Satellite Explodes After 'Catastrophic Event'

[bananas]

Source: Sky News

A Navy satellite used to provide real-time weather reports has exploded in space.

The US Air Force confirmed that the 20-year-old Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) suffered a "catastrophic event".

It shattered into 43 pieces following a sudden temperature spike which triggered the loss of its altitude control.

The event happened on 3 February but the incident has only just came to light following questions from website Space News.

<snip>

Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1436965/satellite-explodes-after-catastrophic-event

[OnlinePoker]

1. Meteor strike?

Or Chinese satellite killer trials on a real target?

[sakabatou]

2. There's lots of space junk out there. More likely it hit the junk.

[mrdmk]

5. A picture speaks a thousand words

It is a major problem! Even more of a problem if somebody needed to clean it up...

[Flying Squirrel]

11. Someone should design a large flying magnet

To collect it all.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

45. I'll call the Vogons...

...

[Lucky Luciano]

18. That is not to scale. The satellites should be utterly invisible in that pic. nt

[nolabels]

35. If something hits something else..........

Then it's not to scale enough

2009 satellite collision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision

[Delphinus]

56. Wow!

That is one heck of a telling picture!

[OnlinePoker]

7. Well, now there's 43 more pieces of junk out there. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

28. I wonder how they could count all the pieces?

[DRoseDARs]

38. NORAD has a division specifically tasked with tracking debris over a certain size.

This, in order to better protect both functioning satellites, prevent or at least predict collisions, and most importantly protect Human lives in-orbit.

Edit: Seems other agencies, both US and foreign, are doing this. The more, the better.

[christx30]

6. I was thinking

some kind of ground based anti-satellite weapon. The OP did mention a sudden temp spike. The scifi fan in me wants to say a laser

[forest444]

23. And the skeptic in me wants to say:

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2015, 10:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Spy satellite, probably directed against one of our major adversaries.

Or perhaps even Israel - which under Netanyahoo's tutelage is quickly becoming a major adversary. The problem, of course, is that Israel was almost the same counterintelligence capabilities we do, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Given the timing and considering Bibi's attitude, I certainly wouldn't put it past Israel to have zapped this satellite.

[davidpdx]

50. Our funding of Israel has lent a new meaning to

We created a monster.

I think you are right and we are going to regret having funded so much of their military capability.

[didact]

58. Temperature spike rules out

orbital debris or meteor IMO, old DMSP satellite - I'm thinking we used it as a targeting drone.

[El Supremo]

3. Um... a Kessler syndrome in the making?

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

[Hestia]

10. "Gravity"?

[Binkie The Clown]

24. Is that how Saturn got it's ring?

Maybe Earth will end up with a glittering metallic ring system to rival Saturn's.

[Nihil]

57. Where's Wall-E when we need him?

[Sancho]

4. Borg?

[DocMac]

8. Putin.

[7962]

9. I'm also going with Putin

since one of his paid trolls over on Discussionist always touts Russia's ability to bring them down

[angrychair]

12. hmmmm

Sharks with frigin' lasers on their heads.

[closeupready]

16. Like, duh. Obviously.

[jtuck004]

13. So the crappy rechargeable batteries we paid for blew up. Big shocker. n/t

[elias49]

14. Huh. Another example of "We don't need to tell anyone"

What the Dept of Offense does is none of our biz?

[Fred Sanders]

15. "Real-time weather reports" for the Navy..yes...that is what it did..just that; or The Weather Channel?

[Renew Deal]

17. It's raining missles

[erronis]

19. Mmm. You're not suggesting that this satellite was something else?

Than yet another weather monitoring box? Actually, most of the stuff that is shot up into orbit has multiple roles - civilian and military. And yes, the US as well as other countries are looking for in-orbit measures to disable other satellites (or missiles).

[VWolf]

20. Going out on a limb here,

but I'm pretty sure they meant "attitude control", not "altitude control"

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Yes - original report, written by someone who knows satellites, here:

http://www.space.com/28709-military-weather-satellite-explodes-photo.html

[PosterChild]

40. You know your stuff (nt)

[VWolf]

41. Well, you really can't control altitude

Usually satellites don't have enough fuel on board to kick into another orbit. What they do have is a small amount of "station keeping" fuel, which is used to control attitude (orientation).

[PosterChild]

44. Yep..

.... one amazing trick to conserve fuel (delta v) while maintaining attitude control is to use solar pressure on the solar panels by differentially adjusting them.

In fact the Kepler telescope has been kept operational after losing two reaction wheels using this technique. Completely mind boggling !

