Nano Bio Technology

NASA announces that the UARS satellite gradually loses altitude and has not ruled on Thursday that could impact on any populated area.

The NASA issued Wednesday September 19 a statement that updated data on the next impact of an artificial satellite about the Earth’s surface. According to calculations the ship, which has already exceeded its limit of six years use, it will fall this week, between 22 and 24 September, in an area still to be determined.

The UARS is located just over 200 km altitude:

Normally, when a satellite is launched into space, is located in so-called geostationary orbit. This means that several times a day revolving around the Earth, its speed that produces a centrifugal force that offsets the force of gravitational attraction.

Once the satellite ends its life the best way to get rid of it, is letting lose speed, so that centrifugal force is declining against gravity. Depending on the speed of rotation, the time it may take a satellite to fall to Earth is variable so it has to take a thorough inventory of their position to avoid as far as possible that might fall into populated areas.

In the case of UARS, and as published by NASA, had been operating altitude of more than 550 miles, having fallen yesterday positioning September 19 at an altitude between 210 and 230 kilometers. Space Agency has indicated that the situation would be announcing a weekly satellite until four days before his fall to the earth’s surface.

Given the forecast decline in the coming days, will be published data on its impact on a daily basis until after you have determined the exact date, as indicated in a press conference on 7 July, which announced the re-entry preparations, the alerts from the Center Unified Strategic Command Space Operations American Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will be performing on three occasions: at 12 hours, 6 and 2 hours before reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Heavy objects at high speeds of impact:

The notice published yesterday by NASA has asked the population to find a remnant of the satellite, is left in place and above all, do not touch. The Agency advised to call the police or security forces to provide the exact location where the object is located.

According to a Scientific Report published by the NASA study that updates data on possible fall in 2002, the Agency estimates that about 26 components of the satellite could survive the disintegration upon contact with the atmosphere. Not all fall at the same pace and all have the same mass.

The report reveals that most of the objects, an aluminum structure of about 158 ​​kg of mass would hit the surface at a speed of about 44 meters per second is equivalent to 160 kilometers per hour. Other pieces of the satellite, lower weight at higher speeds could hit as the case of a cylindrical piece of steel from one of the response elements with a weight of 2 kg to collide at a speed of 380 kilometers per hour.

The satellite could fall on populated areas:

It is virtually impossible, scientists, knowing the exact impact of the satellite, although they are making estimates on the positioning data as the date approaches for potential impact. The information on the plane of inclination of the ship offered by NASA in recent days indicated that the September 8, the satellite was orbiting at an angle of 57 degrees to Earth’s axis.

This means that reentry will take place between latitudes 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south, which is to say practically the entire inhabited earth’s surface. It is true that most of the earth’s surface between parallels is covered by oceans and seas of Earth.

Thus, NASA scientists have studied the probability that the remains of the satellite is not destroyed by atmospheric reentry fall on land inhabited, and that figure gives a value of 1 in 3200.

Although difficult to quantify the impact zone of the satellite debris, which if known by ballistics studies and above all, from past experience on reentry of satellites to drift is that the surface on which to disseminate the remains to be approximately 800 kilometers. In case outside the impact zone land and water, it is likely that as little can get to watch the shells falling on fire in populated areas.

The UARS orbit around the Earth since 1991:

The UARS satellite was launched in September 1991, twenty years ago as the first endowed with multi-instrumentation to observe the different and numerous chemicals in our atmosphere. As a scientific instrument, the UARS has offered over more than 14 years in Earth orbit a huge amount of data about the amount of light from the Sun at ultraviolet wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

However, since 2005 production ceased trading, so that has been orbiting around the Earth as a roving machine for the past 6 years. In past dates, NASA announced instead that it rejected a possible impact of Comet Elenin the Earth.