Curious story in AFP yesterday:
Full story here – Click the image above for a large view of the object.
Me thinks it is from either of these spacecraft:
The Vostok had a whole ring of spherical tanks, and maybe and old piece of space junk from one of the old service modules finally came home.
Only the main sphere is kept in re-entry, everything else is discarded.
Though given the trajectory when the service package is jettisoned, and because Vostok flight was in the early 1960’s, it seems doubtful such objects would remain in orbit, though possible if they “skipped” off the atmosphere after jettison.
Another candidate is the Soyuz, still in use today:
Under the shroud of the instrumentation support module there are a number of spherical tanks, as seen in this diagram:
Hi Anthony,
The tank is from a Salyut 7 – Kosmos 1686 spacecraft. It is made of titanium and was used to store helium.
See: http://www.bimsociety.org/gallery/Salyut%207%20-%20Kosmos%201686%20Helium%20Tank/dirindex.html
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Looks right:
Roy Spencer thinks it is a hydrazine tank:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2011/12/spaceballs/
Probably a standard interchangeable tank used on many spacecraft. Russians tend to reuse a lot of technology.
If you loved the old simulation moon landers from the early days of computers, there is a new software package that allows you to design, build and fly your own craft. My daughter and I are competing to see who gets out of orbit regularly first. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ The physics package is supposed to be correct. What you do with your design is up to you.
Warning, this game should come with a warning. It can easily become addicting, causing issues like wrist fatigue and carpel tunnel, from having to much fun.
Uhhh, the gods must be crazy
Would they survive impact, though?
Hi Anthony,
The tank is from a Salyut 7 – Kosmos 1686 spacecraft. It is made of titanium and was used to store helium.
See: http://www.bimsociety.org/gallery/Salyut%207%20-%20Kosmos%201686%20Helium%20Tank/dirindex.html
Niels
Aren’t these balls predicted by one of the GCM’s??
Thought I read in the AR4 a warning that as the earth warmed due to human emissions of CO2, steel balls could fall from the sky. Could be wrong, maybe it was a pre-press release of AR5.
There could be religious significance here too….The Gods Must Be Crazy III??
104 Litre Hydrazine Propellant Tank: Model OST 31/0
http://cs.astrium.eads.net/sp/spacecraft-propulsion/propellant-tanks/104-litre-hydrazine-propellant-tank.html
Buckyballs… the Buck stops here.
Yahoo comments suggested this one:
http://cs.astrium.eads.net/sp/spacecraft-propulsion/propellant-tanks/104-litre-hydrazine-propellant-tank.html
The weight between the two is pretty spot on, but the “space ball” has a smaller radius. This could be due to reentry, corrosion and/or simply how it was measured (i.e. from the pole mounting).
Everybody is liking the spaceballs! Roy Spencer has the spaceball and a photo of a hydrazine tank too:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2011/12/spaceballs/
Niels:
Great catch 🙂
Not from Phobos/Grunt?
It’s 1.1 meters in diameter and weighs 6 kg.
It has low density- surface area of human and far lighter. Human has terminal velocity of 180 mph.
So this might fall around 100 mph?
Yet it makes:
“a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide”
If from space it would fall vertically and making such a deep hole seems unlikely. And “3.8 meters wide” makes no sense.
In others words since it has low density I would think it would lose any orbital velocity and fall at it’s terminal velocity.
If it was filled with water or liquid oxygen/nitrogen it would be far more density- weigh a ton instead 6 kg and impact at a much higher velocity.
A number of these spheres have survived re-entry over the years. There is even a collection, Here is a listing:
http://reentrynews.aero.org/recovered.html
Nah, it’s just Stewie’s head.
Read much?
That would be circumference. The diameter is specified as 35 cm. The difference is pi (π)
Very interesting – thanks for posting!
I think it is Globull Warning Balls.
@ur momisugly gbaikie says:
December 23, 2011 at 9:36 am
It’s 1.1 meters in diameter and weighs 6 kg.
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You misread. 1.1 meters in circumference, not diameter.
a space coconut.
The internet is an amazing place. Show a weird object, and within a few hours someone out there will identify it. Amazing.
Wasn’t there some big issue years ago…about a mysterious Coke fell from the sky in Africa? Or maybe I am just Crazy…
This is unequivocal, most likely caused by humans, poses a dire threat to all life on earth, will only increase in frequency with life on earth completely transformed by the year 2020. In a sense, it was a confirmation of what we knew was going to happen anyway. The thing that worries is the rate of change, the pace at which this is going to happen. This has been a wake-up call; the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the world.
The only responsible solution is to set up a large bureaucratic agency, throw billions of tax dollars at it and establish a space balls tax/trading scheme.
“It’s 1.1 meters in diameter”
1.1 meters in circumference, not diameter
Gaia has balls after all… they found one of them.
Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs: the T-shirt, Spaceballs: the coloring book, Spaceballs: the lunch box, Spaceballs: the breakfast cereal, Spaceballs: the flamethrower–the kids love this one–last but not least, Spaceballs: the debris!