Let this be a lesson to all you rogue satellites

[beefncheddar]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a Navy missile hit the spy satellite it was targeting over the Pacific Ocean and says it should know Thursday whether the spacecraft’s fuel tank was destroyed as planned.

 

[DougDascenzo]

By rogue satellites, do you mean Iran, Russia and North Korea?

 

[beefncheddar]

By rogue satellites, do you mean Iran, Russia and North Korea?

No, I mean orbiting buckets of bolts that might wish to rain terror and toxic badness on our proud land. Let this be a lesson to all of them. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, *******!

 

[Italian_Stallion]

Ouch. I was watching the lunar eclipse, and something just hit me square in the noggin. For eternity, I'll now be known as the dude with NASA spelled backward in his forehead.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

 

[Bubbler]

I HOPE WE DIDN'T UNWITTINGLY UNLEASH THE EVIL ROBOTS!

ARRRRGH!

 

[kokane_muthashed]

I HOPE WE DIDN'T UNWITTINGLY UNLEASH THE EVIL ROBOTS!

ARRRRGH!

Nice sweater vest!

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I HOPE WE DIDN'T UNWITTINGLY UNLEASH THE EVIL ROBOTS!

ARRRRGH!

Is the robot wearing a skirt?

 

[Angola!]

I like Conan's attempts to bring down the rogue raccoon better.

 

[ADifferentOkie]

We have to bomb the rogue satellites up there so we don't have to fight them down here.

 

[markvid]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

The rest of it will burn up in reentry, the fuel tank needed to be taken care of.

 

[Del_B_Vista]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

The rest of it will burn up in reentry, the fuel tank needed to be taken care of.

As a guy with a B.S. in aerospace engineering, including a couple semesters of astrodynamics, I have a hard time believing:

1) They were actual able to target the fuel tank specifically. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.
2) There's any concern about what survived and what didn't. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.

 

[jboy]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

The rest of it will burn up in reentry, the fuel tank needed to be taken care of.

As a guy with a B.S. in aerospace engineering, including a couple semesters of astrodynamics, I have a hard time believing:

1) They were actual able to target the fuel tank specifically. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.
2) There's any concern about what survived and what didn't. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.

What the hell are you doing in sports, nerdlinger? Get a real job!

 

[Football_Bat]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

The rest of it will burn up in reentry, the fuel tank needed to be taken care of.

As a guy with a B.S. in aerospace engineering, including a couple semesters of astrodynamics, I have a hard time believing:

1) They were actual able to target the fuel tank specifically. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.
2) There's any concern about what survived and what didn't. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.

Not only that, there was talk of a fireball upon impact. How can anything burn in space when a) there is no oxygen, and b) it was a non-explosive warhead — essentially a bullet?

(reaching for the Reynolds Wrap)

 

[Batman]

So we'll just call you "ASAN" from now on?

And why weren't they blowing the whole damn thing up instead of just the fuel tank?

The rest of it will burn up in reentry, the fuel tank needed to be taken care of.

As a guy with a B.S. in aerospace engineering, including a couple semesters of astrodynamics, I have a hard time believing:

1) They were actual able to target the fuel tank specifically. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.
2) There's any concern about what survived and what didn't. Closing speed was something like 20,000 mph.

Not only that, there was talk of a fireball upon impact. How can anything burn in space when a) there is no oxygen, and b) it was a non-explosive warhead — essentially a bullet?

(reaching for the Reynolds Wrap)

I think the satellite was actually in the upper atmosphere, on the brink of re-entry. Not a lot of oxygen, but some.

 

[Del_B_Vista]

Not only that, there was talk of a fireball upon impact. How can anything burn in space when a) there is no oxygen, and b) it was a non-explosive warhead — essentially a bullet?

(reaching for the Reynolds Wrap)

There's no oxygen in space, but rocket fuel "burns" in space because it depends on a chemical reaction that releases energy. You can have monopropellant fuel, simply one substance that you start to "burn" by introducing some catalyst creating thrust, or two-component fuels where you jam two substances together. The space shuttle's main engines, for example, simply combine liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen together, creating a potent chemical reaction that also yields water vapor as a byproduct.

When two objects collide at 20,000 mph, that's plenty of kinetic energy to stir up whatever's cookin' in there.