Re: Russian space probe hysteria!

["LEE COLLINS" <NLCO@imag.wh.su.edu.au>]

I can't let this go by unnoticed!

Steven Frey wrote :

> At the risk of beating this dead horse all the way into 
> Big Macs, how about this tidbit: Prime Minister Howard
> of Australia, upon learning of the possibility that plutonium
> might fall on his country, mobilized the military and the 
> national civil defense and warned the Australian people in effect
> to prepare for the worst ! This action was reported in yesterday's 
> Los Angeles Times, a prominent newspaper in Southern California. 
> Worse, the alert was moot. It came a day after Mars96 had already 
> splashed down elsewhere in the world, missing Australia entirely.
> 
> One wonders how stress was generated and how much time and 
> money was lost in Australia as a result. Moreover, similar 
> overreaction can easily happen anywhere. We have to find 
> better ways as a profession to prevent same. One way may be to point out
> that the plutonium in the space probe is the same kind which has powered 
> cardiac pacemakers inside the human body, benefitting human health for
> many years.


Maybe the Los Angeles Times used the wrong end of the telescope. The 
military was asked only to prepare teams to go on the search for any 
debris should the junk land on us.  The emergency management 
authorities did grind into action, as well they should. After all, 
there was more than just the Pu coming back.

Giving more insight is the 
statement that all this happened the day AFTER the rentry. Due to a gadget 
called the International Dateline of course, it all 
happened many hours before, and following the advice of the US 
authorities that debris could fall on Australia (co-ordinates +/- an 
approximate error radius were even given !). Of course we all know, 
and this was made clear, that these predictions are extremely 
difficult until at best the last minute.

If anyone is interested, the co-ordinates in question were in a fairly 
remote area, and near a well known outback location called 
Birdsville, which in turn has a well known pub to which the 
population turned as they will in times of stress. Someone was asked 
what the population was and they answered "about 130". The next 
question was how many were there in the pub. "About 180" ! The 
publican had to put on free beer after the eventual reentry was 
announced. This says more for the native cunning of desert drinkers 
than it does about mass panic in the population!

The media did overreact I agree, but early Monday morning is a slow news 
time, and media the world over loves nothing better than a potential (or better, 
actual) disaster. Just think of the TV images!

Anyway, we would not want to have President Clinton's holiday spoilt!



Lee Collins

********************************
Lee Collins
Medical Physics Dept.
Westmead Hospital
Westmead   NSW  2145  Australia

Phone : +61 2 845 6533
Fax   : +61 2 891 5385
email : nlco@imag.wh.su.edu.au
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