Watch Hefty Satellite Tumble to Earth

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Watch Hefty Satellite Tumble to Earth

Remember the satellite that NASA said was going to hit sometime soon? Here it comes.

NASA decommissioned the UARS satellite in 2005, and placed it in a degrading orbit. Earlier this month [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112864-NASA-Says-Dont-Worry-About-Falling-Satellite], the U.S. space agency declared that the 6.5 ton satellite would finally be dropping to Earth soon but that astronomers weren't exactly sure where on the planet it would land. Most of the object would burn up in the atmosphere on reentry, but some of the heavier, spherical objects might survive and make it to the surface. An amateur French astronomer near Paris has improbably captured video of UARS as it tumbles end over end in our atmosphere.


The risk of human injury is very slim, with NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed. That figure is much high than NASA's target rate of 1 in 10,000 but Mark Matney, a spokesman from the Orbital Debris Program Office, says that there is nothing to worry about.

"Populated areas are a small fraction of the Earth's surface," Matney said. "Much of the Earth's surface has either no people or very few people. We believe that the risk is very modest."

UARS is still much smaller than the Skylab space station which made its uncontrolled reentry in 1979 weighing in at 169,950 lbs. or 84.5 tons or a metric crapload. A few pieces of debris from Skylab were found scattered in Australian city of Perth, but no casualties were reported even though NASA had calculated the odds of such an accident at 152 to 1.

Even if parts of the UARS will most likely be obliterated, it's pretty creepy watching it fall on top of you.

Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15009337]

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thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
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Greg Tito said:
The risk of human injury is very slim, with NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed.
Therefore, if my understanding of statistics is correct, that means one in every 3,200 people will be harmed. Which is over 2 million people worldwide! Truly NASA have no respect for human life, and only care about their vast profits.
 

Yopaz

Sarcastic overlord
Jun 3, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
UARS is still much smaller than the Skylab space station which made its uncontrolled reentry in 1979 weighing in at 169,950 lbs. or 84.5 tons or a metric fuckload. A few pieces of debris from Skylab were found scattered in Australian state of Perth, but now casualties were reported even though NASA had calculated the odds of such an accident at 152 to 1.
Now causalities were reported? About time!

That looked kinda freaky, but I kinda wish I could have seen it with my own eyes. Although that sounds kinda scary...
 

No_Remainders

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Sep 11, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
That figure is much high that NASA's target rate of 1 in 10,000
You grammar be more gooder than all people I ever have saw.

(Seriously, I'm not trying to be harsh, but shouldn't SOMEONE be proof-reading these articles?)

OT: So... Someone captured a blurry video of a hunk of scrap metal? I guess that's cool.
 

Yopaz

Sarcastic overlord
Jun 3, 2009
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thenumberthirteen said:
Greg Tito said:
The risk of human injury is very slim, with NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed.
Therefore, if my understanding of statistics is correct, that means one in every 3,200 people will be harmed. Which is over 2 million people worldwide! Truly NASA have no respect for human life, and only care about their vast profits.
1 in 3200 chance means the probability is 1/3200.
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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No_Remainders said:
Greg Tito said:
That figure is much high that NASA's target rate of 1 in 10,000
You grammar be more gooder than all people I ever have saw.

(Seriously, I'm not trying to be harsh, but shouldn't SOMEONE be proof-reading these articles?)

OT: So... Someone captured a blurry video of a hunk of scrap metal? I guess that's cool.
My bad, thanks for the catches guys. Must be the painkillers ...

Greg
 

No_Remainders

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Sep 11, 2009
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Yopaz said:
thenumberthirteen said:
Greg Tito said:
The risk of human injury is very slim, with NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed.
Therefore, if my understanding of statistics is correct, that means one in every 3,200 people will be harmed. Which is over 2 million people worldwide! Truly NASA have no respect for human life, and only care about their vast profits.
1 in 3200 chance means the probability is 1/3200.
Oh wow.

I saw the guy's post, and honestly didn't think anyone would take it seriously....

Just... Wow.
 

brunothepig

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May 18, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
A few pieces of debris from Skylab were found scattered in Australian state of Perth
I live in Perth, it's a city not a state. I assume there's also supposed to be a "the" in there.
Anyway, enough nitpicking. Time to watch shit fall from space.
 

ShindoL Shill

Truely we are the Our Avatars XI
Jul 11, 2011
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Greg Tito said:
NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed.
well thats good.
until you realise most statistics are very likely in comparison to the chances of sentient life evolving.
like humans.

someone call superman. put it on the moon.
 

McMullen

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Mar 9, 2010
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TrilbyWill said:
Greg Tito said:
NASA calculating a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone will be harmed.
well thats good.
until you realise most statistics are very likely in comparison to the chances of sentient life evolving.
like humans.

someone call superman. put it on the moon.
lol, this kind of reasoning is why the lottery works.
 

varulfic

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Jul 12, 2008
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So that clip, was that the satellite or just a slow motion version of the Lost intro?
 

Beautiful End

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Feb 15, 2011
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Say what you want, NASA. All I know is that there's a satellite heading our way and it's gonna land. Somewhere. Sometime. You can't tel where it will land and neither can I. It could be in the middle of the sea or it could be on my head.

See, this is why we need laser beams! We've been wasting years and years working on dumb satellites. Now one has turned against us. Oh, the irony!
 

samsonguy920

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Mar 24, 2009
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If you can see it, then you don't have to worry. It's the people over the horizon that have to worry.
Abandon4093 said:
Australia sues NASA.

Reasons. Dem bitches tryna kill us!

Seriously guys, take it as a formal declaration of war.

They rain satellite chunks on you, you send 'thank you' baskets full of dangerous spiders and nasty, nasty snakes!

Fight them with what you know!
We already have a bunch of nasty spiders and dangerous snakes. All Oz would have to do is export their kangaroos and koalas to us. Then we will be screwed.
 

Grey_Area

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Jun 26, 2008
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Loop Stricken said:
of course, the odds of it hitting a specific individual are apparently 1 in 21 trillion.
Something like that. Take the odds that it will hit a person, any person. Then, if you want to calculate the odds of it hitting, say, yourself, then you multiply that 3200 by all the people on the planet. 3200 times 7 billion. Well, I think I'm pretty sa-...