GOCE reenter earth with no idea of landing site

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/GOCE/GOCE_gives_in_to_gravity

by vinlimyh • 13 years ago

5 4 13 years ago

lotsofcows• 13 years ago

This has hit a couple of new sites I read but I'm still not sure what the story is.

Something that was never intended to land doesn't have a landing site. In related news, my can of coke doesn't have a landing site either.

deletes• 13 years ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6702472

http://www.n2yo.com/ says: GOCE has re-entered the atmosphere

Here is a good description on what happened: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/satellite-falls-ear...

exDM69• 13 years ago

The title of this post is misleading and inaccurate. The original title was "GOCE gives in to gravity".

Further, the post says: "GOCE satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere on a descending orbit pass that extended across Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica."

While this may seem like a rather wide area, there's still a very good idea where the debris re-entered. "No idea" is very far from the truth. Given that it is known which orbit it fell on, that already excludes most of the Earth's surface area. What is left is a narrow, sinusoidal line (the ground track), which is a rather good estimate where it fell. As far as I know, there are no better observations (ie. radar tracking) available, but we've still got a decent estimate.

Please change this shameful link bait title to better match HN guidelines about post submissions.

nknighthb• 13 years ago

It's even less accurate than you think. Its reentry was photographed from the Falklands.

http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2013/11/11/goce-burning-l...

GOCE reenter earth with no idea of landing site

Related Stories