A bright idea NOT

[Davey-T]

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/russia-set-to-launch-brightest-star-in-the-night-sky-and-astronomers-are-not-happy/ar-BBDtT8M?li=BBoPRmx&ocid=TSHDHP

Dave

Apologies for the MSN link

[wookie1965]

Unbelievable how stupid.

[Macavity]

I thought the following was a "bit annoying" but...
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-japanese-company-wants-to-rain-down-artificial-shooting-stars-over-the-tokyo-olympics

[Davey-T]

We had a lucky escape from the EU giant wheel now this stupid idea in the name of science, unbelievable.

Dave

[Dave In Vermont]

Maybe crowd-flash some more money and go take the thing out? I'll buy the black spray-paint.

Dave

[xtreemchaos]

on the Brightside  its going to give us something to shoot if these cloud ever go away my quark need counceling. charl.

[kilix]

4 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Maybe crowd-flash some more money and go take the thing out? I'll buy the black spray-paint.

Dave

yeah, a proper crowd-funding-space-battle ensues.

First of its kind.

[Davesellars]

Bizarre.

Still, doesn't sound like it's going to be that bright though.....  Certainly not enough to affect astronomy?

Perhaps time to start regulating what actually goes up in to Orbit and creating yet more junk.

[Droogie 2001]

I read about this earlier. Will it stay up indefinitely or will it eventually burn up. If so how long before it will? Does it have any means of power?

Does seem ridiculous though they are trying to sell the idea about trying to capture space junk with it. If so why does it have to made of material that will make it so bright?

This seems to come out of nowhere which is a worry as it is a potentially annoying object for all forms of astronomy.

 

[Erla]

... I just hope that stated research in space junk destruction will be self-destruction of this half-baked idea. If not - let's all buy lasers and point to it - maybe it will go away

[Dave Lloyd]

Back in the 60s the Soviet Union were researching putting giant mirrors in orbit to direct sunlight onto areas of Siberia increasing agricultural space.

[Dave In Vermont]

Worse: McDonalds came within ONE VOTE in the US Congress to have NASA launch them a giant Mylar-Gold Golden Arches to fly around the Earth every 90 minutes.

Worser: A physicist in Lincoln, Massachusetts I knew was approached by the US Military to design a GIANT magnifying-glass to plant in orbit "...to collect Solar-Energy to power our GROUND-STATIONS!" He fed them a long spiel of why this wouldn't work.

Ants on the sidewalk, anyone?

Dave <sizzzzzzle...>

[sheeprug]

It looks like it's been launched.

https://www.rbth.com/science_and_tech/2017/07/14/russia-launches-first-satellite-built-with-the-help-of-crowdfunding_803402

Let's hope it fails to live up to the hype.

SR.

[Debo]

It's all too depressing, please let it fail.

[Paul73]

A rival crowd funded space project springs to mind......

[Davey-T]

The main scientific goal, however, is to test an aerodynamic braking system for satellites that will enable them to return to Earth without using an engine. This will make removing orbital space debris much cheaper.

So let's hope they test out that bit soon 

Dave

[michaelmorris]

If it is designed to test an aerobraking surely it will deorbit itself pretty quickly.

[Droogie 2001]

Finally some sort of confirmation of how long this stupid piece of space junk will be in orbit.
According to this link it will be at least 3 months or so....Less hope it fails before then...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/17/russian_satellite_mayak/

I am going to look for a wall to bang my head against....

[SilverAstro]

Has anyone seen TLE's for MAYAK ? HeavensAbove have predicts for Kanopus (the primary payload) but MAYAK , along with the many others was put into a different orbit. How different I dont yet know and I've not found thisun therein  

So if the sky ever clears should we look for passes of Kanopus on the assumption that MAYAK will not be far away  ( there was quite some time delay and much re-orientation of the launch vehicle  between deployments )

 

[Dave In Vermont]

According to a new article I found floating about, HeavensAbove is thought to be rather inaccurate thus far:

About the Mayak Satellite and how to Locate and View Same.pdf

Be a shame if it met with an 'accident'.....Maybe we're not the only one's a bit upset by this sophmoric space-faring stunt from some rich kids in Moscow.

Ack!

Dave

 

[Moonshane]

I don't see all the fuss really. It's a bit of fun and will be back to Earth soon enough. Increasing interest in Science amongst young people has surely got to be a good thing? Whatever you think of space junk, putting something into orbit (and if they do, getting it back down again in one piece) is pretty impressive.

[wimvb]

Hopefully those kids aren't good at origami, and the thing won't deploy.

In which case there is another piece of space debris up there.

The discussion isn't/shouldn't be about destroying the night sky, but more about whether anyone with a few bucks to spare can launch anything into orbit. Next time the sail may be larger and longer lasting.

[SilverAstro]

4 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

According to a new article I found floating about, HeavensAbove is thought to be rather inaccurate thus far:

Thanks for the info, yes I see it is now listed on their front page ("satellites of special interest") I must have been a few minutes too early when I looked !

They are showing it as varying between about mag+/-1.5 so maybe not yet unfurled ? Or maybe an actuator has failed,  when I was specifying/designing spacecraft antenna un-furling mechanisms were to be avoided if poss. ! but that was a few decades ago !! we can still hope  

All I want now is for these clouds to go away

 

[Moonshane]

The problem is that nobody owns the night sky so you need global  cooperation to control it. Good luck with that! 

[SilverAstro]

So much opprobrium, so very few observations.