Uhhhh is anyone else a little nervous?? Mir soon to land..

[Mickyhoo]

I live in the supposedly "safe" region of North America..
And I am a little nervous about the re-entry of Mir..

How do you Aussies and New Zealanders who are supposedly closer to where it will "splash" down feel??

How accurately do you think they can pin point this??

Even NORAD is tracking it very closely... and may move our level of alert up as it comes closer... Any thoughts guys?

It is only a few days away now. And when Spacelab fell, parts did hit Austraila I believe.. not in an inhabited area, but that was years ago and was MUCH smaller than Mir.

http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0200&id=0103110901547818

[Mickyhoo]

uhhhhhh... Brainiac here just read the rest of the story.. and parts of Skylab DID land in a remote area of Austraila in 1979... gee see what you can learn by reading the WHOLE story???

{dunce}

[Karenluvs6]

yeah, I'm a little nervous too.
We were just talking about this the other day.
Beezwax was wondering when this was supposed to happen.
Thanks for the link!!

do you think we'll see parts of MIR on ebay?? LOL

[keithster]

Statistically speaking, I would guess that you have a greater chance of geting hit by lightening, which is one of my favorite pasttimes. :)

Have they stated any statistics on this thing falling in any one particular area?

[Mickyhoo]

No one will give out statistics on it.. But Russia has taken out a HUGE (by Russian standards) insurance policy. They are most worried about the Asian Pacific Islands. Especially the smaller ones.

BTW I KNOW we will see parts of MIR on E-Bay!!

[Mickyhoo]

Earth catches a lot of outer space garbage. But although as much as 150 tons of it, primarily from meteorites, slams into our planet each year, apparently only seven people have ever been hit by the stuff.
(Source: ISAAC ASIMOV'S BOOK OF FACTS)

[Zephyrus]

Yeah, I'm getting pretty worried down here as well, I just hope that the Russians didn't do a little cost-cutting exercise when they were calculating where it will splash down (approx. 900km from the eastern coast of Oz)...!

Which reminded me, I read somewhere that the chances of one of the Iridium satellites hitting someone on Earth were 1/250?! Good thing the Pentagon took up the lease for another two years...!

And yeah, I would definitely want to buy a little piece of Mir! Imagine that! {toothy}

[Mickyhoo]

Gee Zeph.. 900 klicks is not that far.. you may not have to BUY a piece of Mir.. you may have one land in your front yard!!! :D

[Zephyrus]

Yeah, I realised that...I think I'm insured against meteors, aeroplanes, helicopters etc. hitting my house, as well as other "Acts of God" (as they so carefuly call it)! But somehow if it did hit my house I think that they'd find a way NOT to pay us (i.e. MIR wasn't a meteor, nor an aeroplane, nor an act of God, but rather an act of Russians, which isn't stated in the contract...{toothy})!