You remember when I ran a few posts with dimwits making trains too big for the damn track or cannons with a 36 inch bore? and they did it on purpose? Well, the screwy thing is that screw ups can easily be just as big, and then they do it again. My god.
So it seems that over the last week we have managed to run 2 bloody satellites into each other (I mean space is pretty big, right? I mean that's why it's called "space". Doesn't matter. Not surprisingly, there is a law about what to do if you have a fender bender, or a big crack up. It's called the Convention of International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects or CILDCSO. For the love of Pete, you think even scientists can think up a sexier name than that.
The law boils down to a very simple concept: you launch it, you pay. The thing was they were expecting the damn things to fall DOWN. But if they hit another space object, and presumably, someone owns the other "object", and we know who that is, then it's like car insurance. Someone has to be found to be at fault. Trouble is the Russian satellite was dead, gonzo, junk. So, is it like that old rusty car on a side street that has no plates? And what happens to all the bloody parts that flew off? How can you sue if one of those slams into your garden? How to tell whose it is.
But anyway, I'll leave law to science. On another front, here's another poser. Just how do 2 nuclear submarines run into each other? C'mon, the sea is big too. And you'd figure they have a little more electronics than a fish finder on board. The British and French are blushing tonight.
But, it has happened before.
On 20 March 1993, the USS Grayling (name a submarine after a trout and see what you get) collided with the Novomoskovsk, a Russian ballistic missile submarine. And they were trying to NOT be seen by each other.
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