Ain't that amusing ? the silly thing missed her trip to Venus but finally made it to another planet. And it could even survive its reentry, because Venus is harder than Earth.
Quote from: Apollo22 on 04/27/2025 05:44 pmAin't that amusing ? the silly thing missed her trip to Venus but finally made it to another planet. And it could even survive its reentry, because Venus is harder than Earth.But the descent rate may be higher because earth atmosphere is thinner.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 04/28/2025 09:18 pmQuote from: Apollo22 on 04/27/2025 05:44 pmAin't that amusing ? the silly thing missed her trip to Venus but finally made it to another planet. And it could even survive its reentry, because Venus is harder than Earth.But the descent rate may be higher because earth atmosphere is thinner.The descent rate will be a lot higher, so the thing is likely to impact at high speed and get wrecked.
Quote from: Hobbes-22 on 04/29/2025 05:56 amQuote from: Robotbeat on 04/28/2025 09:18 pmQuote from: Apollo22 on 04/27/2025 05:44 pmAin't that amusing ? the silly thing missed her trip to Venus but finally made it to another planet. And it could even survive its reentry, because Venus is harder than Earth.But the descent rate may be higher because earth atmosphere is thinner.The descent rate will be a lot higher, so the thing is likely to impact at high speed and get wrecked.The parachute not deploying because the batteries for any triggers will have been dead for half a century certainly won't help with survivability.
Upon hearing about this probe, I couldn't help but think about the line from 'The Martian' when Mark Watney is criticizing one of commander Lewis' crummy TV shows. He thinks it's ridiculous that a Russian Venus probe would land on the wrong planet by mistake and attack random people... but apparently he was at least partially incorrect.
Quote from: edzieba on 04/29/2025 09:03 amQuote from: Hobbes-22 on 04/29/2025 05:56 amQuote from: Robotbeat on 04/28/2025 09:18 pmQuote from: Apollo22 on 04/27/2025 05:44 pmAin't that amusing ? the silly thing missed her trip to Venus but finally made it to another planet. And it could even survive its reentry, because Venus is harder than Earth.But the descent rate may be higher because earth atmosphere is thinner.The descent rate will be a lot higher, so the thing is likely to impact at high speed and get wrecked.The parachute not deploying because the batteries for any triggers will have been dead for half a century certainly won't help with survivability.Be funny after saying all this if they did work by some miracle.If it did somehow survive touchdown on land and not the sea, would it immediately have to be handed over to Russia as it remains their property?
International law says that it belongs to the successor state, assuming all the salvage conditions are resolved.
Do we actually know when and where it's coming down? All the sources I have found say it's up in the air (no pun intended), but surely it has about a 70% chance of hitting some ocean somewhere.
Update Date Predicted Re-entry UncertaintyApr 30, 8:00 UTC 10 May 2025, 06:01 UTC ± 2.8 daysMay 2, 20:20 UTC11 May 2025, 03:41 UTC± 2.2 daysMay 4, 13:30 UTC10 May 2025, 23:06 UTC± 1.8 daysMay 5, 8:50 UTC10 May 2025, 19:05 UTC± 1.5 daysMay 6, 12:50 UTC10 May 2025, 8:37 UTC± 1.0 daysMay 7, 8:50 UTC10 May 2025, 7:51 UTC± 20.6 hrMay 8, 6:20 UTC10 May 2025, 7:34 UTC± 14.6 hrMay 9, 16:20 UTC10 May 2025, 6:30 UTC± 4.1 hrMay 10, 05:40 UTC10 May 2025, 6:39 UTC± 1.5 hr
New imagery of 1972 launched intended #Venera probe to visit #Venus but that is stuck in Earth orbit for 53 years, likely confirms that some structure is connected to the capsule. Not impossible that it's the parachute, but this is still speculation!
Part of the Kosmos 482 spacecraft – a handful of round titanium pressure vessels, which may have been part of rocket engines, rained down on New Zealand a few days later, causing quite a stir and making into a New Zealand government report on UFOs which was released in 2011.
New Zealand, farmer Dennis O’Sullivan was just 17 years old when he discovered one of the spheres in his turnip field.“I saw this mound in the paddock, and I thought it was a dead sheep,” he told The Press decades later. “I went closer, and there was this metal ball lying there next to a bit of a hollow about three feet away.” It turned out to be a titanium alloy sphere, marked with Russian labels. O’Sullivan hefted the 30 pound sphere and carried in his lap on the drive back to the farmhouse to call the police.At least one of the spheres spent the night in jail after its apprehension by local police. John Lindores, who found the sphere on his property, told The Press the police “took it to Ashburton Jail and locked it up for the night.”
Under international treaty – signed not long before Kosmos 482’s ill-fated launch, at that – the spheres still belonged to the Soviet Union and should have been returned. But the USSR disavowed all knowledge of the spaceship parts scattered across Ashburton and the surrounding area. That left them as bizarre souvenirs for the stunned Kiwis on whose property they’d landed. Lindores loaned his, permanently, to the Ashburton Aviation Museum. O’Sullivan has kept his “in a corner of his lounge” for the last 53 years, after a failed attempt to sell it on eBay.
