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The out-of-control Chinese space station is now predicted to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime around the beginning of April. Most of it will burn up on the way down, but it's possible some pieces of the 9-ton spacecraft could make it to the surface.
Tiangong means "Heavenly Palace" in English and Tiangong-1 was China's first space station, launched in 2011. The original plan for the craft's demise was a controlled re-entry that would allow it to burn up over an unpopulated section of the South Pacific, with any surviving fragments falling in the sea.
But as early as March 2016, reports began to suggest that Tiangong-1 was malfunctioning and ground crews had lost control of the craft. In other words, there appears to be little chance of performing the maneuvers to steer it to a graceful breakup over the ocean. Instead, it's all up to chance.
According to a new projection from the European Space Agency on Tuesday, the space station is expected to make a likely uncontrolled re-entry roughly between March 29 and April 9. The ESA stresses that it won't be possible to make a precise prediction about exactly when or where Tiangong-1 will burn up and how much of it will get all the way through the atmosphere to the surface.
That said, the Chinese space station is fairly easy to track and ESA says in an online FAQ that we should know about a day in advance of the craft's end which regions of the planet might be able to see it actually burning up in the sky. Predicting where any impact might occur is significantly more difficult, however.
"Even 7 hours before the actual re-entry, the uncertainty on the break-up location is a full orbital revolution -- meaning plus or minus thousands of kilometers," writes ESA's Daniel Scuka.
Tiangong-1's orbit spans from 43 degrees north to 43 degrees south, or from the central United States down to the southern tip of Australia, according to Jay Melosh, a professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue University. He explains that it could come down anywhere between the two points but is more likely to land at either extreme because the station spends more time there.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by cocaine overdose on Saturday March 10 2018, @08:30PM (6 children)
Perhaps you looked at Bhutun's GINI coeffcient and went "Woe! How the mighty superpowers of today have fallen. Russia, China, and the US all over, have less a GINI than humble BOOTAN!" That's the only thing Bhuten has going for it over some western countries. Besides that, I really have no idea why you would pick Bhutyn as your evidence for "maximizing happiness." Homos are still shot (rather, arrowed) in the streets. People live on average to 60. And this "Gross National Happiness," what are you, China? How can you look at measuring happiness and enforcing it as anything but propaganda? "Ah yes, it looks like Dupakmeiweenur has a happiness quotient .5 SDs from the mean." "Well, it's unfortunate, I really liked Dupakmeiweenur and his collection of petrified feces [author's note: this has been translated and made more eloquent. It is doubtful the drives-on-the-left-side savages of Pootine make a distinction between feces and food.]". "Alright, let's go throw his ass off a cliff. We've got quarterly predictions to uphold! Wouldn't want Teshring Tobgay [author's note: Yes, the priminster of Butthan's last name is Tobgay] to get into a hissy." Or maybe "Hello, fellow tribesman. It looks like you answered you 'no, I am not the happiest person in the world' on the yearly census questions. Please follow me to the reeducation hut."
Get out of here, it's always been about who has the biggest rockets. As Descartes said, everything in human history revolves around the phallus. The dickus, the dongus, the bongus, and the longest. Happiness? That's a women's metric. Men don't know what happiness is. There's only two states: 1, being content that you have proven to your peers, that in-fact, your dickus is the bickust; 2, fear that there is another man with a bigger dickus than you in the room. That's it.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 10 2018, @11:05PM (5 children)
That sounds like a worthless existence. Do you really speak for all men, though?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Saturday March 10 2018, @11:40PM (4 children)
Begone foul waifu! You are nothing but a drawing drawn up for the sole purpose of making the drawer money! Your 00's art style belongs in the same place as Hatsumi Azuma --
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 10 2018, @11:56PM
Wait a minute, you actually know who this avatar is? I'm using it/her as a callsign for any of my friends in meatspace who remember me from 10+ years ago. Have we met somewhere?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @12:36AM (2 children)
That crazy is sensitive about her silly nick. I addressed her as "Hazuki" some time back, and she started gushing like a nympho schoolgirl. And, she's gone off on that other crazy from Arkansas for intentionally misspelling her nick. If you were to post a haiku, she would probably volunteer to perform deviant sex acts for you.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday March 11 2018, @01:04AM
Bot posted a haiku in another thread, and got one back from me. After all, one good turn (of phrase) deserves another. :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Sunday March 11 2018, @03:30AM