over and a threat to other satellites. The Hubble is said to be very much at risk. Even a tiny fragment could screw it up and NASA is very concerned, is what I heard on TV yesterday.

A crash of satellites was an accident waiting to happen, there are so many out there. With more and more going up and many just left out there indefinitely it seems like a problem that will get worse and worse. Is it possible that orbiting satellites become too risky at some point, at least for some of them? They've become very important, at least for weather reporting. The surveillance satellites can maybe be dispensed with.
 
There was a 1/1000 chance that they were going to hit, so it was very unlikely but it happened nonetheless. Other satellites aren't at risk, earth is almost 12800km in diameter anyway, lots of space. Though I don't know about Hubble. Hubble is being retired soon anyway.
 
Originally posted by: Evan
There was a 1/1000 chance that they were going to hit, so it was very unlikely but it happened nonetheless. Other satellites aren't at risk, earth is almost 12800km in diameter anyway, lots of space. Though I don't know about Hubble. Hubble is being retired soon anyway.
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1/1000 chance for what period of time? Link?
 
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: Evan
There was a 1/1000 chance that they were going to hit, so it was very unlikely but it happened nonetheless. Other satellites aren't at risk, earth is almost 12800km in diameter anyway, lots of space. Though I don't know about Hubble. Hubble is being retired soon anyway.
Click to expand...

1/1000 chance for what period of time? Link?
Click to expand...

Every second. 😛
 
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: Evan
There was a 1/1000 chance that they were going to hit, so it was very unlikely but it happened nonetheless. Other satellites aren't at risk, earth is almost 12800km in diameter anyway, lots of space. Though I don't know about Hubble. Hubble is being retired soon anyway.
Click to expand...

1/1000 chance for what period of time? Link?
Click to expand...

I didn't see a listed period of time, but good call there. It was on CNN yesterday, 2:00pm Blitzer broadcast.
 
The TV news story I saw yesterday said "it was only a matter of time." Typical slack TV reporting. 😕
 
Imaging how easy it would be for a rogue nation to screw up space travel for everyone with this cascading out of control
 
From what I read yesterday or the day before, the Hubble wasn't that much at risk since it was something like 250 miles away (don't quote me on that but it was a couple hundred) from the collision at a higher/lower altitude.
 
Picture the surface area of the earth. Now picture the surface area of a sphere with a much greater diameter, i.e. the one of orbit of these satellites. Now think about the chances of two of these things, even moving at high speed for years, colliding. The odds are miniscule, but in this case it happened.
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Story

Can't believe there's no threads here on this here. Seems to me it's a big BIG news story. The debris from this will be all over and a threat to other satellites. The Hubble is said to be very much at risk. Even a tiny fragment could screw it up and NASA is very concerned, is what I heard on TV yesterday.

A crash of satellites was an accident waiting to happen, there are so many out there. With more and more going up and many just left out there indefinitely it seems like a problem that will get worse and worse. Is it possible that orbiting satellites become too risky at some point, at least for some of them? They've become very important, at least for weather reporting. The surveillance satellites can maybe be dispensed with.
Click to expand...

jusr stop it! This is something NASA knew was going to happen, It is not serious at all!
It might be serious if you were a 3rd grader and did not understand anything at all!!
 
Originally posted by: episodic
Imaging how easy it would be for a rogue nation to screw up space travel for everyone with this cascading out of control
Click to expand...

What's a "rouge nation"? You mean like the USA?
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Picture the surface area of the earth. Now picture the surface area of a sphere with a much greater diameter, i.e. the one of orbit of these satellites. Now think about the chances of two of these things, even moving at high speed for years, colliding. The odds are miniscule, but in this case it happened.
Click to expand...

The radius of the earth: ~4000 miles

The radius of these satellites: ~4500 miles

Not that much bigger. There are so many satellites out there and the orbits are not coordinated to avoid collisions. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I imagine that the likelihood could be analyzed statistically without great difficulty, and undoubtedly has been. Obviously, a collision only makes matters worse because there are thousands of more pieces cast off that can cause more collisions, only increasing the risk. Satellites are very expensive and collision roulette is big downside risk and it's only getting worse with each launch. Every collision throws a monkey wrench into the entire problem.
 
Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Originally posted by: Muse
Story

Can't believe there's no threads here on this here. Seems to me it's a big BIG news story. The debris from this will be all over and a threat to other satellites. The Hubble is said to be very much at risk. Even a tiny fragment could screw it up and NASA is very concerned, is what I heard on TV yesterday.

A crash of satellites was an accident waiting to happen, there are so many out there. With more and more going up and many just left out there indefinitely it seems like a problem that will get worse and worse. Is it possible that orbiting satellites become too risky at some point, at least for some of them? They've become very important, at least for weather reporting. The surveillance satellites can maybe be dispensed with.
Click to expand...

jusr stop it! This is something NASA knew was going to happen, It is not serious at all!
It might be seriosu if you were a 3rd grader and did not understand anything at all!!
Click to expand...

Knowing something is going to happen doesn't always prevent bad things from happening. Don't be naive. If you can't take the trouble to proofread your knee jerk reaction posts, why the hell should I take you seriously?
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Picture the surface area of the earth. Now picture the surface area of a sphere with a much greater diameter, i.e. the one of orbit of these satellites. Now think about the chances of two of these things, even moving at high speed for years, colliding. The odds are miniscule, but in this case it happened.
Click to expand...

The radius of the earth: ~4000 miles

The radius of these satellites: ~4500 miles

Not that much bigger. There are so many satellites out there and the orbits are not coordinated to avoid collisions. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I imagine that the likelihood could be analyzed statistically without great difficulty, and undoubtedly has been. Obviously, a collision only makes matters worse because there are thousands of more pieces cast off that can cause more collisions, only increasing the risk. Satellites are very expensive and collision roulette is big downside risk and it's only getting worse with each launch. Every collision throws a monkey wrench into the entire problem.
Click to expand...
254,000,000 square miles then for the surface of the satellites' orbit, that is quite large.

 
There isn't as much space as you might think up there. Granted space is huge, but there are ideal orbits and the those orbits are actually very heavily populated. Certain orbital altitudes and angles are ideal and what makes those orbits good for one satellite makes it good for many others (be it based on cost to orbit, or providing coverage of an area, like the US, etc).

NASA and the Air Force spend a lot of resources monitoring the traffic, but sometimes nothing can be done.

It sounds like from what I've read and heard for a few friends at NASA that the risk of major satellites and the ISS are minimal. However, the debris is orbiting and very high velocities and an impact of even small pieces could cause major issues. Hopefully the orbit of the debris will decay quickly and the junk will burn up in the atmosphere.
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Originally posted by: Muse
Story

Can't believe there's no threads here on this here. Seems to me it's a big BIG news story. The debris from this will be all over and a threat to other satellites. The Hubble is said to be very much at risk. Even a tiny fragment could screw it up and NASA is very concerned, is what I heard on TV yesterday.

A crash of satellites was an accident waiting to happen, there are so many out there. With more and more going up and many just left out there indefinitely it seems like a problem that will get worse and worse. Is it possible that orbiting satellites become too risky at some point, at least for some of them? They've become very important, at least for weather reporting. The surveillance satellites can maybe be dispensed with.
Click to expand...

jusr stop it! This is something NASA knew was going to happen, It is not serious at all!
It might be seriosu if you were a 3rd grader and did not understand anything at all!!
Click to expand...

Knowing something is going to happen doesn't always prevent bad things from happening. Don't be naive. If you can't take the trouble to proofread your knee jerk reaction posts, why the hell should I take you seriously?
Click to expand...

Because you are what is called an alarmist!! Over reactioning to things that mean didly!!

 
Why will it, at some point, become too risky to fly satellites? I think the issue here is, we are talking about rocket science and not everyone is cut out to be a rocket scientist.
 
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