The Kosmos 482 descent craft is the lander module from a 1972 failed Soviet Venera mission to Venus. The 500kg lander was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it could survive reentry through the Earth’s atmosphere intact.
I volunteer to catch it!
Extract from the Wiki entry: “Its landing module, which weighs 495 kilograms (1,091 lb), is highly likely to reach the surface of Earth in one piece as it was designed to withstand 300 G’s of acceleration and 100 atmospheres of pressure…”
That thing will make a mighty splash if it hits the ocean, either that or generate a good sized crater
What an interesting coincidence… That just happens to be the same days that store shelves are predicted to start running dry from Trump’s tariffs.
the global shadow govt has been planing this for decades
Haha exactly! Or maybe Stephen Miller just coordinated the tariffs with a known event.
Back to reality though… It doesn’t look like there is even an estimate yet of what part of the globe it will hit? I’m also curious why they say there’s only a “chance” of it surviving reentry, since the atmosphere of Venus is a lot harsher than our own? Oh well, maybe it’ll hit Mar-a-Lago while Trump is there.
It doesn’t look like there is even an estimate yet of what part of the globe it will hit
Too early to predict that accurately. Our upper atmosphere expands and contracts depending on the activity of the sun, there can be large daily changes. An expanding atmosphere with slow the craft and it will de-obit quicker. A contracting atmosphere will allow the craft to stay in orbit a little longer. IIRC they won’t have an accurate time or a better idea of the impact site until about a day before reentry. I guess some folk are saying there is only a chance of making it to the surface as they don’t know if it is still intact.
At least one of the ‘experts’ that I’ve read firmly believes it will reach the surface as he analyzed its light curves a while back. I’m going with his prediction as that thing was built to survive tougher conditions than an Earth reentry. Odds are high that it will land in the ocean, but if it stays intact and hits land, then it’ll make a new hole in any golf coarse that happened to be in its cross hairs ;)
News media will likely start to report on it, as it gets closer to May 9th :)
Watch this space :)
