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Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

theguardian.com

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Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#31

Post by rsynnott »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #22
nickserv wrote: post #2

A British-built weather monitoring spacecraft has been deliberately guided into the Atlantic Ocean, the first time a defunct satellite has been maneuvered to perform an assisted crash on Earth. Aeolus, a satellite that has provided data to weather centers across Europe since 2018, was successfully helped to its final resting place by mission controllers at the European Space Agency.

I wonder how British-built Aeolus turned out to be, the initial prime contractor in 2003 was to a UK company, but by the time it was actually launched in 2018 it was Airbus that was the prime...

It was built by Airbus, in the UK, per the article.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#32

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

dtgriscom wrote: post #30

I can't imagine how it must feel for the engineers who put their talent into this wonderful machine to have to contribute to its demise. I remember watching a video from the Cash For Clunkers program back in 2009 [0], where they replaced an engine's oil with sodium silicate and then ran it until the engine was destroyed [1]. Rationale of the program aside, it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed. [0] htt…

Human emotions are weird. People get super attached to things for strange reasons.

> it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed.

like this

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#33

Post by patrickwalton »

dotnet00 wrote: post #29

I'm not really getting what makes this a world first? Controlled deorbits have been a thing for a while, and if we're talking about deorbits designed to minimize risk of debris impact, IIRC Starlink satellites were designed to maximize the amount of the satellite that is vaporized by reentry. Edit: Ah, the "world's first" is that they were able to choose where any parts that aren't vaporized would crash. The esa arti…

I think the other "first" was that the system wasn't designed for controlled re-entry. They just used re-purposed the orbit maintenance propulsion system.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#35

Post by mcpackieh »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #32
dtgriscom wrote: post #30

I can't imagine how it must feel for the engineers who put their talent into this wonderful machine to have to contribute to its demise. I remember watching a video from the Cash For Clunkers program back in 2009 [0], where they replaced an engine's oil with sodium silicate and then ran it until the engine was destroyed [1]. Rationale of the program aside, it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed. [0] htt…

Human emotions are weird. People get super attached to things for strange reasons. > it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed. like this

Finding normal human emotions to be weird seems even weirder. Are you not also a human? I guess we can't actually take this for granted these days.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#36

Post by mcpackieh »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #24
KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not likely. The re entry tech is a critical component of ICBMs. Satellites are relatively easy in comparison, they are just a orbiting computer with a sophisticated radio/signaling processing stack. Most countries can build satellites, but the countries that can put them into orbit are all significant powers. I doubt major powers would be willing to transfer smaller players the technology for controlling re-entry.

My understanding is most of ICBMs don't go to orbit anyways, mostly because it'd just delay the strike. Why would anything from a suborbital launch be needed to control re-entry?

FOBSs go to orbit.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#37

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

lijaf wrote: post #10

Do these satellites typically have such a seemingly short life?

The laser technology for space-based winds measurement is very difficult to make work in space. The requirements on materials, optics, and power dissipation are daunting. This was a technology demonstrator to show that it had a chance of working and it succeeded.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#38

Post by mcpackieh »

shtumf wrote: post #3

Did British and Germans and the rest of ESA members salvage it from the ocean or will it stay as trash in the ocean ? So much money so much power ... yet all we can to is burn it a little in the atmosphere and let the rest fall into the ocean. Ocean is full of life... lets not forget that. Anyway the solution could be a repairable satellite or removable by some device like space shuttle... ESA has the money, scientis…

Fish don't care about a ton or two of scrap metal. Whole ships sink all the time and fish love it.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#39

Post by pests »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #32
dtgriscom wrote: post #30

I can't imagine how it must feel for the engineers who put their talent into this wonderful machine to have to contribute to its demise. I remember watching a video from the Cash For Clunkers program back in 2009 [0], where they replaced an engine's oil with sodium silicate and then ran it until the engine was destroyed [1]. Rationale of the program aside, it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed. [0] htt…

Human emotions are weird. People get super attached to things for strange reasons. > it was so sad seeing a car being deliberately killed. like this

Beep boop.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#40

Post by coolhand2120 »

If the area above the earth is many orders of magnitude larger than the earth’s oceans, and the oceans are vast in the extreme, what really are the chances of a collision given the relatively small amount of debris in orbit? One can easily find a debris map online. Compared to say “ships in the ocean” the number of “satellites in orbit” must be tiny. And the ships exist on a 2D surface, so are that much more likely to collide. With 3D to move in and such a vast area, what is the actual risk? To be clear I’m not saying there is no risk and I know about cascading debris collapse. I just doubt the whole thing, I’d really like to know if anyone has done the math here.
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