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June 11, 2024 5:47 PM Subscribe
Large pieces of the trunk structure of SpaceX's Dragon capsule have been crashing to earth following re-entry, including in NSW, Australia, Saskatchawan, Canada, and NC, US. Prof Sam Lawler is the astronomy professor at the University of Regina, so when a farmer in Saskatchawan found a piece in a field, she got the call. She has been chronicling what has happened next on Mastodon (all links should be viewable without a Mastodon account), with today's amazing chapter in which SpaceX representatives arrived in a Uhaul to pick up the pieces found by two local farmers.
It turns out there are all kinds of interesting legal issues involved: Space junk is raining from the sky. Who's responsible when it hits the Earth? (CBC)
(brief mention Previously but that was before the guys showed up with a Uhaul)
It turns out there are all kinds of interesting legal issues involved: Space junk is raining from the sky. Who's responsible when it hits the Earth? (CBC)
(brief mention Previously but that was before the guys showed up with a Uhaul)
all links should be viewable without a Mastodon account
They are, but for me it kept truncating the thread with no indication that there were any further posts in it; clicking on the last post shown loaded more replies. So, if it seems like the thread ends abruptly: try that. (There's a bonus cat towards the end!)
Barry the farmer haggling SpaceX up to a $5K donation per piece and then revealing he had 3 pieces? Good on him.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:15 PM on June 11 [4 favorites]
They are, but for me it kept truncating the thread with no indication that there were any further posts in it; clicking on the last post shown loaded more replies. So, if it seems like the thread ends abruptly: try that. (There's a bonus cat towards the end!)
Barry the farmer haggling SpaceX up to a $5K donation per piece and then revealing he had 3 pieces? Good on him.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:15 PM on June 11 [4 favorites]
Is there enough information in these photos for an AI to reverse engineer a spaceship? How long would it take?
Not too long, if you're a Krikkiter.
posted by tclark at 6:21 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
Not too long, if you're a Krikkiter.
posted by tclark at 6:21 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
SpaceX should probably just change its name to Hubris Aerospace. Space is going to get commercialized = there's no way to prevent it. But hopefully, we can get some regulations in place, else junk is just gonna be raining from the skies.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:21 PM on June 11 [5 favorites]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:21 PM on June 11 [5 favorites]
Just bill Musk until he has no more money. This will solve a bunch of problems.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:24 PM on June 11 [11 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:24 PM on June 11 [11 favorites]
→
In an earlier thread, he wanted something like $15K (for the local ice rink) per piece. Space-X wouldn't pay more, cheap bastards.
It's no surprise that Canada's recent “Disruptions on the Horizon” policy piece notes that "Billionaires run[ning] the world"have the potential to cause massive social disruption
posted by scruss at 6:37 PM on June 11 [7 favorites]
Barry the farmer haggling SpaceX up to a $5K donation per piece
In an earlier thread, he wanted something like $15K (for the local ice rink) per piece. Space-X wouldn't pay more, cheap bastards.
It's no surprise that Canada's recent “Disruptions on the Horizon” policy piece notes that "Billionaires run[ning] the world"have the potential to cause massive social disruption
posted by scruss at 6:37 PM on June 11 [7 favorites]
SpaceX representatives arrived in a Uhaul
Space-X wouldn't pay more, cheap bastards.
Such a class act.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:15 PM on June 11 [3 favorites]
Space-X wouldn't pay more, cheap bastards.
Such a class act.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:15 PM on June 11 [3 favorites]
she got the call. She has been chronicling what has happened next on Mastodon (all links should be viewable without a Mastodon account), with today's amazing chapter in which SpaceX representatives arrived in a Uhaul to pick up the pieces found by two local farmers.
If those pieces happen to be contaminated with hydrazine, say, you might not want to be the next customer to rent that U-haul.
posted by jamjam at 8:10 PM on June 11 [4 favorites]
If those pieces happen to be contaminated with hydrazine, say, you might not want to be the next customer to rent that U-haul.
posted by jamjam at 8:10 PM on June 11 [4 favorites]
WTF? This is unacceptable. Responsible companies and government agencies ensure that their space junk burns up in the atmosphere or worst case, falls in an ocean somewhere. Is SpaceX so incompetent they can't even manage that? Maybe they just don't care, that last CBC link makes it sound like the legal liability isn't so well established.
Related: How destructive was that SpaceX Starship liftoff? It blasted concrete up to 6.5 miles away. Also Try Living in Elon Musk’s Company Town (Brownsville, TX).
(Posting to you via Starlink which currently has 6000 large satellites relaying my packets. They have a service time of 5 years after which SpaceX promises they will deorbit and burn up. It hasn't been long enough to see if that will actually work: what if they're lying?)
posted by Nelson at 6:39 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
Related: How destructive was that SpaceX Starship liftoff? It blasted concrete up to 6.5 miles away. Also Try Living in Elon Musk’s Company Town (Brownsville, TX).
