posted 09-24-2011 05:49 PM               

NASA UARS satellite likely hit ocean, but location of debris still unknown

NASA's largest satellite to fall to Earth uncontrolled in more than 30 years is believed to have splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. But lacking any credible eyewitness reports, the space agency is not sure where exactly its 6-ton satellite re-entered, let alone where it dropped its debris, and may in fact, never know.

posted 09-25-2011 11:17 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by issman1:
Could this be an authentic video of the final moments of UARS (which would be the most convincing)?

---

posted 09-25-2011 06:52 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by issman1:
Could this be an authentic video of the final moments of UARS (which would be the most convincing)?

---

Here's an illustration of what was probably the final orbit of UARS based on then current (epoch 23 September, 2011) orbital elements. Used the Orbitron program to generate the graphic:

The position shows UARS off the U.S. Pacific coast on 24 Sep. 2011 at 04:16 UTC, the time of impact according to Aerospace & Defense News.

posted 09-26-2011 08:43 AM               

Sebastian Salazar will openly admit he's no Orson Welles, but for one night, he tried his best Welles impression.

Salazar was the source of the social media hoax that started Friday night of a NASA satellite crashing into a farmers field near Okotoks, all using his Twitter account @imnotgonnalie2u and profile picture of a winky face.

"I didn't say it was a spoof but I made it pretty obvious," he said.

It was strikingly similar to Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast that created hysteria in the United States. In fact, the aspiring filmmaker used direct quotes straight from the radio broadcast.

"If it worked for Orson Welles in 1938, I wanted to see if it worked on Twitter in 2011," he said. "I'm certainly no Orson Welles, I just took his stuff and remixed it for 2011."

It started off with "Reporter Carl Phillips" on the scene of "Wilmuth farm" with the debris, both lifted from Welles. Salazar painted a picture of the satellite crashing into earth; ending up "half buried in a vast pit. Must have struck with terrific force" he wrote.

He even posted a picture of the so called debris, made of spare parts he found in his house.

"There is no reason that people shouldn't have picked up on it as a hoax," he said.

posted 09-27-2011 12:36 PM               

Final Update: NASA's UARS Re-enters Earth's Atmosphere

NASA's decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Saturday, Sept. 24.

The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has determined the satellite entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 14.1 degrees south latitude and 189.8 degrees east longitude. This location is over a broad, remote ocean area in the Southern Hemisphere, far from any major land mass.

The debris field is located between 300 miles and 800 miles downrange, or generally northeast of the re-entry point. NASA is not aware of any possible debris sightings from this geographic area.

posted 09-27-2011 03:12 PM               

NASA pinpoints where UARS satellite fell; debris sank in remote Pacific

Three days after saying we might never know when and where a six-ton spacecraft hit Earth, NASA pinpointed on Tuesday the exact time and location where its Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) re-entered the atmosphere and dropped its debris.

posted 09-29-2011 01:11 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by music_space:
If its research efforts come to fruition, the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), a demonstration using Canadian-made Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, a satellite such as UARS could in the future be refueled instead of having to be decommissioned when out of maneuvering propellants.

---

With the Salyut 6 mission, mid-way through its life, the Soviets had to bolt on supplementary solar arrays since the original ones were wearing out. Granted later solar array designs got better, but things do still wear out.

In fact, one of the problems with the early generation GPS satellites (which are just as old as UARS if not older) that are still operating is US STRATCOM has had to deactivate their secondary nuclear explosion detection capability as they only have the energy generation capability to power either the GPS system or the detectors, but not both.