Outside the Box

[Java]

This thread has been especially created for anyone wishing to post outside the box.
Enjoy!

[bluehorizonx10]

Ummm..........how about totally off the board??? :blueeek: Seems to be the most pleasant place to be. lol

[Miss_Sunshine]

ah this is the place where smilies don't work

:music:

[Java]

...so we have to be creative... (thinks to self)... 3:O)8=

[Glucose]

@}-->------------- a flower, that is as creative as I can get.

[Java]

<*)))>< ... <*)))>< ... <*)))>< ... <*)))>< ... <*)))>< ...

[Glucose]

Oh way - Java that looks so cool. Umm lets see . . . . . . .
--
..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Glucose-:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*

Just a wavy pattern :-)

[Java]

*one mars rover communicates through to the other*

Opportunity: Say Spirit, are all those rocks starting to look the same to you too?

Spirit: Why indeed yes, my good old buddy! Lets say we shut down and call it a night.

*meanwhile just a little while later*

---> the energizer bunny is seen parading through the rock-strewn, dusty landscapes on Mars, and keeps going... and going... and going...

Oh and lets not forget the Morton Salt commercial after this! Hehe

(Apparently it has been discovered that it really poured on Mars in order to carve those huge canyons, but the water must have almost been as fast evaporating as it was condensing, that is, until the source of the condensation just... went away... (whatever (lack of geomagnetism to deflect solar wind) this means?) ... and thus we have now, contemporary understanding concerning the geological past upon Mars -- which will indirectly influence the study of terrestrial earth geology and thus opening more windows for to view into the past.)


BOY-O-BOY! When the earth's oceans filled up, it must have REALLY, REALLY, RAINED!!!

:star: Hey!

[Java]

Hehe... now I've got the little green guy jumping through hoops in my profile picture – there's quite a fine art to this!

[Glucose]

:) Awesome - looks very creative.

\ /
o o
> -----> there a human face.
i----i

[Java]

You know, I believe that little green guy has some great potential here! I'm thinking if it wasn't the little green guy, then I would probably have chosen a gnome to use with all these different backgrounds, but too many other people are already into this 'gnome' thing lately so I figured I would be just a bit different. hehe...

...and it's not easy being green! LOL

[bekahbeans]

Ummm..........how about totally off the board??? :blueeek: Seems to be the most pleasant place to be. lol


*sniffle* I miss your posts.

;)

[Java]

Bekah, I believe she still reads here from time to time... last I've heard.
(These whole boards are really getting slow post-wise lately.) *sigh*

[chsf]

oooh, that reminds me of something/somone

bluebottle or -wave or....-something anyway

[Java]

Funny thought (not related to anything said thus far)... somebody really should start a thread called "The Love Shack" somewhere down here kinda off the boards just to see what happens. hehe

Any volunteers?

[profoundfool]

Java, you always seem to find all the loopholes :)

And I once started a thread by that name in CA, but it was on the 2nd page only that day...Didn't exactly work out as I had anticipated...Heh

[Java]

I'm often finding myself jumping through hoops. There's even a picture in my profile with the little green guy jumping through some really big hoops.

Hmmm... loopholes :)
Just the thought started to send me through a loop... or was it supposed to be a hoop? hehe

[Java]

I have discovered that trying to photograph a kite 500' aloft, even if it's nearly 40' long overall, to get a decent picture is just about impossible unless I can find a telescope to use for a zoom lens...

But! ...I just had this idea. Maybe someday whenever they come out with a really cheap digital camera, I could doctor it up with a radio controlled shutter so I can mount this camera upon the underside of the kite to take aerial pictures!

*gears start turning*

[Java]

Mission Accomplished! :o)

[Miss_Sunshine]

Hi to whomever still lurks here :)

[Java]

Hey there! LOL
I'm beginning to think I should have named this thread something like "On the Outer Reaches of the Outer Beaches of the Rings Around Saturn" because it sure is out there... I mean really out there. LOL

[bekahbeans]

I'm bored.

So...I have a box, and I'm standing next to it cuz I didn't want to, you know, think inside it as that would go against the principles found in this thread. And I'm thinking:

These forums stink.

