Delta Rocket Crashes In Mongolia

Dr La writes "Two metal objects, one cylindrical and a smaller round one, crashed near Buren Soum in the Tuv province of Mongolia, in an empty field, on 19 February. They are parts of an American Delta II rocket stage (nr. 35939, 2009-052C) that launched the military STSS Demo 1 & 2 satellites in September 2009. Both articles linked above say that the larger of the two objects is 7.5 meters in diameter, but in this photo it looks more like 7.5 feet. It is marked with the serial number '02728.' (The military STSS program is intended for space-based detection and tracking of missiles.) In the months leading up to the February 19 orbital decay over Mongolia, the fall of the rocket stage was followed by amateur satellite trackers. Based on their final orbit determinations just hours before the decay, the decay must have occurred near 3:32 UTC on February 19."

Comments

space debris

[wizardforce]

This is one of the few cases where a space tether isn't the best option for disposal of space debris as this object was much too large to burn up in the atmosphere. With electrodynamic tethers, you can de-orbit debris although I would imagine that it would be fairly difficult to control where it deorbits. This kind of debris is probably best dealt with by using a space tether to raise the orbit before the satellite becomes non-functional. Although in the case of rocket stages like the ones that apparently landed in a field, a few explosive charges to break the object into more manageable pieces before it re-enters dangerously might be in order.

Re:space debris

[wizardforce]

Deploying a tether isn't going to be easy because cables in microgravity tend to twist back into the shape they had on the spool.

Actually a shape memory alloy wire would unfurl to a straight position when heated slightly due to a crystal phase transition in the alloy that relieves strain.

If guidance on a dead vehicle is an issue you could build a simple drag brake using a big Mylar balloon

I believe that that would work for relatively minor couse corrections but not so much ditching the debris into the ocean instead of the middle of a continent.

Oh No!

[oldhack]

This just might bring forth the Ghingis Khan II.

Ain't that how the Ghingis Khan Classic came about?

Re:Next US war

[Dunbal]

On February 21st the United States refused to acknowledge the surrender of Mongolia, claiming that for too long yaks have been infringing on copyrights and patents owned by American cows on mooing and milk production respectively. It announced that yaks are the hallmark of rogue, terrorist nations such as Mongolia, demanded that Mongolia switch its bovines immediately to American cows which could be purchased at reasonable rates from America or it's European partners, and further demanded that Mongolia license the rights to pay the additional fee for milk production and mooing (at discounted herd rates). Additionally the Department of Homeland Security has placed all yaks on the no-fly list.

The ball is in Mongolia's court.