Fishing debris in space - ISS de-orbit

[Mike O'Dell]

the question is not whether it will de-orbit - it will do that
by itself just fine. that's why they have to boost the orbit
every so often - the aerodynamic drag is non-trivial even at
the station's orbital altitude given its immense cross-section.

the question is *control* over when and where it de-orbits.
if orbital degradation takes it down, it will be very hard
to predict where the chunky bits will land - probably in lots
of places as it breaks up. that would be materially more annoying
than Mir's rain'o'crap.

I believe it was the Iridium constellation that first seriously
addressed what was called "constellation house-keeping".
from the beginning, the designers of the Iridium space segment
knew they would have to control "vehicle lifetime" to keep the
constellation from getting congested with junk.

As a result, the "vehicle lifetime manager" was considered the
most critical subsystem of the Iridium birds. It was as simple
as they could make it, and it was built with the frighteningly-expensive
rad-hardened parts, and canned in shielding. if that module ever
lost "breath of life" signals for "too long" (or a ground command),
it would initiate dedicated ordinance and send the
spacecraft plunging to fiery certain death.

that part appears to have worked flawlessly

     -mo



On 2/6/11 11:24 AM, Richard O'Neill wrote:
>   Here's the latest from NASA. 
> http://www.space.com/9643-tation-disposal-plan-revealed.html
>
> On 2/6/2011 11:05 AM, rabruner at aol.com wrote:
>> That article is dated '07.  Is this still an active plan?
>> Bob
>> W9TAJ
>>
>> Attached Message
>> From: 	Richard O'Neill <richardoneill at earthlink.net>
>> To: 	tacos at amrad.org
>> Subject: 	Re: Fishing debris in space
>> Date: 	Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:42:01 -0500
>>
>> Would you like to see the space station de-orbit? Plans are in work. =-O
>> http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/07/03/215291/nasa-may-buy-esas-atv-to-de-orbit-iss-at-end-of-life.html 
>>
>>  Good luck folks.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
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