Hardly anyone posts any more. No one posts anything good, myself included. There's no inspiration. There are hardly any newbies to help keep it fresh - so no new ideas. Half of everyone has offended the other half so they left. Everyone just bickers about nothing and it's just annoying.

I am going to go pout now and contemplate my part in the downfall of this board.

Thank you.

[bluehorizonx10]

I have no clue why I have left this thread email notification in tact, but I did. So when you posted Bekah, I have to admit I was curious and read on. I think the light has just turned on for you. I'm sorry the view is not what we all wish it could be. But my prayers are still with all, no matter where I am or whether I ever come back here again or not. You're still that bright star that was unexpected in my life, and I won't ever forget your vivaciousness for life. God bless!

[Saddle_Up]

Does LD mean livedaily or learning disability?

[Java]

The way I see it, as with every communications medium of the past, they all have their haydays, and the haydays are passing for internet message boards now. I wonder what will be the next ~wonder~ to captivate the world of communications mediums?

[Java]

Wow... it's been awhile since I posted anything out here...

*Peeks inside the box to check up on the status of Schrödinger's Cat*

[Java]

The Cat Lives!
...but I think the cat must have got hungry and ate all the icons...

[profoundfool]

No icons. That explains why only sane people post here.

[Java]

Hey, you just might be onto something. A messageboard with no bells or whistles might be just the prefect place for the sane people to gather at!

[Java]

Hmmm... just a thought, could avatars be considered to be amongst the classification of 'bells and whistles' too?

[profoundfool]

No clue. I wish LD would recruit more adults and not just teenyboppers...I guess that would be too much to ask though.

[Java]

I wonder if there is a way to create a partitioned messageboard? Hmmm...(!)

[Java]

Hmmm...

vB code is Off
Smilies are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

When posting here, why is it there is a check mark defaulted to the little box beside 'Automatically parse links in text' in the 'Miscellaneous Options' field under the text box for typing posts when the code defaults won't allow this option to function to begin with? Somehow I'm thinking this particular check mark location in 'Miscellaneous Options' is actually and truly outside the box!

[Java]

With digital images such as pictures having at least 4 times the resolution needed if not more than our computer screens can currently display, I wonder how much longer it will be before high-definition computer screens finally get a foothold in the market along with the next generation of home tabletop quantum super-computers?

[Java]

Just a thought... I wonder if it would help LD finacially, if they were to set up a sales page to sell boxed sets called 'The Best Threads of liveDaily' on CDs at the end of each year? I imagine there might be at least a few folks if not more who may want copies to save for memories.

[Java]

I wonder if Richard has considered giving everyone who's been here a while about 1 MEG worth of free space located somewhere within our profiles or user cp to create on-site websites, blogs, or homepages and hopefully HTML enabled too, so that we can nest images, etc to make our websites look good? ...and with no pop-ups, but text banner ads would be acceptable.

Just a thought...

[Java]

This place has become so dead and deserted there's no point in even leaving behind a tombstone if there's nobody left to read it... *sigh*

Well, I guess I'll just post my latest rant into this vacuum of empty space here...

Am I the only one who has become thoroughly disgusted with the direction that most television programming has gone over the past years, with perhaps the exception of PBS, The NASA Channel, and CCTV-9 being the only three that I am personally aware of who's programming still maintains any level of standards for moral decency?

---edit add on---
Checking back nearly a week later and this place is still very very dead... just like most TV programming lately (with the exception of a very few) in my opinion, plus no comments here either. *sigh*

[Java]

New Rant (probably too big to post here but I'll try anyway...)

Anybody ever wondered why so little is being said about what's been going on underneith Mauna Loa lately?

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/current/main.html#seismic

...and here's something about this whole area which needs to be made aware of...

http://www.mbari.org/volcanism/Hawaii/HR-Landslides.htm

I don't know about anyone else, but it sure scares me!

[Java]

Another rant involving science and math... (I think this should have been called my rant thread, but anways...)

