Name that "blast the satellite out of the sky" mil op
Wired's Danger Room blog is running a contest to come up with a name for that weird military operation Mark blogged about last week -- in which the US government will attempt to shoot down a wayward satellite meandering around in the heavens. Poor li'l satellite. Link to the Wired contest. (thanks, Noah Shachtman)
the latest
latest episodes
03: Operation Orbital Oedipus.
How about "Splatellite - your tax dollars at work"!
The Putin Problem
lol @ mr splashy pants (the whale)
Operation Ne Hao
or Operation Super Splendiferous Ultimate Freedom Zowee Cosmic Space Kablooie (The Aliens Hate Our Freedoms)
http://www.boingboing.net/2003/03/28/american-military-op.html
"Operation Memory Hole"
go there all the time
http://www.thememoryhole.org/
Operation Bruckheimer/Bay!
Operation Hog Wild
Operation Brilliant Pork?
OOPS
Orbital Object Pulverizer for Satellites
Operation: We cut all the undersea cables, we might as well "accidentally miss our target" and take out an active comms bird!
Operation: Blowing Space-Stuff Up Real Good!
the truth is the sat is infected with... GREEN SLIME!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g79_ljVC5Wk
Operation Ron Paul
Since Reagan seems to be called upon all the time in the administration -- it could be called:
Operation Friendly and Unilateral Communications Instrument Execution System.
Operation Happy Fun Ball
Operation Wendy Bird
For me, splatilite wins.
From a funny column in my hometown paper: "Everybody knows that hindsight is 20-20, and those of us who worked on 'Operation What Could Go Wrong?' — which was subsequently rechristened 'Operation Nothing to Worry About' and then slightly modified and relaunched as 'Operation Aiiiieeeeeeeee! Run!'..."
You should read. Is funny, has flaming blubber.
Craig
Operation Misplaced Boulder
Operation Invisible Pedestrian
Operation Sky Fry / Fry in the Sky
Operation Golden Mosquito
Operation Windshield Decoration
Operation Speedbump
Operation Capricious Rationale
Operation Eclipse Distraction
Operation Brilliant Blunder
Operation Tacit Undertaking
Operation US$60,000,000.00
Operation Debris Cloud Collision Chain Reaction... for which we criticized China just a few months ago...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/science/space/06orbi.html?pagewanted=all
Really though, maybe not ever being able to go into space again due to our own short-sighted ineptitude would prevent us from colonizing the galaxy and thus do the universe an incalculable favor.
maybe China prefers a situation that nullifies the other side's advantage. If the debris chain reaction was inevitable,China loses nothing in the longer term while the USA especially faces greater losses by simply having more satellites up. China can always catch up later.
I suppose the challenge now is to develop armour that weighs nothing and stops particles moving 30,000kph. Another consequence of a sky full of garbage will be to limit the just-now burgeoning of low budget space travel. A way to limit the players in the later militarization of space.
How high do we have to go now to get above the crap?
Is that still a physically practical orbital height?
you kids had better be careful or dick cheney will shoot your face...out of the sky.
Operation We Might Miss
Followed by: Operation Loose Missile in Space
Followed by: Operation Those Damn Pussy Liberals Are All To Blame For This!
/This IS still the Bush Administration, after all.
Operation Debris Denial (ODD)
Space War Orbital Rapid Denial (SWORD)
High Altitude Denial Eclipse Shot (HADES)
Orbit Denial In OUter Space (ODIOUS)
Operation High GrOund Denial (OHGOD)
DEbris Limit Eclipse TEst (DELETE)
PAcific Night Test In Eclipse Shadow (PANTIES)
High Altitude Capture Kessler Syndrome Acceleration Test 2008 (HACKSAT)
BAllistic Space Test And Responsibility Denial Simulation (BASTARDS)
Clearly, SHMOO has bested me in clever and obscure military acronyms.
Hopefully we can enjoy the eclipse tonight and have some news of the satellite in the morning.
25 Obscurica. Right. After criticizing China that their shooting exercise last year triggered an inevitable cascade of debris, the US government is going to join the Fun ! Yippee!
Ahem. Sorry.
Orbital Debris Quarterly News
Volume 11, Issue 3 July 2007
Detection of Debris from Chinese ASAT Test
Increases; One Minor Fragmentation Event
in Second Quarter of 2007
The extent of the debris cloud created by the destruction of the Fengyun-1C meteorological satellite on 11 January 2007 by a Chinese ballistic interceptor is becoming more apparent as routine and special radar observations of the fragments provide more data. By the end of June 2007 the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) was tracking more than 2200 objects with a size of at least 5 cm.
More than 1900 of these debris had been officially cataloged, making the event by far the worst satellite fragmentation of the space age. The Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) test coupled with other satellite breakups in the first quarter of the year has resulted in an increase of fragmentation debris in Earth orbit of an estimated 75% (Figure 1).
The Fengyun-1C debris cloud extends from 200 km to 4000 km in altitude, with the highest concentration near the breakup altitude of approximately 850 km. The debris orbits are rapidly spreading (Figure 2) and will essentially encircle the globe by the end of the year. Only a few known debris had reentered more than five months after the test, and the majority will remain in orbit for many decades.
The large number of debris from Fengyun-1C are posing greater collision risks for spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit. The number of close approaches has risen significantly. On 22 June, NASA's Terra spacecraft had to execute a collision avoidance maneuver to evade a fragment from Fengyun- 1C that was on a trajectory which would have passed within 19 meters of Terra.
After a flurry of satellite breakups in the first quarter of 2007, the next three months witnessed only one minor fragmentation classified as an anomalous event. An anomalous event is normally characterized by the release of only one or a few debris with very small separation velocities. The debris appear to "fall-off " their parent satellites, probably due to environmental degradation or small particle impacts (Johnson, 2004).
In April a new piece (U.S. Satellite Number 31408) from the derelict U.S. Seasat spacecraft (International Designator 1978- 064A, U.S. Satellite Number 10967) was detected. This was the 15th debris from Seasat cataloged since 1983 and the fourth seen during the past four years (Figure 3). These debris exhibit a variety of ballistic coeffi- cients, but all decay relatively rapidly compared to Seasat itself, which is in a stable, nearly circular orbit near 750 km. Additional debris have been briefly detected from Seasat, but they have reentered prior to being cataloged. The source of the debris could be either the spacecraft or the Agena upper stage to which it is still attached.
Early in 2006 an anomalous event involving the 46-year-old Vanguard 3 was detected (Orbital Debris Quarterly News, 10-3, p. 2). A second piece has now been cataloged (U.S. Satellite Number 31405), and it is likely to have also separated from Vanguard 3 in 2006, possibly about the time of the first piece. The newly discovered debris is decaying at a slower pace than the debris seen last year, but both are falling back to Earth much faster than Vanguard 3 from its orbit of 500 km by 3300 km.
1. Johnson, N.L., "Environmentally-Induced Debris Sources", Advances in Space Research, Vol. 34, Issue 5, pp. 993-999, 2004.