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Published online 15 February 2008 |
Nature
451,
870-
(2008)
| doi:10.1038/451870a
Updated online: 19 February 2008
News
Experts suspicious of 'splatellite' plan
The US government's decision to shoot down its errant spy satellite has met with concern.
A plan by the US government to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite has been described as a cynical tit-for-tat move in response to China doing the same last year. Scientists and arms-control experts fear that the operation will create damaging debris and weaken international efforts to ban space weaponry.
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Sigh -- get out the rolladex of the usual whiners and add them to the 'news' analysis -- why is this such a predictable journalistic gimmick these days? And why didn't the 'journalist' who authored the piece mention the key factor that has enhanced the hazard of this object above the accepted norm for danger to human life? It's discussed here: Heading off a toxic iceberg from space Concern about hydrazine fuel leads to Pentagon’s satellite intercept plan http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23166344/ By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC updated 5:56 p.m. CT, Thurs., Feb. 14, 2008 The half ton of hydrazine is FROZEN. There's never been a tank this big and this full known to fall back into the atmosphere, before now.
Hi Jim, Thanks very much for your comment. As a point of clarification, I think you've given the wrong link to your MSNBC piece. The story you're referring to is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23172469/ Now in response, some sources I spoke to agreed that the frozen hydrazine tank was likely to re-enter earth's atmosphere partially or even mostly in tact. However, they also believed the chances of it actually landing near a populated area are extremely small. Given the low probabilities and the political and technical complications mentioned above, they remain sceptical of the Pentagon's plan.
The increasing increase of space-debris created in the chain-reaction that has been and will be accellerated by the Chinese and the American "shootings" of their own satellites may complicate efforts to maintain orbital devices. This may not be such a bad result. Another Journal Nature article (http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080218/full/news.2008.608.html,) contemporaneous with the current one, tells of the advance of concentrated laser power within labratory conditions. The weaponization of space? What about mirrors in space, finely-graded and finely-tuned on two axes, to aim a ground-based laser weapon back to Earth at precision? If somebody fills the upper atmosphere with destructive shards, the weaponization of space may be more difficult.
All of this reminds me of a story, and I forget where I saw this, but set in our near future. Mankind, via one mechanism or another, has so filled low earth orbit with debris that no one can now leave the planet. Needless-to-say the moral of the story was fairly obvious... How can we ensure space exploration will continue if we cannot leave earth orbit for fear of colliding with our own debris? This scenario gets closer every day.