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Nov 3, 2008 09:55 AM | 4
Anyone spot a refrigerator-sized tank of ammonia recently? It could be the largest-ever piece of astronaut litter chucked by hand from the International Space Station.
Astronaut Clayton Anderson tossed the coolant tank during a July 23, 2007 spacewalk after upgrades to the space station made it obsolete. The Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) tank had served as a reservoir for the station in case its cooling system leaked.
The 1,400-pounds (635 kilograms) of debris was expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere yesterday or last night, Space.com reported. No word yet on whether it’s made impact.
"This has got a very low likelihood that anybody will be impacted by it," Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, told the Web site. "But still, it is a large object and pieces will enter and we just need to be cautious."
Up to 15 pieces of the tank as heavy as 40 pounds (17.5 kilograms) could land somewhere on Earth. The report doesn’t specify where they might make impact, but with two-thirds of the planet water, ocean landings are a possibility.
"If anybody found a piece of anything on the ground Monday morning, I would hope they wouldn't get too close to it," Suffredini said.
Image of International Space Station by NASA
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debris,
spacewalk,
International Space Station
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4 Comments
Add CommentI don't know. Isn't there some way to eject this stuff away from Earth so that it will eventually fall into the sun or get crushed in Venus' atmosphere? Sure the likelihood of it doing damage on Earth are slight, but why take the chance at all? Just some sort of spring device to jettison junk away and toward the sun.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@KJeroH: No way. To eject something to the sun would require that it would be lifted many times as high as the space station itself, with the associated exorbitant requirements in fuel....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat I am wondering about is why they are so worried about someone getting close to the debris. The ammonia is certainly not going to be "in the tank" any more.... What are they hiding ;-) ?
Indeed! I agree with Rob~ hey hey
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne would think that rocket scientists would at least be able to figure out how to put something on the thing to be able to better control it's time of entry and thus it's impact point. how about a remote control disposable thruster system. Rather than taking the chance that it lands a school yard somewhere.
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