Mick Miners was herding sheep on a four-wheeler last week when he tripped over a pointed black object that appeared to be more than ten feet high. It reminded him of a burnt tree or a piece of agricultural machinery.
“Pretty scary actually,” Mr Miners, 48, said by phone Thursday from his 5,000-acre estate in a remote corner of southeastern Australia.
“I was quite surprised,” he added. “It’s not something you see every day on a sheep farm.”
Mr. Miners took a photo and sent it to a neighboring farmer, Jock Wallace, who happened to discover a similar mysterious object on his farm a few days earlier.
It was space junk.
The US space agency NASA said in a statement that SpaceX confirmed the object was likely the remaining part of the jettisoned trunk segment of a Dragon spacecraft used during the Crew-1 mission’s return from the International Space Station in May last year. “If you think you’ve identified a piece of debris, don’t attempt to handle or retrieve the debris,” NASA said.
Space debris refers to equipment in space that no longer works. Most space debris burns as it re-enters the atmosphere, and much of what’s left often falls into the ocean. However, with more spaceships entering orbit, such as those operated by private companies like SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, the impacts on land may become more frequent. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said it’s not uncommon for space debris to be found on land after an uncontrolled reentry.
“It was a little surprising to me that so much of the trunk survived the reentry heating process,” said Dr. McDowell, but he added that there was no indication that there was anything particularly risky about the trunk. He said that in the new commercial era for space exploration, it has been much more difficult to get technical information from private companies to assess risks. With more information, “could we have a better assessment of, ‘Have we just been really unlucky, or should we expect this from all the trunk re-entry if they happen overland?'”
The fuselage segment, which is used to carry cargo and also includes the spacecraft’s solar panels and radiators, is ejected from the capsule’s body shortly after combustion is complete as it exits orbit. “It mostly burns up in the atmosphere over the open ocean, with minimal risk to public safety,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Last week, after debris from a large Chinese rocket re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, NASA administrator Bill Nelson issued a reprimand, saying China “did not share specific orbit information when their Long March 5B- rocket fell back to Earth.” He added that all countries should “share this type of information in advance to enable reliable predictions of the potential risk of debris impact, especially for heavy vehicles, such as the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property with bring along.”
The possibility that debris from the missile could have hit a populated area prompted people around the world to track its orbit for days. This was the third flight of Long March 5B, China’s largest rocket, making a so-called “uncontrolled return” to Earth.
Last year, a malfunction caused a SpaceX rocket stage to complete an uncontrolled return to Earth’s atmosphere near Seattle in what appeared to be bright objects illuminating the night sky. Pieces of the burning rocket debris landed on a farmer’s property in Washington state. The debris had returned to the atmosphere after 22 days in orbit.
The rural area of Australia where Mr Miners discovered the space debris on July 25 is about 100 miles south of the capital Canberra.
Ron Lane, a restaurant owner in the town of Dalgety, said most people in the area — with the notable exception of himself — weren’t really concerned about extra space debris potentially landing on them or their homes.
“If we know three, there could be another 10 that we know nothing about,” said Mr Lane by telephone from his restaurant, Tuscany in Dalgety.
Mr Miners, who was born on the farm where he discovered the unidentified debris, said his neighbor, Mr Wallace, had called authorities to report the other debris he had found on his own property earlier in July. Public interest grew, Mr Miners said, after Mr Wallace called Australia’s national broadcaster, who later reported on the farmers’ discoveries and said three pieces of rubble had been found.
“Then everyone found out and I got about 300 calls,” said Mr Miners, who has about 5,500 sheep, 100 cattle and 30 horses on his farm in the Numbla Vale district.
His own piece of rubble is nearly 3 meters high by 1.3 meters, he said, and an Australian Space Agency official called on Thursday to say his experts planned to visit his property next week to “check it out.” .
Mr Miners said he had so far enjoyed learning the preliminary details about how the debris had landed and was unsure what would happen next.
He said he’d “love to keep it,” but was also interested in “a little compensation” if the space agencies or the company wanted it back.
Sa’id Mosteshar, a professor of international space law and director of the London Institute of Space Policy and Law, said a person can only claim damages if the debris harms him or her or causes damage to him or her. property.
“I think they want it back,” Mr. Miners added. “I don’t know. I don’t know about it. Like I said, I’m a sheep farmer.”
