Satellite Shootdown

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AuthorTopic: Satellite Shootdown
Warrior
Member # 7638
Profile #0
Check this out.

In essence, an estimated 1 billion dollar spy satellite orbit is about to decay. To prevent a deadly hydrazine gas from harming anything on Earth, the Navy is going to shoot a heat seeking missile at a target moving at 22,000 mph, the fastest attempted target of a missile.

The missile is heat seeking, the satellite is a cold target, they are hoping that the heat of the sun warms it up enough for it to register on the missile's sensors. Simply hitting it may not be enough it has to hit the fuel tank. The Pentagon gives an 80 to 90 percent chance of success, which is hard for me to believe.

[ Wednesday, February 20, 2008 15:05: Message edited by: Leftover Sauerkraut ]

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Posts: 152 | Registered: Monday, November 6 2006 08:00
Agent
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An eighty to ninety percent chance isn't too opportune, but maybe this will teach countries a lesson about not minding their own business.

[ Wednesday, February 20, 2008 17:44: Message edited by: Excalibur ]

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Law Bringer
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It's actually a fairly likely chance to hit because the satellite orbit is well known and measured for much longer than the typical missile target.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #3
quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:

maybe this will teach countries a lesson about not minding their own business.
Could you expand on this? I have no idea what you are talking about.

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Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Shaper
Member # 7420
Profile Homepage #4
It was a spy satellite. I suppose if we weren't spying, we wouldn't have this problem. Logic, Salmon, logic!

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Posts: 2156 | Registered: Thursday, August 24 2006 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #5
quote:
Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar:

It was a spy satellite. I suppose if we weren't spying, we wouldn't have this problem. Logic, Salmon, logic!
Okay, color me dumb. How is the USA shooting down a defunct USA satellite going to teach other countries to mind their own business? Maybe I should take some of that logic you keep advocating.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..."
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #6
quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:

An eighty to ninety percent chance isn't too opportune, but maybe this will teach countries a lesson about not minding their own business.
Please just use simpler language. Believe it or not, it will make you sound smarter, because you'll be making better sense.

As for the satellite, I think it's unfortunate that it is falling out of orbit. If there's a lesson to be learned anywhere in this, it probably has more to do with government contract oversight than any sort of object lesson about the morals of spying from orbit.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3716
Profile #7
There's been satellites in orbit since many years ago. I still don't understand why this one would not disappear when re-entering the surface.
I am more inclined to believe that the US want to test shooting down satellites, let's not forget that China already did it.
I've also read that there's a chance some of the toxic gases (even after the successful shooting of the satellite) will fall over Poland.
:rolleyes:

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Posts: 292 | Registered: Sunday, November 23 2003 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #8
quote:
Originally written by Drew:

Please just use simpler language. Believe it or not, it will make you sound smarter, because you'll be making better sense.
This. For the sake of all that is good and holy, this. Using big words does not make you look smarter; it makes you look like you're trying to hide the fact that you have nothing substantial to talk about. This is doubly true when you don't know what the big words you're using mean. There have been studies done on it and everything.

[ Wednesday, February 20, 2008 18:51: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Too Sexy for my Title
Member # 5654
Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

This is doubly true when you don't know what the big words you're using mean.
I know someone who keeps misusing the word "irony". Which is dumb, since irony is not even a big word. It doesn't make you sound smart, even if you use it correctly, which you know he doesn't. Thus, everything ends up being ironic to him. Quite funny, actually.
Posts: 1035 | Registered: Friday, April 1 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 27
Profile #10
The missile has hit the satellite. We'll know if it did its intended job later.

Maybe you all could spend the time finding something better to do than bicker at each other on an online game forum.

EDIT: While on the topic of outerspace, there was a lunar eclipse here tonight. I'm not sure what that means for other regions, but it's the first one I've ever seen.

[ Wednesday, February 20, 2008 20:31: Message edited by: Enraged Slith ]

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Posts: 1233 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
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Profile #11
Heh. This topic is remarkably free of bickering.