It is a known fact that the rotation of the Earth is gradually slowing. For four and one half billion years, its entire life, it has been slowing down. Ever since 1972 scientists have been adding "leap" seconds to keep the atomic clocks in sync with the earth's rotation. Between 1972 and 1997 they have added an astounding 21 leap seconds (all positive) to the earth's daily rotation. A problem arises if you do the math working backwards into time using that current rate and it creates an impossible senario well before reaching the four and one half billion year mark. Also, the constant struggle between gravitational force and the weakening angular momentum caused by the slowing of the Earth's rotation has had a profound effect on the shape of the Earth as well and thus its slightly oblate spheroid shape. Looking back in time, a 5% increase in the equatorial circumference of the Earth would produce approximately 1200 more miles of surface around the equatorial zone. As the Earth's rotation slows and its equitorial circumference becomes smaller, this produces the tectonic stresses which are responsible for earthquakes and volcanic activity to occur. Now back to the 21 leap seconds which were recorded to have been added between 1972 and 1997; I have a suspicion that if one plotted these upon a graph, a pattern would arise, and if this pattern were to be compared to the known melting rates of polar ice caps combined with glaciers, one will begin to see how the effects of global warming are all tied into this as the ice from the poles melts and flows towards the equator but at the same time has to pick up speed in doing so in order to match the Earth surface rotation speed as these massive volumes of water approach the equator. The only way possible for this incoming water to gain speed as it approaches the equator would be to borrow energy from the Earth's angular momentum and thus slowing its rotation speed. Now adding another dimension to this, if we can take a full account of the incoming BTUs from ALL sources into the Earth's ecosystem, including the BTUs produced as a final end product of the work being done by such things as petrol and electicity and see how much of these total incoming BTUs are being used to convert 32 F degree ice into 32 F degree water, one can only wonder how quickly global warming will accelerate once the available ice becomes more depleted...

Yes, there is indeed a problem, a very huge problem. Do the math if you dare.

[Java]

When are they ever going to be pruning this place?

[Java]

A year and a day later I look up at the stars at night only to realize that most every star out there has it's own planetary system around it and that's a whole lot of extrasolar planets each having their own unique environments like islands in the sky.

[Java]

Just a thought outside the box here, but 65 million years ago when the Chicxulub Crater was created by an asteriod impact associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Deccan Traps formed in India. I suspect this large area of rising magma was no coincidence either since the shockwaves from the Chicxulub Crater impact probably all met on the opposite side of the Earth from this impact and fracturing the Earth's mantle in the process, released the huge magma flows from deep within the Earth which created the Deccan Traps. This huge upsurge in rising magma was probably the culpret for producing the world-wide layer of Iridium that marks the fossilized boundry of the extinction of the dinosaurs too. My theory is that since Iridium shares many of the same chemical properties as gold, the two should occur in the same localities. Being that it is known from ancient records that a lot of the pharohs' gold in Egypt came from India during those times, I suspect there may still be a lot of gold still left within the Deccan Traps of India, but since physical wealth has not been a priority in India for thousands of years, though things are beginning to change now, the Deccan Traps of India may very well become the site of the world's next gold rush.

[Java]

......

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19060

"Scientists have found evidence that tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures may have once reached 107°F (42°C)—about 25°F (14°C) higher than ocean temperatures today and warmer than a hot tub. The surprisingly high ocean temperatures, the warmest estimates to date for any place on Earth, occurred millions of year ago when carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere were also high, but researchers say they may be an indication that greenhouse gases could heat the oceans in the future much more than currently anticipated. The study suggests that climate models underestimate future warming."

Hmmm... I suppose nobody has thought to consider the role the world's shrinking ice supply has in absorbing BTUs and what becomes of these BTUs as the ice disappears ...yet?

I don't think its a matter of who's going to try to tell the world to cut greenhouse emissions now, but rather who's going to tell the world that the Titantic has already hit the iceberg...

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19170


"Scientists were able to conduct the first-ever gravity survey of the entire Antarctic ice sheet using data from the joint NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). This comprehensive study found the ice sheet's mass has decreased significantly from 2002 to 2005.

Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr, both from the University of Colorado, Boulder, conducted the study. They demonstrated for the first time that Antarctica's ice sheet lost a significant amount of mass since the launch of GRACE in 2002. The estimated mass loss was enough to raise global sea level about 1.2 millimeters (0.05 inches) during the survey period; about 13 percent of the overall observed sea level rise for the same period. The researchers found Antarctica's ice sheet decreased by 152 (plus or minus 80) cubic kilometers of ice annually between April 2002 and August 2005.

That is about how much water the United States consumes in three months (a cubic kilometer is one trillion liters; approximately 264 billion gallons of water). This represents a change of about 0.4 millimeters (.016 inches) per year to global sea level rise. Most of the mass loss came from the West Antarctic ice sheet."

------------------------

Does anybody realize how many BTUs it takes to melt 152 cubic kilometers of ice?

If when there is no ice left to melt, and one puts these BTUs directly into heating the atmosphere instead... (remember this is only about 13 percent)

Do the math for just this 13 percent and if that doesn't scare you, try looking at 100 percent.

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19206

This was quoted from near the bottom of the article...

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters (0.12 inches) a year," Zwally said. "Current estimates of the other major sources of sea-level rise - expansion of the ocean by warming temperatures and runoff from low-latitude glaciers - do not make up the difference, so we have a mystery on our hands as to where the water is coming from. Continuing research using NASA satellites and other data will narrow the uncertainties in this important issue and help solve the mystery."

-------

Perhaps they overlooked how sea level can rise due to isostatic rebound after the weight of all this ice is removed from the earth's crust, and this rising land mass can displace a lot of water too, and thus cause sea levels to rise even more than just the water from the runoff alone?

My personal thoughts are that these specialist scientists desperately need to look at the bigger picture and incorporate multi-disciplined research into their work... like hire some geologists to work alongside them in this case? This would supply one of the parts to this mystery - the other would be the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation making sea levels rise higher towards the equator than at the poles (just as the atmophere is thicker near the equator than at the poles). One thing is for certain, a much larger budget needs to be directed towards NASA so these people can have the adequate resources available to work with and arrive at answers to puzzling questions without wasteful spending searching for these answers due to not having access to the full capacity of resources to work with in order to find these answers. If this under-budgeting for NASA continues we just may discover that we are already well on our way to becoming toast well after anything could have possibly been done to prevent it. Who knows, maybe we are...already. *sigh*

[FAJTAFan123]

I wonder if Richard has considered giving everyone who's been here a while about 1 MEG worth of free space located somewhere within our profiles or user cp to create on-site websites, blogs, or homepages and hopefully HTML enabled too, so that we can nest images, etc to make our websites look good? ...and with no pop-ups, but text banner ads would be acceptable.

Just a thought...


That would be cool. The picture idea I like the most. I have link to my MySpace profile which I blog at occasionally.

I really wish something would be done about the ads on the side of the page though. They get in th way when people post pics.

[Java]

Welcome to the board where all the vB codes, smilies, etc are turned off.

Anyway, I most definitely agree about having the ability to nest pictures in with the texts and having all those ads somewhere else less obtrusive, if not in a seperate link from a button at the top of the page or something, with perhaps some kind of incentive to get people to click on that button... like for every 5000th page viewed (excluding intentional page refreshing), the viewer who happens to land on that mark has the option to collect a pair of free concert tickets to a concert of their choice, or something like that...

Hmmm...(!)

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1100

Quote:

Up until early 2005 NASA's web pages were once on a path toward providing an ever-increasing level of detail regarding research activities on the International Space Station (ISS). Links to peer reviewed research and recent results were prominently featured. Not any more. In the past year that noteworthy effort has been reversed such that the amount of information presented (or the public to see at least) is disappearing at an alarming rate.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of the NASA Authorization Act that was signed into law last year. This law requires that a certain percentage of ISS research be dedicated to non-exploration related scientific research - and that the ISS be designated as a national research laboratory. NASA is dragging its feet on this issue. On 8 March 2006, the primary author - and proponent - of this legislation, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said :

"I am concerned that NASA is not counting ALL ISS Research in making their computation to meet the required 15% set-aside for non-Vision-related research. The figures they have provided--$14 million in FY 2006, $12.9 million in FY 07 and $12.8 million in FY 08-would mean the TOTAL ISS research budget is in the neighborhood of $85-100 million per year. That is simply not credible, in a space station annual budget of $1.7 billion in FY 06, $1.8 billion in FY 07 and $2.2 billion in FY 08."

