Space ball falls out of the sky

Unread post by **David** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 6:02 pm

I thought this was interesting. Apparently the same balls have fallen in Australia...

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-t ... PY.twitter

Unread post by **NoPolys** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:00 pm

AustralopithecineOz:

Recently a Russian Federation space probe failed to respond to telemetry right after liftoff. I haven't seen any articles that confirm this is the probe that failed, but I think it's a pretty good bet based on what I've read about the orbit decay online.

Spheres are commonly used as fuel tanks and expansion tanks on most vehicles for all the right reasons and from the picture I saw online, this looks like a fuel tank that would carry something like Hydrazine (oxidiser) for the attitude adjustment nozzles. In the above probe there was also some nuclear material, glad it missed our patch and hit theirs. Just a couple random thoughts.....

My concern is (if any of us find one would be) handling it. Even if the contents are burned out from re-entry heat, the residue of some of the more exotic fuels is still very nasty stuff.

As an aside, it took about a decade for the major space users to admit their tanks would survive re-entry. This accounts for a lot of the rumour, disinformation and mystery still out there about these things.

It does make for a great story too!

Cheers

NoPolys

Unread post by **David** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:33 pm

Thanks Nopolys I thought is was strange it being a man-made alloy. So its just space junk? Its not a comforting thought knowing 1 m alloy balls can drop to earth not to mention the hazards from spent fuels and worse. Makes you wonder why News.com.au beat it up. Alien gods must be crazy... What a headline

Unread post by **andrew** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:56 pm

AustralopithecineOz wrote:Thanks Nopolys I thought is was strange it being a man-made alloy. So its just space junk? Its not a comforting thought knowing 1 m alloy balls can drop to earth not to mention the hazards from spent fuels and worse. Makes you wonder why News.com.au beat it up. Alien gods must be crazy... What a headline

Would have landed with less speed than a coke bottle.

Unread post by **NoPolys** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 8:28 am

good one Andrew

Cheers
NoPolys

Unread post by **David** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 8:38 am

andrew wrote:
Would have landed with less speed that a coke bottle.

lol

Imagine trying to return it

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