Slog - Comments on Why Worry About a Little Thing Like Turbulence http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb when there's Cold War crap falling out of the sky? Pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite coming out of orbit narrowly missed hitting a jetliner over the Pacific Ocean overnight. The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340, which was traveling between Santiago, Chile, and Auckland, New Zealand, notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane about 10pm last night. According to a plane spotter, who was tuning into a high frequency radio broadcast at the time, the... Copyright 2008 Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:02:28 -0800 Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:33:15 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Paulus I guess the solution is a hyper-space button on all spacecraft. Like in Asteroids.

]]> Paulus http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685169 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685169 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:34:02 -0800 Comment by Fnarf So our first extra-terrestrial visitors are likely to be Planetary Litter Police?

I wouldn't be too worried about the .22-cal bullet; the myth that a bullet wound to a jetliner's skin would explode a big hole and suck all the passengers out into free-fall is an urban legend. I don't like the sound of the 400-lb. safe much though.

Of course, if there ever is a collision like this, it will be assumed to be terrorists, and all brown or otherwise suspicious people will immediately be arrested and quarantined.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685173 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685173 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:37:35 -0800 Comment by COMTE Sounds like a job for - Mega Maid.

]]> COMTE http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685175 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685175 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:38:25 -0800 Comment by him space debris will pose a problem for future use of space. I'm not too worried about that "chain reaction" spreading chaos through the heavens. Most of the debris burns up as it enters the atmosphere. And how can these "experts" think our space debris, when spread out through infinite space, would cause chaos?!

But thanks for giving me one more thing to worry about during air travel.

]]> him http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685189 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685189 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:50:45 -0800 Comment by Jude Fawley Him, the majority of the debris won't be spread out through infinite space, it will stay in orbit. A chain reaction would mean (relatively) few big pieces of junk to many more small pieces of junk flying around the planet. The problem, from my understanding of the story (which was also in the NYT Science section a while back) is not so much the debris falling on airplanes, but rather making it unsafe for sattelites and shuttles, space stations to exist in space. There could be so much crap up there that we end up stuck on earth and without even the capability to fly satelites. Would that not be ironic? Talk about shitting your nest.

]]> Jude Fawley http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685202 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685202 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:59:30 -0800 Comment by elswinger I foresee the most boring space disaster movie ever.

]]> elswinger http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685227 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685227 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:20:12 -0800 Comment by gfish They need to stop calling space projects 'Orion'.

]]> gfish http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685239 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685239 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:26:12 -0800 Comment by earthsays, "stop going into space."

]]> earthsays, http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685338 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685338 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:59:04 -0800 Comment by COMTE Right, earthsays, instead let's just go the way of the dinosaurs when the next "big one" hits.

]]> COMTE http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685368 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685368 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:33:51 -0800 Comment by Paulus @9 what?

]]> Paulus http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685414 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685414 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:30:35 -0800 Comment by treacle Ha ha! Stoopid hu-mans!
Pwned by your own trash!

]]> treacle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685500 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/why_worry_about_a_little_thing_like_turb#c685500 Life Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:33:15 -0800