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Forum:	Satellites - Robotic Probes
Topic:	Rocket Lab's 'The Humanity Star' satellite

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by oly: [B]My personal thought on this is that it a cool idea for a company's first flight and if anyone gets a chance to look up and see it over the next nine months I hope they wonder what it is and do some research to find out more. It is not the first time such an object has been deployed and it won't last long. The chance of someone witnessing it without seeking it out is low due to the fact they have to have the right conditions to see it. Rocket Lab don't give an exact time to see it on their website. It is not like they deployed a huge billboard with advertising (it will happen one day) but rather they have put another bright star in the sky for a few months (it is way smaller than the ISS). [/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER>T O P I C     R E V I E W</CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Robert Pearlman</TD><TD>collectSPACE <blockquote><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-012418a-rocket-lab-humanity-star-satellite.html">Rocket Lab reveals 'The Humanity Star,' a 'disco ball' satellite shining from space</a>A commercial space company seeking to shine among the satellite launch industry has secretly sent its own "star" into orbit.Rocket Lab on Wednesday (Jan. 24) revealed to the world that "The Humanity Star" is circling Earth and is expected to become the brightest object in the night sky. Covered in 65 highly-reflective panels, the satellite is rapidly spinning, reflecting the sun's light back onto the planet, much in the same way that a disco ball casts light onto a dance floor.</blockquote> <center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-012418a-rocket-lab-humanity-star-satellite.html" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-012418a-lg.jpg" width="400" height="265" border="0"></a></center></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>mikej</TD><TD>The website says that it will be overhead in my part of the world in only 948 hours, 5 minutes!However, if my calculations are correct, that will be in the daylight.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>denali414</TD><TD>That is one big disco ball! Cue the Donna Summers. Get to see it in 1067 hours.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>TRS</TD><TD>Mixed reaction in New Zealand to the "disco ball": <UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11982064" TARGET=_blank>Paul Charman: Humanity Star exciting, but also mortifying</A> News Rocket Lab has launched into orbit a kind of disco ball which could become one of the brightest objects in the night sky is mortifying.Taking nothing away from Rocket Lab's aim to unite us all by looking up to their "Humanity Star." What an appalling precedent!<LI><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11981960" TARGET=_blank>Astronomer Ian Griffin says Rocket Lab and Peter Beck have 'vandalised the night' with satellite</A>Astronomer Ian Griffin tweeted that New Zealand's first act as a space-faring nation has been to pollute the night sky for all mankind.He says people should enjoy the night sky while they still can, because it won't be the same for the next nine months.<LI><A HREF="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/100877732/Rocket-Lab-and-Government-approvers-defend-humanity-star-purpose" TARGET=_blank>Rocket Lab and Government approvers defend 'humanity star' purpose</A>Head of the New Zealand Space Agency, which is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Peter Crabtree, said the humanity star was not "space junk" because it was built to disintegrate within nine months.</UL></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Mike Dixon</TD><TD>Hope it's hit by debris.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>oly</TD><TD>My personal thought on this is that it a cool idea for a company's first flight and if anyone gets a chance to look up and see it over the next nine months I hope they wonder what it is and do some research to find out more. It is not the first time such an object has been deployed and it won't last long. The chance of someone witnessing it without seeking it out is low due to the fact they have to have the right conditions to see it. Rocket Lab don't give an exact time to see it on their website. It is not like they deployed a huge billboard with advertising (it will happen one day) but rather they have put another bright star in the sky for a few months (it is way smaller than the ISS). </TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>SpaceAholic</TD><TD> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by oly: Rocket Lab don't give an exact time to see it on their website.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You may find the pass predictions generated by <A HREF="http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=43168&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT" TARGET=_blank>Heavens Above</A> more useful... just make sure to update local position prior to searching dates.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>denali414</TD><TD>I actually enjoy getting the e-mails from NASA on when the ISS is going to be overhead our house. First time amazed my neighbor when I told him there would be a UFO at 7:02 p.m. tonight over his house and he and his kids looked up and were shocked to see the light going across the sky at 7:02. It actually got one of his kid's very interested in astronomy and science from that. So there is a benefit in my opinion for even this kind of goofy stuff turning people to astronomy and science.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Panther494</TD><TD>Not sure how I feel about this. We have the ISS providing a wonderful, inspirational view above us already. Occupied and built by many nations. Truly awesome. This ball just appears as junk I'm afraid.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>oly</TD><TD> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by SpaceAholic: ...predictions generated by Heavens Above<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I did not realize that Heavens Above had included the Humanity Star to their site. Thank you.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Robert Pearlman</TD><TD>Astrofarmer Imaging NZ video <BLOCKQUOTE>Not the best conditions for observing it, but this is it. It will not really be visible or bright until mid February. I just sat fixed cam and waited. Recorded this morning at 01:06 am NZT, Sat, 27 Jan 2018. Moonlight and cloud made it hard. Then I lost it in Earth's shadow. Observing on a clear dark night will be a blast with it's disco ball display. 180mm @f2.8 in aps-c mode (260mm equivalent) A7s.</BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/daYaTnsu45o?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen>

Robert Pearlman

The Humanity Star satellite is returning to Earth earlier than expected, reports The Atlantic.

The Humanity Star, a satellite launched into space in January, will reenter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate sometime this week, according to websites that track the movement of objects in orbit around the planet. The satellite was always going to come back down. But it was supposed to remain in orbit for nine months, according to Rocket Lab, the U.S. spaceflight company, based in New Zealand, that built the satellite.
SatView and Space-Track, databases that track all artificial satellites and space probes around Earth, forecast that the Humanity star will reenter the atmosphere sometime on Thursday, March 22. (See SatView's page here, and Space-Track's page here.) Rocket Lab's own tracker shows that the satellite's altitude is already steadily dropping.

Robert Pearlman

The Humanity Star is no more. From Jonathan McDowell on Twitter:

Space-Track has issued the decay notice - Humanity Star has reentered. No revision to the entry window, was sometime in the 1246-1344 UTC range, somewhere on the white-colored track in Marco's map.

denali414

Really good story on Rocket Lab and the Cubesat revolution:

I guess the humanity star was potentially quite a full circle moment given your origins as a kid looking up at the stars and deciding to get in to it?
Yeah that was bitter-sweet because not everybody liked that.
Yes that was a bit of a bizarre reaction.
Yeah but for every negative comment we saw on that, we got probably two positives. It makes a better story to have some tension there. But still I maintain I would do that again in a heartbeat. That was a great mission. And to see just the thousands that wrote in and actually that overview experience where they looked up and it was like ‘oh okay I am on this rock in the middle of the universe, maybe some of these things aren’t as big of a deal as I thought’. So that was a wonderful project.

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