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Red Conjunction 11/23/11
by
rdale
on 22 Nov, 2011 20:00
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443am EST 0943 UTC the crew will be required to shelter in place because not enough time to do a debris avoidance maneuver (DAM). Crew will check before going to bed to see if it's still in play. With sleep shift knocking them out of schedule, they are tired enough that they think they will sleep well tonight.
No mention made of the object itself.
Audio starts about 2:30 at
http://www.kevin-cohen.com/nsf/iss/iss_20111122-140000-001.wav
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#1
by
Space Pete
on 22 Nov, 2011 20:06
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Mission Control Notifies Station Crew of Possible ConjunctionMission Control notified the Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station that it may have to take shelter early Wednesday because of a possible close call with a piece of space junk.
The object is a piece of debris about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter from the Chinese Fengyun 1C weather satellite that was destroyed in 2007.
Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin received a radio call at 2:06 p.m. EST from Flight Director Ginger Kerrick, alerting them to the possibility. Kerrick was leading a small team in Mission Control, Houston while the crew was in an extended sleep shift following the overnight work associated with the departure of the Expedition 29 crew.
› Listen to the call (1.74 MB mp3)Predictions indicate the object may come within 2,800 feet (850 meters) of the station. If tracking continues to show the closest approach within a predetermined “pizza box” around the station, the crew will be directed to take precautions that include closing hatches between station modules and getting into their Soyuz spacecraft about 30 minutes before the time of closest approach, or no later than 4:30 a.m.
Standard procedure for such encounters is to maneuver the space station out of the way of the predicted path of the debris if there is enough time to coordinate the move. However, preparations for yesterday’s undocking of the Soyuz spacecraft bringing Mike Fossum, Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov home slightly changed the station’s orbit, resulting in a closer approach. The object had been monitored earlier but was not then a threat.
Mission Control will continue to track the object, and inform the crew whether it will need to take shelter. If the crew does take shelter, NASA TV will provide live coverage of the activities on orbit starting at 4:35 a.m. EST.
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#2
by
rdale
on 22 Nov, 2011 20:18
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That's okay NASA - you can use my recording without accreditation
I'll keep an ear on this evening to listen for any updates.
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#3
by
Chris Bergin
on 22 Nov, 2011 20:25
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#4
by
Space Pete
on 22 Nov, 2011 20:47
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Yesterday's undocking of Soyuz TMA-02M changed the station's orbit, which now puts this 4 inch (10cm) object within 2,800 feet (850m) of the station. TCA is around 5:00 AM EST/10:00 AM GMT.
From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 21/11/2011.
Conjunction Advisory:
NASA/MCC-H is tracking a conjunction with Object 31907 (Fengyun 1C satellite debris) with TCA (Time of Closest Approach) tomorrow (11/22) at 7:17 PM GMT, about 20 hours after today's scheduled undocking of Soyuz TMA-02M/27S. The conjunction is currently classified as Low Concern, primarily because this object has not been seen for the last ~15 days.
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#5
by
robertross
on 22 Nov, 2011 23:30
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443am EST 0943 UTC the crew will be required to shelter in place because not enough time to do a debris avoidance maneuver (DAM). Crew will check before going to bed to see if it's still in play. With sleep shift knocking them out of schedule, they are tired enough that they think they will sleep well tonight.
No mention made of the object itself.
Audio starts about 2:30 at http://www.kevin-cohen.com/nsf/iss/iss_20111122-140000-001.wav
Thanks for the heads-up & audio Rob.
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#6
by
manboy
on 23 Nov, 2011 00:51
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It would be ironic if the debris took out Tiangong 1.
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#7
by
rdale
on 23 Nov, 2011 01:06
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Stand down...
Additional data shows that the object was tracked recently - it is now a GREEN. They would still like one more set of tracking data but they didn't see it on the pass a few hours ago. They hope to have another pass around 10pm EST / 0300 UTC.
If they do not get another pass, they'll stay as-is but current thinking is that we're not changing from green. New data will be during sleep period so they won't bother updating until wakeup.
http://www.kevin-cohen.com/nsf/iss/iss_20111122-180000-001.wav
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#8
by
Chris Bergin
on 23 Nov, 2011 06:17
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That's good news!
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#9
by
elmarko
on 23 Nov, 2011 09:15
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Can we get an update on this, since the original time of conjunction has passed? Does that last update mean that the object's position was tracked with more data and it was found to be outside the "box" and hence no need for the evac preps?
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#10
by
rdale
on 23 Nov, 2011 12:09
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I haven't listened to the morning audio, but if you read SpacePete's note you will see they hadn't tracked it in 15 days prior. They tracked it once yesterday and it was outside the box.
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#11
by
rdale
on 23 Nov, 2011 12:14
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#12
by
arkaska
on 23 Nov, 2011 13:03
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And this is the reason why we shouldn't blow up satellites in space.
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#13
by
elmarko
on 23 Nov, 2011 13:15
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Thanks. I was confusef by the language.
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#14
by
rdale
on 23 Nov, 2011 13:25
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And this is the reason why we shouldn't blow up satellites in space.
Not sure that makes sense... We blew up the USA193 satellite and the job was accomplished safely and with no remaining debris.
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#15
by
elmarko
on 23 Nov, 2011 13:59
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I guess if you do it at a lower altitude the pieces don't hang around...
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#16
by
arkaska
on 23 Nov, 2011 16:07
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Not sure that makes sense... We blew up the USA193 satellite and the job was accomplished safely and with no remaining debris.
Just like elmarko said, blow it up in a lower orbit and there won't much debris that will threaten the ISS.
As a sidenote, I'm not positive to the USA-193 incident since I only see as a response to Chinas ASAT. But that is another discussion that do not belong in this thread.
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#17
by
rdale
on 23 Nov, 2011 16:12
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Just like elmarko said, blow it up in a lower orbit and there won't much debris that will threaten the ISS.
Agreed - which conflicts with your note about not being a good idea to blow things up in space
With USA193 it was a good idea, and with China there was nothing we could do about it anyways.
No further news about the object so that should end this...
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#18
by
arkaska
on 23 Nov, 2011 16:19
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Agreed - which conflicts with your note about not being a good idea to blow things up in space With USA193 it was a good idea, and with China there was nothing we could do about it anyways.
No further news about the object so that should end this...
Depends on your viewpoint
I still see it as a bad idea even with USA-193
With USA193 it was a good idea, and with China there was nothing we could do about it anyways.