Another Satellite

[CalebToNowhere]

Well, I suppose it's EOTWAWKI time again..., not really.

Dead German Satellite Will Fall To Earth This Week | Fox News

Interesting though that this is number 2 in only 2 months.

 

[GBuck]

A 1 in 2000 chance it will hit someone? And then in the next sentence they say there is not a great chance of serious injury. lol. I think anything that falls from space would hurt whoever it hit. Seems like a 1 in 2000 chance of serious injury.

 

[moischmoe]

6.7 billion people on the planet
1 in 2000 chance
So 3,350,000 people could get hit?

I like it when someone says "You're one in a million"
That means there are 6,700 people just like me.

 

[Slapstick]

A 1 in 2000 chance it will hit someone? And then in the next sentence they say there is not a great chance of serious injury. lol. I think anything that falls from space would hurt whoever it hit. Seems like a 1 in 2000 chance of serious injury.

I guess they never saw "Dead Like Me".

 

[hrdwarhax]

wouldnt it burn up on re-entry?

 

[Plinkuh]

wouldnt it burn up on re-entry?

Even if it didn't all burn up, and left behind some big chunks; wouldn't it only be traveling at terminal velocity (200mph)?

It would still seriously injure someone, if not kill them.....

 

[CalebToNowhere]

Even if it didn't all burn up, and left behind some big chunks; wouldn't it only be traveling at terminal velocity (200mph)?

It would still seriously injure someone, if not kill them.....

I don't think that terminal velocity applies here since the satellite was moving at a certain speed through orbit. I may be wrong, but I think that terminal velocity applies if we were to take the object up to whatever height and then just drop it.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Even if it didn't all burn up, and left behind some big chunks; wouldn't it only be traveling at terminal velocity (200mph)?

It would still seriously injure someone, if not kill them.....

Seriously, you don't think a BB traveling at 200 mph (63+ MILLION FPM) wouldn't cause a lot of damage?

 

[Kveldulf]

6.7 billion people on the planet
1 in 2000 chance
So 3,350,000 people could get hit?

I like it when someone says "You're one in a million"
That means there are 6,700 people just like me.

There is a 1/2000 chance the satellite hits someone; not a 1/2000 chance of getting hit for each individual. So the expected number of people hit will be 1/2000, not 3.35 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_value

 

[ghostpoint]

We have so much space junk up there as is, I'm really surprised we don't see/hear more of this.

 

[moischmoe]

There is a 1/2000 chance the satellite hits someone; not a 1/2000 chance of getting hit for each individual. So the expected number of people hit will be 1/2000, not 3.35 million.

Expected value - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ah, thanks Kveldulf. I figured there might be a 25.3 in 25.3 chance that my math was wrong.

 

[nosybobby52]

if you here a sonic boom and see a flaming ball in the sky,grab your ankles and kiss your sweet ass goodbye!

 

[Papper2]

Soon space junk injuries could be so common that the National news media will completely ignore reports---LOTTA junk up there to be comming back down--Kinda like shooting streight up-- Has to come back down sometime

 

[canamscott]

The satellite might be down! My step daughter just got a text from her aunt in Virginia that there was a large boom, space junk landed in her back yard and now they are being pounced on by military. I'm watching for news reports to confirm this.