back to article What's Chinese and crashing in flames? No, not its economy – its crocked space station

The first space station lofted into orbit by China is coming down next year, the country's space agency has confirmed. The Tiangong-1 mini-station was launched on 29 September 2011, and has been visited by three manned missions. Its size is nothing on the scale of the International Space Station – Tiangong-1 is just 12 meters …

  1. Magani
    Meh

    Falling?

    and would be returning to Earth late next year. ... most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling,

    In other words, most of it won't return to Earth.

    Wu Ping, deputy director...

    Sounds like a happy chappie.

    1. Andre Carneiro

      Re: Falling?

      Not so happy if he were to get a cough...

      I'll get my coat.

    2. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Falling?

      I would say that all of it WILL return to Earth, just not in one piece. It may take several years for the particulates to settle out of the air, but they certainly aren't going anywhere other than Earth-bound.

  2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Sounds like the remake of "Skylab - The Splashdown" (USA 1979, starring Jimmy Carter, Malcolm Fraser and Dr Robert A Frosch)

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      If memory serves me right, Salut-7 did not go down in a controlled fashion either.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prepare for the

    Meteorblitzkrieg.

    One wonders if there's time to send one of Cannae's prototype thrusters to dock with Tiangong-1 and at least stabilize the orbit so it isn't uncontrolled. Sure it won't be able to prevent the inevitable but its one step closer to a fully autonomous space tug.

    Caveat: my modified drive is 10* more efficient (2-30uN/W) but based on current funding levels it will be working about a month after the space elevator is completed unfortunately.

    If anyone wants to help out message me.

    1. Spudley

      Re: Prepare for the

      It's extremely unlikely, but I do wonder what would happen if a piece of spacecraft debris were to actually cause some real damage when it came back down to earth.

      Imagine if a piece of this space station were to hit your home. Would your insurance cover it? Would your insurers try to sue the owners of the space station? It sounds like the sort of thing that could get very messy very quickly. So it's a good thing it's so unlikely.

      1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        If it were to hit my home

        since I live in Australia I expect my local council would just issue a littering fine.

        1. phuzz Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: If it were to hit my home

          (To explain Francis Boyle's joke above; When bits of Skylab hit Australia, a local council sent NASA a A$400 fine for littering, which was eventually paid by a radio station. Don't upvote me, upvote Francis)

      2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Prepare for the

        "It's extremely unlikely, but I do wonder what would happen if a piece of spacecraft debris were to actually cause some real damage when it came back down to earth."

        Premise (well, one of them) of Dead Like Me*. (Does anyone else sometimes feel they are working for Happy Time?)

        * Season 1 - brilliant, season 2 - so-so, has some very good bits, though, movie - don't bother.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Prepare for the

        Since you mention it: Yes, my insurance does cover man-made space debris. It does not, however, cover airplanes nor non-man-made space debris.

        I fully anticipate the lawyers and adjusters claiming that, as it has now broken up due to natural forces, the station no longer qualifies as man-made.

  4. cd / && rm -rf *
    Mushroom

    They sent a missile up to blow a satellite to smithereens, so why not do the same for this?

    1. Yesnomaybe

      I was about to say..

      ...at least they didn't blow this one up. Perhaps they are learning to be better neighbours?

  5. You aint sin me, roit
    Coat

    I blame Sandra Bullock

    Gravity, innit.

  6. Dom 3

    Dimensions?

    I really think all space station dimensions should be translated into Standard Shed Equivalents. The Bigelow BEAM would provide the prototype: one BEAM (internal volume) = one SSE.

    Because the BEAM is clearly a shed.

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Headmaster

      Re: Dimensions?

      Just don't try and nail your tool-racking or screw any shelves to the wall...

      But at least you shouldn't find a long-disused hedge trimmer or lawnmower in there.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dimensions?

        "But at least you shouldn't find a long-disused hedge trimmer or lawnmower in there."

        Because they'll be well-used in space?

    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Dimensions?

      And if Bigelow sends another BEAM to the ISS they will have two sheds...

      1. Crazy Operations Guy
        Joke

        Re: Dimensions?

        I'd call that a shed-load of space...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not that comfortable with this.

    When I read "MOST of it will burn op on re-entry", my mind immediately translates that as "NOT ALL OF IT will burn up on re-entry" (years of reading IT press releases and government announcements does that to you) which leads me to the question "OK, what about the pieces that do NOT burn up"?

    According to the Guardian, there could be residual pieces weighing up to 100kg. I'm no scientist, but a 100kg glowing chunk of metal at well above terminal velocity is not going to do "splat" when it lands, that packs enough kinetic to make quite a crater and side effects. If that hits a person I doubt there will be enough found in the resulting crater to know for sure who it actually hit so I certainly hope there residual bits land in sea.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: I'm not that comfortable with this.

      I believe the Guardian article quotes someone saying that if a 100kg engine part hit you on the head, it might hurt!

      Whereas I'd argue it's unlikely to hurt at all - because you won't be alive long enough to notice. It was certainly an interesting piece of undersatement.

      1. Crazy Operations Guy

        Re: I'm not that comfortable with this.

        Well, I:d imagine that the cushion of super-heated and super-dense air pushed along in front of the 100kg piece would kill you before the engine could even touch you...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm not that comfortable with this.

      I believe the pieces will be at terminal velocity by the time they hit the Earth. They're starting at (Earth) orbital velocity, they're not meteorites. Someone more knowledgeable than me will me along shortly to confirm...

  8. EL Vark

    Trial and Error

    As much as I'd like to blame the Chinese space boffins, they're still relatively new to all of this, so the occasional whoopsie is to be expected; were it an American or Russian mission, there'd be a lot more deserved finger pointing. With luck, any large, heavy chunks will go splash rather than vaporize someone's national monument or a charming wee school filled with winsome kiddies. I'm slightly more concerned that their deputy director, Wu Ping (née Crane), transliterates as potentially hilarious, as space comedy rarely ends well (notwithstanding GoTG or Dark Star). I'd be yet more concerned were she related to violinist Yee Ping (née Yizards!), which would just up the ante. Yes, I'm blind drunk at the moment.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Trial and Error

      "It's a pod! It's a smegging garbage pod!"

  9. Tikimon

    Still pretty low odds of a chunk landing on anyone

    Take a look at satellite photos of our humble home. The densely-populated zones are quite small given the surface area of the planet. Outside of cities, there's a fair bit of space (as a percentage) between dwellings and other buildings.

    With that said, improbable does not equal impossible so it's only a matter of time.Wanna start a pool on where the first human killed by space junk impact will be?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Still pretty low odds of a chunk landing on anyone

      £2.34 and a packet of crisps say Bournemouth. Any takers?

  10. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Boffin

    Obvious question.

    It's a space station

    Couldn't the send a 'naut or two up to fix it?

    1. EL Vark

      Re: Obvious question.

      Fair enough idea but the two basic problems are that it's not so much a "Station" anymore as an out of control spinning bus, and the Chinese have no current "Shuttle" program to try to catch the bus. As someone else sort of implied, they could play Space Invaders with it, but that wouldn't do the rest of the orbital things that aren't currently junk from becoming such (and you do NOT want any more debris up there, the cloud is thick enough as it is, thanks very much). So, no.

  11. batfastad

    test docking procedures

    Snigger.

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