Thursday, February 14, 2008
Splash 1 - Maybe
Those wacky gub'ment boys want to shoot down a failed satellite.
Last year they were all up in arms when China did a similar thing. Makes one wonder if this is quid pro quo? The latest arms race starting. It's all fun and games until someone screws up & hits the space station.
They are selling the concept using the safety mantra. Along those lines I gathered a few interesting bits from various web sites:
"In the past 50 years of monitoring space, 17,000 man made objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere."
"The odds were about three in four that the debris would hit an ocean area."
"Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause."
The 3 in 4 odds are a fancy way of saying 75% of the planet is covered with water. (Wikipedia claims 71% is ocean.) Factor in the vast amounts of wilderness we have yet to overpopulate and the odds climb even higher.
Heck, we dropped the shuttle Columbia over the southern part of the US. I don't recall that debris hitting anything or anyone.
Maybe someone is itching to try out their new toy. According to the link, the system has demonstrated an 83% success rate. On the surface, it appears the chance of success is just a little bit better than the chance of the debris trail hitting nothing significant. Somehow that coincidence alone seems to justify the idea.
Other possibilities? Sure. Maybe the spooks are worried about the latest spy satellite technology surviving re-entry & falling into the wrong hands. The linked article claims this bird has all the next generation capabilities.
Yep, smells like they are running scared. It's just a bonus they get a real world operational test of the new toy. Sure would be funny (in a sad way) if the intercept fails & the bad guys recover the debris. On the other hand that scenario would be just another feather in GW's cap. Oh well, at least he didn't get caught cheating on his wife with a fat chick. ¶ 14.2.08
Last year they were all up in arms when China did a similar thing. Makes one wonder if this is quid pro quo? The latest arms race starting. It's all fun and games until someone screws up & hits the space station.
They are selling the concept using the safety mantra. Along those lines I gathered a few interesting bits from various web sites:
"In the past 50 years of monitoring space, 17,000 man made objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere."
"The odds were about three in four that the debris would hit an ocean area."
"Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause."
The 3 in 4 odds are a fancy way of saying 75% of the planet is covered with water. (Wikipedia claims 71% is ocean.) Factor in the vast amounts of wilderness we have yet to overpopulate and the odds climb even higher.
Heck, we dropped the shuttle Columbia over the southern part of the US. I don't recall that debris hitting anything or anyone.
Maybe someone is itching to try out their new toy. According to the link, the system has demonstrated an 83% success rate. On the surface, it appears the chance of success is just a little bit better than the chance of the debris trail hitting nothing significant. Somehow that coincidence alone seems to justify the idea.
Other possibilities? Sure. Maybe the spooks are worried about the latest spy satellite technology surviving re-entry & falling into the wrong hands. The linked article claims this bird has all the next generation capabilities.
Yep, smells like they are running scared. It's just a bonus they get a real world operational test of the new toy. Sure would be funny (in a sad way) if the intercept fails & the bad guys recover the debris. On the other hand that scenario would be just another feather in GW's cap. Oh well, at least he didn't get caught cheating on his wife with a fat chick. ¶ 14.2.08