We had a lunar eclipse as well. Dikiyoba didn't, because of some silly thundersnowstorm. I suppose the same event happened there as here. I only glanced at it, but supposedly it lasted for several minutes.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..."
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #12
I got to watch a sliver before totality. Then it got lost in the clouds ahead of a thunderstorm (southern edge of Dikiyoba's one). Eclipses are supposed to portend great events like the Red Sox victory in the World Series. :) I mean you can always find something to relate to one.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
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Today's great event was me giving 28 bucks to Mssr Vogel for the rights to play all of A5.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..."
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #14
Yeah, that 2004 eclipse was great. I got an astronomy class at a college not far from Boston to show up to observe the eclipse, during the game in which the Red Sox won the world series for the first time since 1918. I achieved this feat of pedagogical leadership by two means:
1) telling them that Babe Ruth's curse could be broken by a ritual conducted in the dark of the moon, and
2) mounting a large screen tv in the room just below the rooftop observatory, and letting them sketch the progressing eclipse in commercial breaks.

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Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 5977
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quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

]This. For the sake of all that is good and holy, this. Using big words does not make you look smarter; it makes you look like you're trying to hide the fact that you have nothing substantial to talk about. This is doubly true when you don't know what the big words you're using mean. There have been studies done on it and everything.
It's an illness the Dutch suffer from in a really bad way. We are systematically swapping our Dutch words for English words, because they "sound better". So no, the normal word isn't, say, "invloed", but "impact." So all these managers talk in their managery English newspeak, while the rest of the country tries very hard to understand what the hell they try to say.

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Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #16
The dialect of managese, in which 'impact' is a verb, isn't really English. It's some sort of creole between English and idiocy.

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Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 7557
Profile #17
Just one question: What would happen if that fuel entered the Atmosphere?

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Jeran Korak-Half-Drow

You insult me, you insult my sword!
Posts: 942 | Registered: Sunday, October 8 2006 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #18
quote:
Originally written by Jeran Korak:

Just one question: What would happen if that fuel entered the Atmosphere?
Probably not much, to be honest. Hydrazine isn't good for you, but the atmosphere is a big place.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 7557
Profile #19
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

quote:
Originally written by Jeran Korak:

Just one question: What would happen if that fuel entered the Atmosphere?
Probably not much, to be honest. Hydrazine isn't good for you, but the atmosphere is a big place.

A single spoonful of crude oil can contaminate an industrial container worth of water.

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Jeran Korak-Half-Drow

You insult me, you insult my sword!
Posts: 942 | Registered: Sunday, October 8 2006 07:00
By Committee
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Profile #20
There are about a kertrillion "industrial containers" of water in the ocean. Consider also that a lot of it would vaporize in the atmosphere before even touching the ocean, as well as that much, much worse environmental atrocities occur regularly, like oil spills, discharge of toxic waste from factories, etc.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Post Navel Trauma ^_^
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To be fair to the managers, the verbing of nouns is common in English.

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Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
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quote:
Originally written by Drew:

There are about a kertrillion "industrial containers" of water in the ocean. Consider also that a lot of it would vaporize in the atmosphere before even touching the ocean, as well as that much, much worse environmental atrocities occur regularly, like oil spills, discharge of toxic waste from factories, etc.
Isn't it easier to accept the larger atrocities once we become used to the smaller ones? I regularly find trash in the ocean when out fishing. Mostly fishing gear that has been abandoned, broken, or lost, but also pop bottles and plastic bags.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..."
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
By Committee
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Profile #23
Yup, like a frog being slowly boiled. For a real experience in water pollution, you should try rowing in the Chicago River. :)
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Agent
Member # 27
Profile #24
quote:
Isn't it easier to accept the larger atrocities once we become used to the smaller ones? I regularly find trash in the ocean when out fishing. Mostly fishing gear that has been abandoned, broken, or lost, but also pop bottles and plastic bags.
I'm tired of the lack of respect many people have for their environments. At high school, kids throw their old work on the ground, ignoring the fact that someone is going to have to pick up for them later. They toss their trash on the ground outside after eating lunch, it's embarrassing and infuriating. It seems like I'm always picking up after someone else.

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