3 more objects found outside shuttle

[arcos]

3 more objects found outside shuttle

HOUSTON - Shuttle astronauts spotted three pieces of debris floating in space outside Atlantis early Wednesday, a day after the discovery of two other mysterious objects forced a postponement of the landing.

Atlantis commander Brent Jett described the objects as two rings and a piece of foil. He told Mission Control the first object, about 100 feet from the shuttle, was "a reflective cloth or a mechanic looking-cloth. ... It's not a solid metal structure."

"It doesn't look like anything I've seen outside the shuttle," Jett said.

The astronauts noticed the objects during an extensive inspection of the space shuttle using a 50-foot-boom early Wednesday to see if its heat shield was damaged by a mysterious object that apparently floated off the spacecraft.

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060920/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle

[Demeter]

1. Litter From Alien Sightseers?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Why are these 'objects'

floating with the Shuttle. Shouldn't the shuttle be going faster around the earth then anything floating around? I understand there's a lot of debris up there but to be in the same orbit and going at the same speed has the shuttle seems odd?

[skids]

4. That's why...

...they are prone to wonder if they came off the shuttle.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. So if they didn't

come off of the shuttle?

[skids]

28. They could have hit it and bounced off at very low speed.

Inelastic collision.

[Occulus]

31. If that were the case

wouldn't the objects be receding in space from the body of the shuttle? Can't they detect that?

It's probably some things that came out when they opened something up on the shuttle. Sorry; I don't know any specifics of their mission this time around, so I can't say whether the shuttle's bay was opened or not. If so, something probably escaped when that happened.

What are the chances that they would encounter debris from a previous mission orbiting with them on this one?

Do we have photos of the objects?

[sofa king]

35. It's almost certainly something from the shuttle.

The chances that the shuttle has managed to almost precisely match orbits with any of the 100,000 or so other pieces of junk in orbit is very low. And yes, I worded that sentence carefully.

Since the pieces of junk are described as foil and a ring, my first guess is that they are actually pieces of the robot arm itself. But the arm is only in operation when the vehicle's bay doors are open, so any stray trash left behind in there could have come loose. Such things have certainly happened before.

The good news is that there really isn't anything like that described in the article on the outside of the ship, so unless they're hinge parts for the bay doors, everything should be cool.

[IDemo]

22. objects in the 'same' orbit will move at the same speed

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. Doesn't the shuttle

use their rockets to change their speed and orbit?

Floating objects stay the same but the shuttle doesn't.

[reprobate]

25. And object in different orbits will move with vastly different speeds.

That's why even a peice of cloth or foil is capable of doing vast destruction to any craft in a different orbit, say on at the same altitude but opposite direction.

[katsy]

3. question...

Can they get back to the space station?

Would it be possible for Russia to send help?

[mtnester]

5. I think Russion is already up and flying right now

Cosmotourist flight.

[katsy]

8. Are they going to the space station?

[mtnester]

9. I thought I heard they were making a stopover

but I would not swear to that.

[lse7581011]

13. The Russians Did Dock At The Space Station

according to this morning's news.

[tanyev]

11. Co$motouri$t.

[mtnester]

21. I thought that word was apt

Would I ever pay $20 million dollars to do it? No.

[Occulus]

33. Would I if I had $20 million to burn?

No. I'd probably find a way to build my own craft and go up whenever I wanted.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Hopefully, it's nothing off the underside...

All in all, it's not good if your spacecraft is disintegrating...:(

[magellan]

7. Phasers would be handy right about now

Or failing that, the US military's new laser weapon.

[mtnester]

10. Transporters too

I always wanted one of those, especially if I am a 2 hours drive from home and ate too much food and tomorrow is a work day and it is already 8:00 pm.

[magellan]

19. Beaming your particles around the place?

I dunno. Look at how dependable network connections are.

Heck, I'd be happy with my promised and long-overdue jet-pack!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

37. You don't have one yet?

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. I think if something was smart enough

to find us and actually get here, we shouldn't need phasers.

[magellan]

17. Oh indubitably

But if something was smart enough to find us and get here, I don't think it would be dumb enough to let us get a fix on it! :)

[Occulus]

34. Yes, let's go around shooting things we can't identify.

How about we maneuver in close, send out the boom, and grab it for study instead?

Whatever it is. Cloth, marbles, a bag of frozen McChicken sandwiches. Who cares. What is it? How'd it get there? And such.

Science, man. What's them UFOs comin' 'round our ship?

[magellan]

36. We do it all the time on the ground

You know, the sanctity of life and all, except when a terra-rist might be lurking in the shadows. Then it's shoot first, avoid questions later.

It's undoubtedly a very good thing shuttles aren't armed.

[LeftHander]

12. McDonalds's burger pod most likely...nt

[HereSince1628]

14. Packing from in-between heat shield tiles?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

18. American craftmanship is going to hell in a handbasket. n/t

[FSogol]

20. We have polluted Space.

Cosmonaut Woodsy says, "Hoot-hoot, Don't Pollute"

[Drifter]

24. My guess is that ...

This shit floating around has always been there. It is only now that they are looking for/at this stuff in great details.

Cheers
Drifter

[reprobate]

26. Just when, oh when are we going to mothball this antiquated fleet of

patched together space junk and build a modern current technology manned orbital insertion vehicle?

Space flight is dangerous enough without subjecting the crews to the dangers of death from component failure that any antique like these are subject to after all the heat, compression and decompression, etc that they have been put thru for decades.

America, technological leader? Not any more. After all, science flies in the face of the true word of Gawd as expressed by his/her own hand in the Wholey Babble.

[HuffleClaw]

27. someone didn't put their legos away after playing?

[MaineDem]

29. Cleared to land tomorrow

Shuttle program boss Wayne Hale says the management team has cleared Atlantis for entry tomorrow. No damage was found in today's inspections. Landing at Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 6:21 a.m. EDT.

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts115/status.html

[Parche]

30. space the final frontier

The 3objects found floating in space were, 'George Allen's Macaca' 'Lynne Cheneys used broomstick'
and last 'Dick Cheney's heart'

[sakabatou]

32. Space junk.

It's everywhere.

[VegasWolf]

38. Just the empty beer cans. Things at NASA have gone downhill since Bush.