(Posting to you via Starlink which currently has 6000 large satellites relaying my packets. They have a service time of 5 years after which SpaceX promises they will deorbit and burn up. It hasn't been long enough to see if that will actually work: what if they're lying?)
posted by Nelson at 6:39 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
(Only vaguely related but it's also SpaceX: Elon Musk has unusual relationships with women at SpaceX, WSJ reports. "a third woman alleged that Musk asked her several times to have his children; she refused. He then denied her a raise and complained about her performance.")
posted by Nelson at 7:31 AM on June 12 [7 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 7:31 AM on June 12 [7 favorites]
Unusual? Boundary-blurring? And of course this is only what is reported. What a piece of shit. I'd like to see him get the Harvey Weinstein treatment.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:03 AM on June 12 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:03 AM on June 12 [2 favorites]
"Move fast and break things."
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:07 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:07 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
I've been following Lawler on Mastodon for a while. She is a delight.
posted by neuron at 8:56 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by neuron at 8:56 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
Skylab rained debris on Australia back in the day. A whole oxygen tank! A freezer!
Space station debris hit a house in Florida in April.
Last I heard, NASA was not wanting to pay for repairs.
Seems like there ought to legally be liability etc. Tho I'm not personally worried about getting hit by space debis because even with starlink, my risk of getting hit by a gas guzzler is orders of magnitude higher.
posted by joeyh at 9:59 AM on June 12
Space station debris hit a house in Florida in April.
Last I heard, NASA was not wanting to pay for repairs.
SpaceX promises they [Starlinks] will deorbit and burn up. It hasn't been long enough to see if that will actually workAround 10% of Starlinks have already deorbited for various reasons (aged out, solar flares, failures). Without reported debris so far. And they probably did put more work into designing Starlink to burn up than NASA did with that pallet of batteries that hit the house. Still if even 10% of Starlinks didn't burn up, that would be a lot.
Seems like there ought to legally be liability etc. Tho I'm not personally worried about getting hit by space debis because even with starlink, my risk of getting hit by a gas guzzler is orders of magnitude higher.
posted by joeyh at 9:59 AM on June 12
"a third woman alleged that Musk asked her several times to have his children; she refused. He then denied her a raise and complained about her performance.")
Utterly fascinating, Nelson; I’ve been wondering for some time now whether Musk was a sperm donor when he was younger, and I think he’s too old now to qualify under the usual criteria.
But he shows no signs of being satisfied with eleven, and he’s certainly capable of supporting them and their mothers — though you have to wonder how much input he demands in how they’re raised.
Who would I prefer to win that particular race: the very good looking surfer dude who lives in his car and supports himself by giving massages on the beach with a current score of 200+ (as I recall from a recent Guardian article), or Elon Musk.
Talk about a difficult choice.
posted by jamjam at 10:18 AM on June 12
Utterly fascinating, Nelson; I’ve been wondering for some time now whether Musk was a sperm donor when he was younger, and I think he’s too old now to qualify under the usual criteria.
But he shows no signs of being satisfied with eleven, and he’s certainly capable of supporting them and their mothers — though you have to wonder how much input he demands in how they’re raised.
Who would I prefer to win that particular race: the very good looking surfer dude who lives in his car and supports himself by giving massages on the beach with a current score of 200+ (as I recall from a recent Guardian article), or Elon Musk.
Talk about a difficult choice.
posted by jamjam at 10:18 AM on June 12
Even if getting hit by space debris isn’t a serious concern, you will be breathing Starlink dust. Every year, Starlink will be burning 550 metric tons of electronics.* Incineration with no pollution controls.
I can’t imagine ATT or Verizon getting very far with proposals for ground-based internet networks that require open burns of 550 tons of toxic material a year, but maybe I should be pitching VCs on WiFi powered by burning tires.
*Based on current plans for 12,000 227kg satellites each with a 5-year lifespan.
posted by Headfullofair at 10:32 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
I can’t imagine ATT or Verizon getting very far with proposals for ground-based internet networks that require open burns of 550 tons of toxic material a year, but maybe I should be pitching VCs on WiFi powered by burning tires.
*Based on current plans for 12,000 227kg satellites each with a 5-year lifespan.
posted by Headfullofair at 10:32 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
FutzleFiction@chinwag.org - “One of our cargo pods broke up in the planet’s atmosphere, strewn over sparsely-populated prairie. Fortunately the humans think it was one of their own launch vehicles. …”
posted by ob1quixote at 11:43 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 11:43 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
On Starlink dust: Satellite 'megaconstellations' may jeopardize recovery of ozone hole
When old satellites fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up, they leave behind tiny particles of aluminum oxide, which eat away at Earth's protective ozone layer. A new study finds that these oxides have increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022 and will continue to accumulate as the number of low-Earth-orbit satellites skyrockets. ...posted by Nelson at 10:45 AM on June 13 [1 favorite]
Aluminum oxides spark chemical reactions that destroy stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth from harmful UV radiation. The oxides don't react chemically with ozone molecules, instead triggering destructive reactions between ozone and chlorine that deplete the ozone layer. Because aluminum oxides are not consumed by these chemical reactions, they can continue to destroy molecule after molecule of ozone for decades as they drift down through the stratosphere.
NASA and SpaceX misjudged the risks from reentering space junk
posted by Nelson at 9:27 AM on June 29
posted by Nelson at 9:27 AM on June 29
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kidding/notkidding
posted by Glinn at 5:56 PM on June 11 [1 favorite]