5 ms·
None really for this one. They're not controlling the descent at all as far as anyone has been able to tell, there's just been a steady degradation of the orbit
by rtkwe 9y ago
None really for this one. They're not controlling the descent at all as far as anyone has been able to tell, there's just been a steady degradation of the orbit since it's last reboost years ago.
- adventured 9y agoChina, in typical China fashion, denied they lost control of the station right up to the end. "Western space experts say they believe China has lost control of the station. China's chief space laboratory designer Zhu Zongpeng has denied Tiangong was out of control, but hasn't provided specifics on what, if anything, China is doing to guide the craft's re-entry." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiangong-1-tracking-the-chinese-satellite-falling-to-earth/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiangong-1-tracking-the-chinese...
- gcb0 9y agowhat if that is their design and everything is going well with the plan? so well it didn't require a noticeable correction since the orbit move a year ago...
- rtkwe 9y agoThat's probably impossible to do. Slight variations in atmospheric densities even in the last days/weeks leading up to the final reentry can change the final reentry time by 1/6th or more of an orbit. Wired did an article about a small simplistic model check it out. So managing a 'controlled' reentry from 2+ years out is just too complex to be done now, maybe ever it depends on a lot of different variables. https://www.wired.com/story/you-can-model-chinas-tiangong-1-space-station-crash/ https://www.wired.com/story/you-can-model-chinas-tiangong-1-...
- rtkwe 9y agoFor further example: as of right now ESA still gives a 4 hour window for the reentry which is a really wide swath of the Earth that it could fall onto. https://twitter.com/esa/status/980492830081679361 https://twitter.com/esa/status/980492830081679361