Is it time now for riskier space missions ?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 4:50 am

About 100 tons of cosmic debris arrive on Earth daily...

don't wanna be up there, considering that at least 10k times more rocks of all sizes pass the planet at amazing speed levels. Anyone knows about the impact of a peanut coming in with > 5k miles/h ?

cheers, Tom (no interest in a space oddity...)

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:54 am

Space Peanuts??!!

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:14 am

i knew about spacecakes but, hey, i learn something everyday !

Post by **hubird** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:31 am

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:02 am

why not ?
they tell you there are blocks of ice travelling, potatoe shaped rocks, so a peanut would be perfectly in line - and it's well equipped with it's shell and content...

the impact would still be interesting (to be simulated), but honestly - do they simply ignore such stuff or do they rely on statistics only that probably no such thing will happen?

btw given a massive vulcano outbreak there's even the chance that a physical peanut as we know it made it's way to interplanetary space - orbited for a few thousand years and is now back on it's fatal way to earth, targeted at a NASA employees life line...

cheers, tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-08-05 08:08 ]</font>

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:07 am

I think the most dangerous are the sub atomic particles that can pass through the space ship and astronauts bodies.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:16 am

Apparantly if astronauts aboard the space station close their eyes they can sometimes "see" the impact of these particles on their retinas.

Also, over time the windows on the old Russian Salyut stations got scratched almost opaque by a type of "sandblasting" effect from all the micro-particles.

They also has an old Soviet flag on Salyut 7 which, after two years in space was taken down in tatters from all the particles. It was also said to be the last official Soviet flag taken down...

Space isn't safe and the men & women who go up repeatedly say that they're happy to take the risk - and increased risks - if it hurries along the exploration program.

Virtually no exploration would have taken place on Earth is everyone had of demanded 100% guarantees of safety.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:58 am

Now is not the time to send men and women into space. We should be sending robots only. There is no reason to be there are we hardly even know what we are doing. I would prefer to see the ocean explored and studied anyway.