Recent comments in /f/space

zx7 t1_jdbbdhe wrote

>The tug boat NASA is building for $80 million could just as easily push up as it does down.

"Just as easily." It's much easier to deorbit something. Just decelerate it enough so that it's orbit intersects with the atmosphere. You can't just "push up" and expect the ISS to maintain a nice, circular orbit around the Earth.

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SmokyDragonDish t1_jdb8p5k wrote

I drove from New Jersey to South Carolina to see the eclipse.

About 5 minutes before totality, this big-ass cumulus cloud covered the sun. At totality, the sun was completely covered. I could see the horizon all around, and it looked like sunset, but I couldn't see the sun.

Five minutes after totality, the cloud left.

I was soooo close...

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Bigjoemonger t1_jdb5ev8 wrote

Why would any be saved? They can't be reused for anything. Any thoughts of saving anything is a child's fantasy. It has no grounding in reality.

Where is this millions of dollars of cost to deorbit coming from that you keep talking about?

Detach the module. Fire thrusters to slow the module down. It falls to earth. That's how deorbiting works.

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