When you visit NASA's Human Spaceflight home page and then go to the pull down menu and select space station|science you will see a generic page that hasn't changed much in several years (last update 26 June 2003). On it you will see the following wording (repeated here since NASA will eventually remove it).


"What in the world are we doing in space? Why spend the time and resources to build a laboratory in space when we have plenty of them on Earth?

The answer is a unique tool called microgravity. Microgravity (also called zero-g) opens a new universe of research possibilities. It unmasks phenomena that gravity on Earth can obscure. Research in microgravity has enabled new insights into what happens inside a fire, how soil grains shift during an earthquake, why certain thick fluids flow easily under pressure, and what is the best way to spray water onto a fire. In this relatively new microgravity environment, experiments continue to yield surprising effects for researchers.

Scientists are putting microgravity to work to understand the growth of proteins as near-perfect crystals (often not possible on Earth), allowing them to decode the protein's role in health or disease. Cells grown in space can also produce longer-lived cultures to help us understand the growth of tumors and perhaps give insight into how we might control this growth process.

Microgravity also causes subtle changes in the structure and functions of the brain, nerves, muscles, bones, the immune system, and other parts of the body. Studying these may help us improve health care on Earth while protecting the lives of astronauts in space.

NASA began this work in the earliest days of the space program and better understood its potential with research aboard the space shuttle in the 1980s and '90s. With the International Space Station, researchers from around the world can now conduct experiments that last for months, instead of the two weeks allowed on the space shuttle. And we can keep experiments in space longer, for a quicker follow-up when a scientist says, "Wow! What if I tried this?"

---------------- End Quote ----------------

This continues with a whole section concerning redirected links, etc too...

______________________________________________________

Does anyone know when the ISS will get its next reboost?

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19357

Arctic, Antarctic Melting May Raise Sea Levels Faster than Expected

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Thursday, March 23, 2006
Source: National Science Foundation

"Ice sheets covering both the Arctic and Antarctic could melt more quickly than expected this century, according to two studies that blend computer modeling with paleoclimate records. Led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Arizona, the studies show that by 2100, Arctic summers may be as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago when sea levels rose to 20 feet (6 meters) higher than they are today."

Cont...

...and...

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19360

NASA Scientist Claims Warmer Ocean Waters Reducing Ice Worldwide

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Friday, March 24, 2006
Source: Goddard Space Flight Center

"According to a NASA scientist, the pieces to a years-old scientific puzzle have come together to confirm warmer water temperatures are creeping into the Earth's colder areas. Those warm waters are increasing melting and accelerating ice flow in polar areas."

Cont...

-------------------

My thoughts are that this looks quite conclusive even without looking at the BTUs being exchanged. Now if the global BTU exchanges were to be formally recognized there would be no need for further questioning and the estimated acceleration of future melting would be in need of even further increases. Add to this the fact that once all this mass of ice starts leaving the earth's surface, isostatic rebound (the land mass rising upwards in response to decreased weight) will displace even more water than just the runoff alone, causing the sea levels to rise even farther than estimated.

Can society as a whole respond to this effectively since for the past few thousand years people have built port cities with expectations of permanence when in reality sea levels have been known and documented through geologic records to have risen and fallen in the past? There's not enough money or resources available to move one large port city, much less all the major port cities on the planet.

-------------------

And something else in the more immediate future to consider...

From: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/24mar_73p.htm?list24397

"In 1995, Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 did something unexpected: it fell apart. For no apparent reason, the comet's nucleus split into at least three "mini-comets" flying single file through space. Astronomers watched with interest, but the view was blurry even through large telescopes. "73P" was a hundred and fifty million miles away.

We're about to get a much closer look. In May 2006 the fragments are going to fly past Earth closer than any comet has come in almost eighty years."

Cont...

------------------

Let's just hope the dust and debris between all these fragments hasn't spread out too far because if we see anything like 15,000 meteors per hour in the skies during this event, not only will satellites be endangered but the larger they are the more likely they are to be hit. My opinion is that it's not wise to gamble on these ifs when there's a few people on the biggest satellite of them all - they need to be evacuated and save the questions for later.

