Friday, November 7, 2008

Real science: It's human to litter!

NASA Astronaut Clay Anderson had dumped "a tank of toxic ammonia coolant the size of a fridge" "from the International Space Station in June 2007". Of course, after a year, it was falling down to earth!

When I first read about it a few days back, the best NASA could do was to "track it". There was no way of knowing where it would fall on earth, & of course no way of preventing a major disaster should it fall on a population center. Odds are low, I know. But ask someone who gets unlucky!

Now io9 reports the debris that survived reentry has fallen "into the ocean between Australia and New Zealand". "The end result was estimated at around 15 pieces ... each one somewhere between 1.4 ounces and 40 pounds."

Only strengthens the belief that no agency, however esteemed, can be trusted to act responsibly! I mean, it must be human nature to litter - since it saves the cost & effort of safe waste disposal.

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