Ian Woollard wrote:
> 
> It's about 100 meters across.
> 
> It >just< misses the earth EVERY 6 months(!) (Well,  by 0.02 AU or so;
> no chance
> of collision).

Not as off topic as all that -- looks to me like a very high likelihood
that it's a discarded booster stage (which, due to high reflectivity,
would be much smaller than an estimate based on assumption that it's
darker than the Moon).

> Check out the applet:
> http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2002+AA29
> 
> Anyone care to guess what a return delta-v would be? It looks to me to be
> miniscule, 100m/s? Certainly under 1km/s I would think.
> 
> Forget Spain, that's where I want to go on my summer holiday, sunlight
> 24x7x365.25
> ;-)

It'd be interesting to recover such a stage, if only for museum value;
but also, it would be a fine test of long term exposure effects outside
the LEO environment.

-- 
Love wealth above life itself, and starve in splendor.

                                                      -- Elvish proverb

Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer           NAR # 70141-SR Insured
Rocket Pages                http://silent1.home.netcom.com/launches.htm
Telescope Pages            http://silent1.home.netcom.com/astronomy.htm
Lathe Pages           http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm

Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth
and don't expect them to be perfect.
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