According to what was reported in a circular released yesterday by the Civil Protection and addressed to all Ministries and Regions, the uncontrolled return to the atmosphere of the Chinese space station 'Tiangong 1', the first Chinese experimental module, launched from the center of Jiuquan in 2011, “it could affect the national territory”. The risk period indicated in the aforementioned circular coincides with the upcoming Easter holidays, and more precisely the possible fall of fragments could take place in the days ranging from March 28 to April 4 and would concern "the Regions south of Emilia-Romagna".
On the document that is understandably causing anxiety in millions of Italians, we read that "The time window and the trajectories of impact on the ground can be defined more precisely in the 36 hours prior to return" and that the organization and interpretation of the data is the task of the Italian Space Agency, which "will take care of the organization and interpretation of the data with the support of other national and international bodies".
In this regard, the Civil Protection has set up a technical working table, foreseen on occasions such as the one we are about to face, in which, together with ASI, the Military Advisor of the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Interior, Defense and Foreign will participate. , ENAC, ENAV, ISPRA and the Special Commission of Civil Protection, which in the meantime, publish on its website a short handbook containing the protection regulations to be implemented to deal with this uncommon episode. In fact, the Civil Protection underlines that “events of this type and real cases of impact on the Earth, and in particular on the mainland, are very rare. Therefore, there are no internationally codified self-protection behaviors to be adopted in the face of this type of event ".
Nevertheless, the indications reported on the Civil Protection website indicate how, on the basis of the information currently made available by the scientific community, it is possible to provide, despite the uncertainty connected to the multiplicity of variables, some useful information for the population to responsibly adopt self-protection if located in areas potentially exposed to impact:
• fragments are unlikely to cause buildings to collapse, so they are considered safer than open places. It is advisable, however, to stay away from windows and glass doors;
• the fragments impacting on the roofs of buildings could cause damage, drilling the roofs and the floors below, thus also causing danger to people: therefore, not having precise information on the vulnerability of individual structures, it can be said that the plans are safer lower than buildings;
• inside buildings, the structurally safest places to position oneself in the course of a possible impact are, for masonry buildings, under the vaults of the lower floors and in the doorways inserted in the load-bearing walls (the thicker ones), for reinforced concrete buildings, near the columns and, in any case, near the walls;
• it is unlikely that the smaller fragments are visible from the ground before impact;
• some large fragments may survive the impact and contain hydrazine. It is generally recommended that anyone who sees a fragment, without touching it and staying at a distance of at least 20 meters, must immediately report it to the competent authorities.
Photo: meteoweb.it
