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[Starver]

It's Sputnik all over again!

*beep beep beep beep beep... *

[WillowLuman]

Stuff in the oldest observed light may have clues to the fate of the universe.

Note: nothing confirmed here, just some potential implications of this data.

[PTTG??]

It's Sputnik all over again!

So here's the thing. If it's actually plausibly a weapon (which is a long shot), then it's still worthless. It can't do anything without being seen, and it can't approach anything without it being obvious that it is doing so.

Even a really, really impressive projectile weapon can't reach high enough speeds to actually hit anything the satellite isn't already rendezvousing with, and orbital maneuvers are obvious and slow.

99.99% chance this is just a standard spy satellite. The only other thing it could be that is useful is a nuclear weapon to be used against a ground target, but why? Especially considering that that we already HAVE jillions of nukes ready to go already.

[Reelya]

It's Sputnik all over again!

So here's the thing. If it's actually plausibly a weapon (which is a long shot), then it's still worthless. It can't do anything without being seen, and it can't approach anything without it being obvious that it is doing so.

Even a really, really impressive projectile weapon can't reach high enough speeds to actually hit anything the satellite isn't already rendezvousing with, and orbital maneuvers are obvious and slow.

99.99% chance this is just a standard spy satellite. The only other thing it could be that is useful is a nuclear weapon to be used against a ground target, but why? Especially considering that that we already HAVE jillions of nukes ready to go already.

What the fuck, watch the video about it here, the graphics are hilarious. The satellite "birthed" a smaller satellite, then that smaller satellite "birthed" an even smaller one. It's satellites all the way down. Naturally, this is how Russian satellites work.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/08/16/russian-nesting-doll-satellites-todd-tsr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/russias-military/

[Max™]

We must not allow a nesting doll gap.

[JoshuaFH]

We must not allow a nesting doll gap.

"Russian Scientists first to create Matryoshka dolls that continue down into the microscopic scale and can only be opened with nanobots. American quantum doll makers theorize possible ultra nano dolls that shrink down to the planck length."

"Quantum doll maker says in interview 'Now we're all sons of bitches' before placing a pistol to his head and blowing his skull open. Smaller quantum scientist scrambles out and is on the run."

[Starver]

Little Dutch boy needed on Space Station?

(Well, hopefully the capsule will be ok for re-entry, with no echoes of Komorov or the Soyuz 11 crew.)

[Akura]

The damage is on the orbital module which, according to the article, is dumped before re-entry. Shouldn't be an issue.

[Starver]

Only thinking that where there's one impact, there could be another. Not yet creating a leak, or indeed a cabin leak not being the danger this other one brings, but something else.

(I also really don't want to end up being a Cassandra, just thought it needed more said than the link text. Should be Ok, though. And there's plenty of other unrelated things that could go wrong before now and then, so..? Darn.)

[Trekkin]

Only thinking that where there's one impact, there could be another. Not yet creating a leak, or indeed a cabin leak not being the danger this other one brings, but something else.

(I also really don't want to end up being a Cassandra, just thought it needed more said than the link text. Should be Ok, though. And there's plenty of other unrelated things that could go wrong before now and then, so..? Darn.)

You're acting like this is extraordinary. It really isn't, at least from an operational perspective; the ISS is hit by tiny bits of junk all the time. It's how the windows, solar arrays, and radiators get those little pits.

If the station weren't adequately monitored, it would have failed long before now.

[Gentlefish]

"A little tape, a little glue... There, now we aren't oozing precious air into the vacuum of space."

[smjjames]

Little Dutch boy needed on Space Station?

(Well, hopefully the capsule will be ok for re-entry, with no echoes of Komorov or the Soyuz 11 crew.)

How do they know it's a rocky fragment (ie, micrometeorites) and not one of the zillions of pieces of orbital debris zipping around?

[Trekkin]

Little Dutch boy needed on Space Station?

(Well, hopefully the capsule will be ok for re-entry, with no echoes of Komorov or the Soyuz 11 crew.)

How do they know it's a rocky fragment (ie, micrometeorites) and not one of the zillions of pieces of orbital debris zipping around?

A particle doesn't need to be rocky to be a micrometeoroid. The term covers all bits of stuff in space in a certain size range (usually <1 g) , both natural and debris.

[Starver]

How do they know it's a rocky fragment (ie, micrometeorites) and not one of the zillions of pieces of orbital debris zipping around?

A particle doesn't need to be rocky to be a micrometeoroid. The term covers all bits of stuff in space in a certain size range (usually <1 g) , both natural and debris.

I think the question relates to the bit that says...

It is thought the damage was caused by the impact of a high-speed rocky fragment flying through space.

Someone, at some point (maybe in the news department, but maybe actually in Mission Control) has said that it is (likely to be) rocky. Which makes it a micrometeoroid unless we've been sending rocks into orbit.

That made me wonder if this was therefore a "bit of comet dust" or somesuch, which tends to arrive in bunches (incredibly spread-out bunches, to cover the whole sky as swept out by the Earth over a few nights, but still the chances of a second bit being near in time and space to a first bit is greater than one being in any other random time and space).

Obviously man-made/-sourced MMs are ubiquitous and ever (if individually fleetingly) present, but if the classification is not an uninformed editorial misclassification then we can presume the rockiness is an important distinction. (Maybe the calculated direction/power of impact was explained better by something not in any trivial orbit?)


But, at its heart, I just needed to pad out tje link

[Trekkin]

Yeah, I wouldn't read that much into it. Science journalists are notorious for editorializing everything they don't outright replace with film references to make things "accessible to laypeople", and "micrometoroid" sounds a lot like it should mean "little bitty meteor" and meteors are rocks, right?

As for any ongoing threat, bear in mind that MS-09 still carries the new DPM NASA wanted (and got on TMA-04M, I think?), so the MMOD shielding on the ISS isn't at a significantly higher PNP. Ergo, any reason to think that rock (if rock it was) was one of many sufficiently close together to make multiple impacts a realistic possibility would probably at least get them to shutter the cupola and go hang out in Zvezda or something on the assumption the entire hull was in danger.