TECHNOLOGY

Space Crises: Chinese Rocket Debris Falls On Earth Next Week With Likely Consequences

<h4>Space Crises&colon; Chinese Rocket Debris Falls On Earth Next Week With Likely Consequences<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that the remnants of the massive Chinese rocket that delivered a new module to its space station on Monday are expected to fall to Earth early next week&comma; according to US Space Command&comma; which is tracking the rocket&&num;8217&semi;s trajectory&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The 23-ton Long March 5B rocket which carried the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Wentian laboratory<&sol;a> module&comma; took off from Hainan Island at 2&colon;22 p&period;m&period; local time Sunday&comma; July 24&comma; and the module successfully docked with China&&num;8217&semi;s orbital outpost&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Its job completed&comma; the rocket has gone into an uncontrolled descent toward Earth&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere and it&&num;8217&semi;s not clear where it will land&period; The uncontrolled descent marks the third time that the country has been accused of not properly handling space debris from its rocket stage&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s a 20-ton metal object&period; Although it will break up as it enters the atmosphere&comma; numerous pieces — some of them quite large — will reach the surface&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Michael Byers&comma; a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of a recent study on the risk of casualties from space debris&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Space debris poses an extremely minimal risk to humans&comma; Byers explained&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s possible that larger parts could cause damage if they land in inhabited regions&period; Byers said that due to the increase in space junk&comma; those small chances are becoming more likely&comma; especially in the Global South&comma; according to the research published in the Nature Astronomy journal&comma; with rocket bodies being approximately three times more likely to land at the latitudes of Jakarta&comma; Dhaka and Lagos than those of New York&comma; Beijing or Moscow&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;This risk is entirely avoidable since technologies and mission designs now exist that can provide controlled reentries &lbrack;usually into remote areas of oceans&rsqb; instead of uncontrolled and therefore entire random ones&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said via email&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Holger Krag&comma; the head of the European Space Agency&&num;8217&semi;s Space Debris Office&comma; said international best practice was to conduct a controlled reentry&comma; targeting a remote part of the ocean&comma; whenever the casualty risk is too high&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He added that the re-entry zone for the rocket was geographically limited to between the latitudes of 41 degrees south and 41 degrees north of the equator&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The US Space Command said it will track the Chinese rocket&&num;8217&semi;s fall back to Earth&comma; according to a spokesperson&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Based on varying atmospheric conditions&comma; the exact entry point of rocket stage into Earth&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere &&num;8220&semi;cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the spokesperson said&comma; but it is estimated to reenter the Earth&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere around August 1&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The 18th Space Defense Squadron&comma; part of the US military that tracks reentries&comma; will also provide daily updates on its location&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;CNN&comma; that earlier broke this report&comma; however stated that China Manned Space Agency has yet to respond to its request for comment on the developing story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; CNN<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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