Monday, October 10, 2011

Giant out-of-control telescope heads to Earth
AGENCIES, The West Australian
October 11, 2011, 7:38 am
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The odds of a person being struck by space debris are 1-in-14 trillion - nevertheless, people are being warned of a possible satellite collision on Earth.

In a re-run of the dramatic Skylab crash-landing of more than 30 years ago, scientists have been monitoring the orbiting telescope, which is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and crash land at the end of this month.

The ROSAT satellite weighing 2426kg has been spinning out of control since scientists lost contact with it in 1999.

The X-ray telescope was built with British and American technology and has been orbiting Earth since 1990, providing data on stars and the first X-ray picture of the moon.

The German Space Agency has warned that 30 "individual pieces weighing a total of 1.6 tonnes may reach the surface of the Earth".

"ROSAT's heat-resistant mirror in particular may not burn up upon re-entry and falling debris may include razor-sharp shards," Britain's Daily Mail has reported.

European Space Agency Professor Heiner Klinkrad played down concerns of a person being struck by debris.

He said that in more than 50 years of space history no one had been harmed by pieces of falling satellites.

"It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT's re-entry," Professor Klinkrad said.

"The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches.

"It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact."

Space debris usually hits water, but NASA has urged anyone who finds a piece of the UARS satellite not to touch it.

Skylab's re-entry caused a frenzy of activity in 1979, when pieces fell around Esperance in WA, prompting a rush by people to collect souvenir pieces of the satellite.

The spacecraft crashed close to the Eyre Highway settlement of Balladonia, but it was breaking up as it crossed the land, and several large pieces of debris landed on farms.The ultimate bragging rights went to then 17-year-old Stan Thornton, who claimed $US10,000 from a San Francisco newspaper for finding the first piece of frazzled insulation panelling.
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