The Chinese uncontrolled deorbit off the Arabian peninsula reminded me of my little piece of Skylab. I live in Western Australia where it landed - what was left of 80 tonnes of it.
A large chunk, several feet across, landed in a semi arid area. I think this was than taken in an open trailer to Kalgoorlie and put on display there in 1979. My father was working there as a school principal. He broke off a small piece of fibreglass and later gave it to me. I still have it (somewhere) and I had it on a display for a science show at my home some 5 years ago along with photos.
What triggered my interest was that I saw that piece of Skylab had turned up as a display in the Gravity Discovery Centre in Gingin, Western Australia, as a display a couple of years ago which is 40 years later.
As an aside, I have some displays of mine at that Centre which include magnetic levitation (technically suspension) and Ferrofluid.
One of my displays had a space connection. This was a "lifter" which is a high voltage (30kV) driven ion drive that can lift a very flimsy balsa craft. Same as other ion drives like Deep Space, Starlink etc. They use on board Xenon/Krypton and I use air.
Those were the days .....
A large chunk, several feet across, landed in a semi arid area. I think this was than taken in an open trailer to Kalgoorlie and put on display there in 1979. My father was working there as a school principal. He broke off a small piece of fibreglass and later gave it to me. I still have it (somewhere) and I had it on a display for a science show at my home some 5 years ago along with photos.
What triggered my interest was that I saw that piece of Skylab had turned up as a display in the Gravity Discovery Centre in Gingin, Western Australia, as a display a couple of years ago which is 40 years later.
As an aside, I have some displays of mine at that Centre which include magnetic levitation (technically suspension) and Ferrofluid.
One of my displays had a space connection. This was a "lifter" which is a high voltage (30kV) driven ion drive that can lift a very flimsy balsa craft. Same as other ion drives like Deep Space, Starlink etc. They use on board Xenon/Krypton and I use air.
Those were the days .....
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