woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Everchangin'
|
|
Wear your aluminum foil hats this afternoon!
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/11/09/2000-pound-satelli...
Who do you sue if you’re hit by a satellite?
A defunct satellite from the European Space Agency the size of a Chevy Suburban is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Sunday night and Monday
afternoon -- and experts say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash.
GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, ran out of gas last month and has been steadily sinking towards the Earth. As the
planet rotates, the satellite whizzes over nearly every point on Earth. Experts expect it to plunge harmlessly into the oceans that cover 70 percent
of the surface of the planet. But what if it doesn’t? What if it takes out your old Accord?
Making Odds
Gambling houses will take bets on more or less anything. Here's the odds (as of Saturday morning) on the GOCE satellite crashing down on different
continents, British gaming company Ladbrokes told FoxNews.com.
North and South America: 6/4
Russia and Asia: 2/1
Africa: 4/1
Europe: 5/1
Australia: 10/1
Bets are void if it lands in the sea, the company noted
“Basically, governments are responsible for their own spacecraft,” explained Marcia S. Smith, president of the Space and Technology Policy Group in
Arlington, Va. “[If] you could prove a piece of GOCE hit your Honda, you could go to your government to make a claim,” she told FoxNews.com.
But don’t put the ESA’s lawyer on speed dial just yet. Most of the fragments of the satellite are likely to burn up on re-entry, said Heiner Klinkrad,
Head of ESA’s Space Debris Office according to an ESA blog.
“Most of these fragments will completely burn up. A small fraction of the initial spacecraft mass -- about 20 percent or 200 kilograms [440 pounds] --
is expected to reach ground, distributed across dozens of fragments, spread over a sizable re-entry ground swath.”
400 pounds of smoking metal spread over a "sizeable swath" is nothing to sniff at. But should one of those fragments land on U.S. soil, you’re fully
covered, according to the United Nations. The U.N.’s Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects was created in September
of 1972, and has been ratified by 88 countries and signed by 22 nations as of January 1, 2013.
“A launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space object on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft in
flight,” reads the policy. And the GOCE satellite was launched from Russia, so that country would be responsible, said Mark Hopkins chairman of the
executive committee of the National Space Society.
While space objects reenter the atmosphere all the time, few pieces survive the fiery trip and many of those end up in the ocean, Smith said. But
sometimes, they do. Russia's Cosmos 954 satellite crashed in Canada in 1978, with a radioactive energy source. That sounds more alarming than it
actually was; the element was “vanishingly small” when it hit ground, Hopkins said. But Canada did try to get money back from the Russians -- and they
did pay up, he said.
“It was a lot less than they wanted,” he told FoxNews.com.
Indeed, the Canadian government asked for $6 million to cover cleanup and "future unpredicted expenses," according to Matthew Kleinman's "The Little
Book of Space Law." Russia paid half that. It's up to a government to bring charges, according to the policy book.
"Had a Canadian citizen been injured by the Cosmos 954 debris, his only recourse would have been to either convince the Canadian government to bring a
claim against the Soviet Union on his behalf or bring a claim on his own behalf in a national court with appropriate jurisdiction. If he won his case,
he would then have had to hope that the Soviet government honored the court's judgment," the book notes.
So if you hear a crash in the night, rest assured that the responsible party will most likely pick up the tab. Just make sure to take a picture.
[Edited on 11-10-2013 by woody with a view]
|
|
|
DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
Member Is Offline
|
|
Just so it doesn't slam into Anthony's, everything will be alright.
"YOU CAN'T LITTER ALUMINUM"
|
|
|
MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
Member Is Offline
|
|
I read that if you personally are harmed, you have to get the US government to file a charge against Russia or you can file your own claim in
international court. If the court finds in your favor, then Russia is obligated to pay you.
So, it is up to Russia to decide how much of the adjudicated liability they will actually pay, when they would pay, and...if they will pay. Good luck
with that. Anybody know any collection agencies that will do the job of collection if required?
|
|
|
woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Everchangin'
|
|
yeah, except it is a European Space Agency POS! Russia be damned....
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
