And Not A Woman Driver In Sight

Satellites crash in space. Did you read about it last week? Just happened to be a Russian satellite crashing into an American one. I bet the insurance claim will be interesting.

Please explain details of accident

I was travelling at approximately 15,000 miles per hour when this satellite who must have been doing at least 17,500 mph just came straight at me from the side. I never saw it until it came right into my side. He never looked. The damage is appalling – I reckon it’s a write-off. I reckon he might have been on his laptop at the time because I saw some diodes flashing just before he hit me.

What was the weather like at the time?

The sun was just rising behind the earth but there was a solar flare at around this time so maybe it blinded the other guy. It was quite bright – it must’ve been at least 200 trillion candle power.

Name and Details of Drivers Involved in Accident

My satellite was being ‘driven’ by NASA. I didn’t get details of the other guy because he shot off before exchanging any information, but he had some funny symbols on the side – maybe Russian? CCCP – does that mean anything?

Any Other Factors Worth Mentioning?

Well I was supposed to be the only satellite in this orbit. What the other guy was doing there I don’t know.

Estimated Cost of Damage

$150 million for mine. Don’t know about the other guy.

 

The picture accompanying this blog posting is a NASA representation of the estimated 10,000 items floating around in space. I’d always wondered how long it would be before some of these bit and pieces, which comprise rocket boosters, discarded space material (whatever that might be), scrap metal discarded during space repairs and of course the lady astronaut’s handbag (see blog posting of 1^st December), would start crashing into one another. The ‘experts’ said it would never happen because space is so vast but they seemingly forgot that whilst space, is indeed vast, all of these things are floating around in orbits which are quite close together. What’s a couple of million miles between friends?

The danger is, of course, that if any of the debris from these two satellites which were both utterly destroyed, with a combined speed of impact of about 30,000 miles per hour, hits any of our brave astronauts,  it’s goodnight midnight. Apparently, a fleck of paint whizzing around at 17,000 miles per hour is enough to go right through a space suit and the body within it, but again, that’s not quite right, because when astronauts are in space they are actually travelling at 17,000 mph so unless the fleck of paint is coming the other way, they should be ok! However, rather them than me.

Anyway – I’m only having a bit of fun. NASA must be a great place to work. The only thing is I always got bored on long-term projects and of course, some of these guys spend a complete lifetime’s work on a single ‘mission’. Remember the poor guys in the UK who got NASA to send their little buggy off to Mars. You work for 15 years getting the thing all ready. You get good old NASA to send it up into space and then you wait for 3 years whilst it flies there, only to find that the thing crashes when it’s landing upon the Martian surface, never to send as much as a distorted beep back to earth!

Here’s a great NASA site for those interested in some pictures you might never see otherwise.

 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/