Soyuz suspected to have landed in QLD

[hobbit]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-17/wollongong-amateur-astronomer-space-junk-in-remote-queensland/5895506

Anyone want to go on a treasure hunt?

[mental4astro]

Heard this on the radio this morning. Just the thing you want to go looking for in the middle of the wet season in deepest darkest Queensland, :lol: :screwy:

Better still, David Finlay is an IIS fella too, starfield7 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/member.php?u=15870)!!! :)

[astroron]

A very DRY wet season. ;)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[OzStarGazer]

Oh, I thought it might be AstralTraveller... :)

[mental4astro]

I went a bit too far north, eh Ron... :doh: :lol:

You're still gonna need an Esky...

[astroron]

Wouldn't go wondering out there at the moment for all the tea in China ,Alex
Too darn hot:eyepop:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[AstralTraveller]

Nah, too complicated for me.

[N1]

That's how others take the laurels :P

[astroron]

Only fool hardy people go blundering about in 40°-50° temperatures in Central Australia at this time of the year,or as mentioned if it is the wet season,same thing applies.
Finding bits of space junk is not worth your life,wait for better conditions.
History is full of people who wanted to take the Laurels and didn't live to tell the tale.:sadeyes:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[N1]

Nothin' like local advice, eh Ron!?;):poke:

[astroron]

Coming from NZ, I wouldn't call that local. :question:
But then again if you mean get local advice from the area in question,
The local copper or Cockie a thousand kilometers away will be glad to help.
He would happily tell you to come back when the conditions are more favourable to you surviving,and him sleeping in his nice bed and not getting cooked looking for you. :P
Cheers:thumbsup:

[N1]

A thousand kilometres? I thought it was further than that! Oh well, it is the world's smallest continent after all. Three thousand in a straight line and you run out of continent. :P;)

[starfield7]

Best thing to do is wait for one of the local graziers around Jundah or Stonehenge to find it.

There's a good chance though that it came down in the Welford National Park. If so, the surviving pieces may never be found.

It would be far better if the east coast of Australia had all sky cams, the same as used by Curtin University in their Desert Fireball Network. Bonus; we get to find meteorites and space junk!

There's a serious side to this story though. What if the space junk had a radioactive battery and landed in a large catchment area? Or what if another country wanted to harm Australians by sending us something from space?

Through our complacency we've shown the rest of the world that as long as you can convince us that something is space junk (see Russian Satellite/spacecraft that was previously designated as space junk), we aren't going to investigate it. Maybe our military radar is so busy pointing at our borders that we are completely vulnerable and blind to something coming from space.

Tom Clancy novels aside, space junk happens and if it hit you on the head it would hurt. There was a piece that landed on a property near Charleville in 2007. If it had entered the atmosphere a few seconds later would have landed on the Sunshine Coast.

Best that we use every opportunity to study space junk, how much survives re-entry, what risk they pose, and how to predict where they will land. We've missed this opportunity and we'll probably miss the next too.

DF