Blast Off!
- Thread starter J-Villa
- Start date
dandydaniel
Member
- :
- 2008.5 Mazdaspeed 3
what were they launching? some nasa stuff?
MikeHTally
Member
- :
- 2008.5 Speed3, 2006 Chrysler 300C, 2003 Ram 1500
Ratz, forgot to look. Aaarrrrggggghhhhhh!
blkonblkMSP
Member
- :
- Mazdaspeed Protege
sending a shuttle while there are 1000+ satellite debris covering the earths atmosphere is not very smart at all.
it lights up the sky pretty good, and depending how close and where you are you can feel it
fishdonotbounce
Registered Zombie
- :
- 08.5 CWP Speed3
It is when you have every single piece of debris' orbit calculated and mapped out perfectly.
NASA and for that matter anyone that sends anything into space knows what they're doing. I've yet to see a space shuttle launch since I live so far north but I'll have to make it one before they stop sending them up.
A beautiful sight to see. I would give ANYTHING to be able to sit alongside them in that cockpit.
BillTheCat
Member
- :
- 2009 Mazdaspeed3 Sport
Living in Tampa, I get to watch the vapor trails from home, but that's about it. Wait- we also get the sonic boom most of the time. People who move here from out of state get freaked out by that. Sometimes, it's just a light "thud," and other times you'd swear a truck hit your house- and Tampa is on the OTHER coast from the launch site.
One of these days, I am going to fight my way thru the traffic & find a spot near the Cape to watch the launch from "close up."
One of these days, I am going to fight my way thru the traffic & find a spot near the Cape to watch the launch from "close up."
fishdonotbounce
Registered Zombie
- :
- 08.5 CWP Speed3
I can't even imagine what it's like entering the earth's atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound. Man I wish I was them lol.
Its way more then 1000. Strategic Command / NORAD currently tracks 13,000 opbjects the size of a soft ball or larger, including opperational satelites as well as debris. If I recall thats for LEO only and not GEO. The number of objects larger then 1cm across in space is over 600,000.
When NASA puts the shuttle up, NORAD creates an imaginary box, something along the lines of 300km x 150km x 200km. At the center of this box is the shuttle, if known piece of debris is on an orbit that will pass through that box, they move the shuttle. The same is done for the the ISS. To give you an idea of how dangerous space debris is, a paint chip, estimated to be 2mm across, hit and chipped/cracked the window of the shuttle while on one of its missions.
The risks to the shuttle, while tragic are if they come true, don't effect us so much. The real threat is what they call the Kessler Syndrome. The short end of it is, LEO become crowded enough that there is a large collision between two objects in space, say a satelite and debris from a burnt out rocket. The collision causes a cloud of debris, which now colide with other satelites and objects. This happens over and over. The problem is a sudden and expodential growth in the amount of debris traveling in LEO or even GEO, rendering space unaccessable. This would result in the destruction of many of our satelites as well as would prevent us from launching more. We all rely on satelites every day for more things then most of us know, without them we would be in quite a jam.
Lil lesson on space junk.
I was lucky enough to study under a professor who worked for many years with NASA, I did some research on this subject for him as he was interested in knowing what the solution was.One hell of a ride I would imagine. Hate to say it, the shuttle is so old its a joke. It has flown way more missions then it was ever intended too. NASA needs to move on to something better. I would love to go into space, but would be scared shitless to do it on the shuttle.
BTW , very cool picture of the launch. I have seen one from about 10 miles away. Not shuttle, just a satelite launch. Very very cool!
Last edited:
blkonblkMSP
Member
- :
- Mazdaspeed Protege
very interesting ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nliiitend1
Member
I saw the last one (in Nov.) by accident as I was on my way down A1A to see The Black Crowes at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre with some friends. I meant to check this one out from the beaches here but was feeling lazy on Sunday evening so we stayed home...My fiancee and I are thinking about taking the trip down to the Cape for the next one. 
Its way more then 1000. Strategic Command / NORAD currently tracks 13,000 opbjects the size of a soft ball or larger, including opperational satelites as well as debris. If I recall thats for LEO only and not GEO. The number of objects larger then 1cm across in space is over 600,000.
When NASA puts the shuttle up, NORAD creates an imaginary box, something along the lines of 300km x 150km x 200km. At the center of this box is the shuttle, if known piece of debris is on an orbit that will pass through that box, they move the shuttle. The same is done for the the ISS. To give you an idea of how dangerous space debris is, a paint chip, estimated to be 2mm across, hit and chipped/cracked the window of the shuttle while on one of its missions.
The risks to the shuttle, while tragic are if they come true, don't effect us so much. The real threat is what they call the Kessler Syndrome. The short end of it is, LEO become crowded enough that there is a large collision between two objects in space, say a satelite and debris from a burnt out rocket. The collision causes a cloud of debris, which now colide with other satelites and objects. This happens over and over. The problem is a sudden and expodential growth in the amount of debris traveling in LEO or even GEO, rendering space unaccessable. This would result in the destruction of many of our satelites as well as would prevent us from launching more. We all rely on satelites every day for more things then most of us know, without them we would be in quite a jam.
Lil lesson on space junk.
One hell of a ride I would imagine. Hate to say it, the shuttle is so old its a joke. It has flown way more missions then it was ever intended too. NASA needs to move on to something better. I would love to go into space, but would be scared shitless to do it on the shuttle.
BTW , very cool picture of the launch. I have seen one from about 10 miles away. Not shuttle, just a satelite launch. Very very cool!
Have you ever seen their impact test video's? As you probably know things that are orbiting the earth must be traveling a very high rate of speed to remain in orbit (especially if they are moving faster then the earths rotations) and this large amount of speed x the small amount of mass = large forces. They shot a ball bearing a little bigger then a BB at a peice of shuttle simulating a piece of space debris, and it looked like the peice of shuttle was shot with a shot gun.
And whats even funnier is ontop of all the junk already up in orbit, nasa contunies to put more up there. For instance, to calibrate certain instruments on the shuttle, they release different sized ball bearings (ranging from BB size to the size of a softball/baseball) into space and do calculations based on many properties they exibit (hard for me to explain.. i dont work for nasa)
It really reminds me of the scene in Wall-E where they find the little plant. when the giant space ship that carries the white flying robots is leaving earth and busts through a cloud of debris that was orbiting the earth.
such cool stuff man, Nasa does some real interesting things
- :
- '13 CWP MS3 & '16 Mazda6 GT
Seriously!
Why the s*** is this in the MS3 section?!
Why the s*** is this in the MS3 section?!
Oh lighten up
Yeah when NASA isn't caught up in red tape and BS they do manage some cool things.
Orbital velocity for LEO is roughly 17,000 mph if I recall. Don't hold me to that.
And that scene from Wall-E is pretty much what the Kessler Syndrome would look like.
While all space angensies, NASA, JAXA, ESA, RSA/RKA, etc continue to leave debris in space, there is a pretty big international push to stop/slow the increase in space junk.
One of the reasons the world is pissed at the US and China for shooting fown their satelites... that creats big coulds of debris.
They should start crashing them into the ocean like the russian did more often. Think of all the free taco's that would be possible... :dodgy:
