4 ms·
what 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...
by gcb0 9y ago
what 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