[Java]

Just a note for those who want to keep up with all those bogeys headed our way, check out:

http://www.spaceweather.com

That string of comet fragments headed our way is continuing to break up into more and more fragments and can be easily seen through binoculars or backyard telescopes.

[Java]

Wow, it's still here!

Continuing... checking the website above now reveals quite a different story going on around us up in space... and they want to send STS-116 up on the most complex mission ever attempted during the middle of all this?(!!!)

...and have they got the right configuration calculated for where the new center of gravity will be once the new additions are placed upon the international space station? ...and how to perform the reboost to a higher orbit before atmospheric drag on such a large and expansive array creates a rather nasty situation?

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22793

NASA Space Shuttle Status Report 16 December 2006 - 10 a.m. CST

"The orientation of the shuttle and station is again being controlled by the station's control moment gyroscopes. Small shuttle thrusters had been controlling the orientation of the spacecraft since Friday, when an initial attempt to switch to gyroscope control was not successful. A second attempt Saturday worked. Flight controllers believe the difficulty was due to increased atmospheric drag resulting from recent solar activity."



So in other words are they saying the International Space Station is overdue for a reboost? ...and these guys are having to work outside to built it even larger as a solar radiation storm is going on too? It must take a special kind of person to become an astronaut, kosmonaut, etc. That's one really tough job that they got to really love in order to be able to do it!

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21551

NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks to Kick Off Year Four

"NASA's twin Mars rovers, nearing the third anniversary of their landings, are getting smarter as they get older.

The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers. Spirit will begin its fourth year on Mars on Jan. 3 (PST); Opportunity on Jan. 24. In addition to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four new skills included in revised flight software uploaded to their onboard computers.

One of the new capabilities enables spacecraft to examine images and recognize certain types of features. It is based on software developed for NASA's Space Technology 6 "thinking spacecraft.""

Continues...

What I think they've done is amazing, maybe even eliminating the need for future manned spaceflights to Mars!

[Java]

From: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1188
-----------------
Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
By Craig Covault, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Cape Canaveral
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Courtesy of Aviation Week & Space Technology and Aviationnow.com

U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.
--------------------cont...
The attack is believed to have occurred as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province. Xichang is a major Chinese space launch center.

Although intelligence agencies must complete confirmation of the test, the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11. U. S. intelligence agencies had been expecting some sort of test that day, sources said.

U. S. Air Force Defense Support Program missile warning satellites in geosynchronous orbit would have detected the Xichang launch of the asat kill vehicle and U. S. Air Force Space Command monitored the FY-1C orbit both before and after the exercise.

The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites.
-------------------cont...


Personally, I don't suspect China would have been so unwise to have tested an asat weapon at this great an altitude as they or anyone else would have known that the space debris left behind in its ever speading orbit wouldn't be falling back to earth anytime soon, and with continued speading it would also endanger other satellites including those that China has already sent up as well as creating unacceptable dangers for any of their own future planned spaceflights. Besides, if the collision occured over China, then where would the asat have been launched from? It's not easy to hit a moving target from a 90 degree approach as one would need to have the asat in the right place at the *right time* without even a nanosecond of error. If in turn an asat had been launched from somewhere else and having enough time to become lined up for a headon collision, it would only be a metter of being in the right place. (This would put the launch site outside of China) However, I suspect the chinese weather satellite was hit by space debris (which there is plenty of), and now this in turn has created more space debris in a polar orbit which will cross over the orbits of just about everything up there in non-geosychronous orbits once the debris field spreads out. Although this may seem like back page news right now, what I personally see is the beginnings of a cascade of further collisions between space debris and other satellites, which in turn will be creating their own debris fields as well and accelerating exponentially into a full blown disaster that may have long lasting consequences both for future spaceflight as well as anything on the ground which relies upon spaceflight or satellites in orbit. Almost any astrophysicist who knows even the basics of why some extrasolar systems never form planets but yet have dust and dibris discs will realise the same math can be applied to the space debris in orbit around the earth along with all the still intact satellites and what the projected results will become in a matter of time.