fonte: InternetAstronews a cura di Massimiliano RazzanoSpace Station Sacrifices Progress Module to Dump Trash into Pacific
After all the excitement about last week's successfuldocking of the European ATV "Jules Verne", it's time to spare a thought for its Russian predecessor.The Progress 28 module was filled with rubbishand unneeded equipment, quietly severed from its docking bay and steered toward Earth. On Monday at 0850 GMT, the selfless module dropped through the atmosphere, burned and eventually reached the Pacific Ocean, sinkinginto the satellite graveyard 3000 km east of theNew Zealand coast...On February 5th, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched the Progress 28 cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) to ferry supplies to the astronauts in orbit.This mission started a
very busy period for space traffic controllers. Soon after Progress 28 was sent on its way,Space Shuttle Atlantis blasted off to take the
Columbus module to be installed on the station. Then at the start of this month, ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) sat patiently in an
orbital holding pattern until the shuttle undocked and flew back to Earth. Then on April 3rd, the ATV carried out a flawless
approach and docking procedure with the ISS.Watching over all this action on the station was theProgress 28 module attached patiently to the Russian-built Pirs docking compartment. After astronauts hadsalvaged reusable parts from the Progress module andfilled it full of trash, the time came on April 7th to say Spokojnoj Nochi (Russian for "Good Night") to the ill-fated supply ship to make room for the two Russians and one South Korean to arrive after the
Soyuz launch yesterday.Dropping supply modules into the Pacific may soundunsavoury, but it remains the only viable option to dispose of rubbish and unwanted material when in space. Simply jettisoning it into space cannot be done, there must be acontrolled disposal, dumping trash into a used module andblasting it into a re-entry trajectory. Littering Earth orbit is a critical problem, so space agencies are doing the bestthey can to send potential debris to Earth where most of itcan burn up in the atmosphere. Anything left over falls intoa predetermined "satellite graveyard" in the worlds largest ocean.
