I have some questions concerning sending items into space.

1) When we send satellites into orbit around Earth does it slightly affect the planet's obliquity? Can that have an affect on weather patterns?

2) How many deep space explorers, other-planetary rovers and other vessels not designed to return to Earth can we send out before the Earth loses enough mass to change either is orbit or the Moon's orbit?

3) What if we send an orbiter to a gas giant, like Uranus, et al., the orbiter malfunctions, crashes into the flammable component of the planet and catches it on fire?

Ok, that's all I need to know tonight. Thanks.

I think the Chinese damning up the Yangtze River causes more wobble and rotation issues.

Also, unless there is gaseous O2 for a fire, it likely ain’t gonna happen. Those gas giants are cold, and in the case of Jupiter (which Irrc 200x the mass of earth) not even a string of shoemaker/levy did much ( would have destroyed earth).

The moon is slowly leaving us already.

Relax bro ... sleep tight.

1) Yes but undetectable

2) No we lose a lot of material to solar wind, us shooting a few tons into space won't matter. Also most of the weight is fuel which is burnt within our atmosphere.

3) If the giant balls of fire (asteroids, meteorites, comets, and planetesimals) hasn't caught one on fire, we are very unlikely to.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
... relax bro ... sleep tight.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
... If the giant balls of fire (asteroids, meteorites, comets, and planetesimals) hasn't caught one on fire, we are very unlikely to.

It would be cool though.

The mass leaving Earth is of no consequence--much more mass than that falls onto the Earth from Space in the form of dust, micrometeorites, and charged particles than ever departs.

If a spacecraft carrying as part of its fuel some liquid oxygen were to crash into one of the gas giants, I presume there'd be a (relatively) small fire. But as soon as that oxygen was consumed, the fire would go out.

I think I'd prefer to worry more about something happening to ignite fusion in Jupiter, which is essentially a small star that never started up. (It didn't have enough mass to force ignition.)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
... I think I'd prefer to worry more about something happening to ignite fusion in Jupiter, which is essentially a small star that never started up. (It didn't have enough mass to force ignition.) ...

Yeah, that was actually a good book.

1.) No. No.

2.) As many as we want as it won't make a shit's bit of difference.

3.) It would burn up and life would go on just like yesterday.

1. Tiny immeasurable difference.

2. Even millions would be (see #1).

3. No O2 for such a fire. Methane and hydrogen require oxygen to burn. Recall when Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter?

Adding a billion people to the planet every 20 years would do more than all the space junk combined.

I am more worried that the population will continue to increase in India, some child will be born an idiot savant mathematician who will accidentally divide by zero, and fuck us all.

.

Hey Mark, if you misplaced something in Earth's orbit you can find it here

http://StuffIn.Space/

They track Satellites, Rocket Bodies, and Debris. Click on the object, and it will even group all of the stuff floating around that came from the same launch as the object you selected.

Make sure you zoom all the way out to see the stuff that really is, way out there!

But also zoom up close to your part of the world to see what is floating above you ~ then stick your head out the window and try to find it to confirm it is passing over and not crashing down!

Only if they crowded to one edge of the Earth.
Then? We d tip.

quote:

Originally posted by Shaql:
Adding a billion people to the planet every 20 years would do more than all the space junk combined.

But that's all the same stuff. Adding more people doesn't add mass to the planet.

quote:

Originally posted by Shaql:
Adding a billion people to the planet every 20 years would do more than all the space junk combined.

Conservation of mass.

The people don't come from space, their mass is made up of materials already on the planet surface--mostly water and carbon.

quote:

Originally posted by sleepla8er:
.

Hey Mark, if you misplaced something in Earth's orbit you can find it here

http://StuffIn.Space/

They track Satellites, Rocket Bodies, and Debris. Click on the object, and it will even group all of the stuff floating around that came from the same launch as the object you selected.

Make sure you zoom all the way out to see the stuff that really is, way out there!

But also zoom up close to your part of the world to see what is floating above you ~ then stick your head out the window and try to find it to confirm it is passing over and not crashing down!

Awesome!

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by Shaql:
Adding a billion people to the planet every 20 years would do more than all the space junk combined.

But that's all the same stuff. Adding more people doesn't add mass to the planet.

Unless all that birds and beez jazz is bupkis, and the womb is simply a worm whole from another galaxy or dimension or sumthin'...