Chinese Space Station Could Crash to Earth on Easter Weekend - Location of crash still a mystery

submitted by magnora7 from scientificamerican.com

all 6 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]HibikiBlack 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I heard about this before. People told me that it could crash here in Venezuela D:!

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wear a helmet that day!

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am half-wondering if the Chinese will intentionally crash it somewhere that benefits them militarily and pretend like it was a pure chance accident. Like it lands on some island in the south china sea they're trying to take, or something like that. Lol

[–]dowodnum 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Here's a site with live tracking and forecasting from multiple sources: http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U

I've been checking its altitude daily, dropped 10km in 2 days and seems like that rate's steadily increasing.

The forecasted locations are all over the park though.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks, that's super interesting.

Does the station have any directional control or thrusters at all? Or are all systems off?

[–]dowodnum 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Pretty sure I read that it's been abandoned and the fuel is frozen, and the solar panels will be one of the first things to fall off. So I doubt it.