[Thor_MN]

49. If one has sail area in a wind and you want to stay pointed at something

the options are to balance the sails or use energy to counteract the wind.

They traded peak solar power (all panels perpendicular to the sun) for not being blown around (angling the panels to balance solar wind).

[bvar22]

21. Sounds like a Photon Torpedo to me.

*

[DeSwiss]

31. *See below.

[itsrobert]

22. Khan?

Khannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!

[Alkene]

26. > ------------ @

[Blue_Tires]

34. ^^^^^^^^^WINNER

[Android3.14]

27. The temperature spike is curious

It would seem to indicate it was not a collision or a kinetic weapon. Satellite killer perhaps (laser, fresnel lens or mirror, or smaller explosive device.

A collision seems unlikely.

[Thor_MN]

47. Or bearings seizing on a gyro, or malfunction of a thruster.

They reported that the temperature spike occurred after loss of attitude control, which implies an intended attitude change failed.

A temperature spike not related to a system change would indicate an outside event. If one makes a change in a system and an error occurs, it's highly likely the change caused the error.

[Android3.14]

52. Yours sounds better than my hypothesis

Especially the gyro. But the breaking up into so many sizable pieces is curious. Is there enough fuel to cause that big of a break-up, I wonder.

[Thor_MN]

53. Very good question.

Although I don't know what is considered a sizable piece. I'd have to assume observation by RADAR as visual would require the sun, remains and observer to be in favorable positions as opposed to being over the horizon to any of the numerous tracking stations.. I wonder what is size limit for resolution of a object in orbit.

I'd think that any process that would create in excess of 40 pieces would either need to be on the violent side, scattering them rapidly, or be due to brittleness from cold possibly.

It is kind of hard to imagine a fuel/oxidizer explosion not simply rupturing the weakest spot then rocketing the intact remainder in the opposite direction.

[eppur_se_muova]

61. Gyroscope siezes up --> possible flywheel explosion ?

Tensile strength and failure modes

One of the primary limits to flywheel design is the tensile strength of the material used for the rotor. Generally speaking, the stronger the disc, the faster it may be spun, and the more energy the system can store.

When the tensile strength of a composite flywheel's outer binding cover is exceeded, the binding cover will fracture, followed by the wheel shattering as the outer wheel compression is lost around the entire circumference, releasing all of its stored energy at once; this is commonly referred to as "flywheel explosion" since wheel fragments can reach kinetic energy comparable to that of a bullet. Composite materials that are wound and glued in layers tend to disintegrate quickly, first into small-diameter filaments that entangle and slow each other, and then into red-hot powder, instead of large chunks of high-velocity shrapnel as can occur with a cast metal flywheel.

For a cast metal flywheel, the failure limit is the binding strength of the grain boundaries of the polycrystalline molded metal. Aluminum in particular suffers from fatigue and can develop microfractures due to repeated low-energy stretching. Angular forces may cause portions of a metal flywheel to bend outward and begin dragging on the outer containment vessel, or to separate completely and bounce randomly around the interior. The rest of the flywheel is now severely unbalanced, which may lead to rapid bearing failure from vibration, and sudden shock fracturing of large segments of the flywheel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage#Tensile_strength_and_failure_modes

[Cryptoad]

29. HIllary shot it down.......

[DeSwiss]

30. The cause has been found!

[center][font size=10]Klingons!!![/font]

[/center]

- K&R!

[davidpdx]

51. If it had been Klingons there would have been toilet paper left behind

[Earth_First]

32. 43 pieces?

Seems like an awfully specific number to know for certain...

Sorry nothing to add to the commentary -that number as definitive just stands out as odd in my opinion.

[Thor_MN]

48. More specific than counting returns on a RADAR system?

Take something, break it, count the pieces... The actual number is probably higher as there's bound to be some pieces too small to track.

[Hoppy]

33. Paraphrasing Lenny Bruce, If the Jews didn't do it, it must have been the Puerto Ricans.

[nikto]

36. Obviously destroyed by space-aliens

"The perfect organism, unclouded by conscience or delusions of morality"...etc etc

[Submariner]

37. Okay DU

[zappaman]

39. It was likely attacked.

By the same aliens who have been creating crop circles and kidnapping humans just to put things in their butts.

[Zorro]

42. Could be a tin whiskers short

[Nye Bevan]

43. I'm not saying that it was aliens.....

.... you know the rest.

[GReedDiamond]

46. Space Junk...

[seveneyes]

54. The Teamsters did it

[roamer65]

59. Must have used cheap Chinese parts.

[father founding]

60. Death Star

Was it emitting the high frequency radio waves that are causing the exploding glass phenomenon ?