Re: Don't ya hate when...

P. Roehling wrote:
"Alan Moore" <alan.s.moore@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

Some of which have at least a fair chance of
surviving re-entry, which is the problem.

Not very likely, actually.

Oh dear.

LOTS of large -and small- chunks of the shuttle survived reentry
quite well, thank you.

This includes things as small and delicate as an astronaut's
shoulder-patch from the shuttle mission in question, middle-sized
things such as portions of the astronauts themselves, and things as
large as one of the main landing-gear assemblies -that just missed
a
boat-load of fishermen as it impacted in a lake.

In short, there was *plenty* of stuff scattered around that could
have
proven useful had the shuttle contained a bunch of classified
military
material.

Now the odds of some hyper-secret portion of a state-of-the-art DoD
spy satellite falling into enemy hands may be very low when you take
reentry damage and the odds of it landing in the wrong spot
together,
but we don't pay the DoD to take any chances at all when they don't
have to.

Uh, taking chances is what the military does for a living. You never
know with complete certainty that you're going to win a battle until
it's over.

In the case of this particular satellite spokesmen for the DoD have
stated that there is no concern over classified material surviving
reentry.

One problem with any kind of self-destruct system is that it may
decide to self-destruct at an inopportune moment--which is more
likely, that some crucial bit of technology is going to fall in the
hands of an enemy of the US with Dire Consequences due to a satellite
deorbiting, or the thing spontaneously blowing itself to kingdom come
due to unplanned activation of its self-destruct mechanism with the
result that crucial information is not available when it is badly
needed?

The classified bits are at least as vulnerable as any other bits.

When a high-tech satellite reenters the atmosphere there is no way
of
knowing what might survive the chaotic reentry process in decent
condition. See, for example, the poignant discovery of that little
cloth shoulder-patch that was discovered lying an a Texas meadow and
showing no visible signs of damage.

That was from a space shuttle, which is _designed_ for reentry and has
an elaborate heat shield that even after it started coming apart would
still have been protecting parts of it for a time. Further, it had
shed 6000 mph or so of velocity while still protected by the heat
shield when it came apart. Don't use it as a guide for what happens
to satellites not designed for reentry.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dont ya hate when...
    ... surviving re-entry, which is the problem. ... LOTS of large -and small- chunks of the shuttle survived reentry quite well, ... See, for example, the poignant discovery of that little cloth shoulder-patch ...
    (rec.motorcycles)
  • Re: Brute force re-entry
    ... >stretch to try and use some of that energy to alter the spacecraft ... The Shuttle's angle of attack in the initial reentry thru max heating and I ... What the Shuttle needs, besides a new airline, is some small, incremental ... The payload separates and the OTV transfers the payload to its operational ...
    (sci.space.tech)
  • Re: SpaceShipOne and reentry heat
    ... > reentry heating shielding requirements are minimal like SS1. ... the shuttle manouvers using a completely ... Depending on whether the capsule had its own thruster system, ... or leaving the shuttle on orbit and just returning in the ...
    (sci.space.tech)
  • Re: Cost of slowing down?
    ... > Shuttle was a "failure" not because of this or that design choice, ... The concept of a flying reentry is a good one IMHO. ... more comfortable than a capsule reentry. ... A scaled down version of the shuttle, say of the size and weight of a CEV, ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Cost of slowing down?
    ... >>> all sorts of fronts. ... > The concept of a flying reentry is a good one IMHO. ... > smooth and low stress a shuttle reentry *normally* is. ... > more comfortable than a capsule reentry. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)