NASA nano-satellite belatedly ejects from orbiting mothership NASA has announced that a small "nano-satellite" which was supposed to be released from a larger spacecraft in orbit on 6 December has finally separated from its mothership. The space agency is appealing for help from ham radio enthusiasts in picking up signals from the little NanoSail-D. NASA concept of the NanoSail-D with …
That would mean a horrible, fiery death for the poor guy. Where the PARIS craft was released at near-zero velocity relative to the surrounding lack of air, satellites have considerable speed on re-entry already. And the sail would be insufficiently strong and large enough to act as a parachute, seeing as the whole point is to get the satellite to de-orbit and burn up instead of gently floating down into a Spanish tree.
I do wonder if a paper airplane released from, say, the ISS would stand a chance on re-entry, or rather, what size, shape and weight would keep the dissipation over time of its kinetic energy (once it starts to encounter perceptible drag from the atmosphere) low enough to not combust or disintegrate.
I saw a strange light in the sky at around 6.10 pm on Tuesday.
Looked like a green meteor heading down at a 45 degree angle right to left, parallel to the long road leading from St Peter Port to St Sampsons.
any ideas?
AC, because it might have been a classified satellite deorbiting or something...
Considering that, with the help of Dr. Alan Jefferson, I became one of the "Honourable Mentions" for the Tour Eiffel de la Space Competition, in 1986, celebrating the Centenary of the design and construction of the Eiffel Tower, with our entry for The Space Chronometer; an hour minute and second hand in space to give Greenwich Mean Time to all humanity; one might be forgiven for asking why has it taken so long to try out such structures? And such a feeble one at that....
Our own was for three separate hands, hour, minute and second; 9Km, 6Km and 3Km in length, a control module at the centre of each hand and the same length cable, 9Km, 6Km, and 3Km to the other end to balance the rotation with each hand having a satellite at each end to drive their rotation. The rotation holding the hands out straight with the design being limited by the once every 60 seconds rotation of the 3Km long second hand on one side and the 3Km long cable balancing on the other, rotating around the central control module. Each hand a quite separate entity, each one behind the other to form a single clock face.
The whole providing an 18Km diameter "Clock in Space".
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1575232
Enjoy.
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