blogtecaolivelli

ASTRO....

fonte: Internet

Astronews a cura di Massimiliano Razzano

• Space Station Sacrifices Progress Module to Dump Trash into Pacific

After all the excitement about last week's successful

docking of the European ATV "Jules Verne", it's time

 to spare a thought for its Russian predecessor.

The Progress 28 module was filled with rubbish

and 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, sinking

into the satellite graveyard 3000 km east of the

New 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 the

Progress 28 module attached patiently to the Russian

-built Pirs docking compartment. After astronauts had

salvaged reusable parts from the Progress module and

filled 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 sound

unsavoury, 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 a

controlled disposal, dumping trash into a used module and

blasting it into a re-entry trajectory. Littering Earth orbit

 is a critical problem, so space agencies are doing the best

they can to send potential debris to Earth where most of it

can burn up in the atmosphere. Anything left over falls into

a predetermined "satellite graveyard" in the worlds largest ocean.