Chinese space lab, Tiangong-1, is expected to fall sometime this weekend. The Chinese space agency lost control of it a couple of years ago, so it’s not a controlled re-entry.
Best estimates are that it’s going to come in somewhere between 43° North and 43° South. That’s a rather large margin of error. :rolleyes: But, the boffins think it’ll burn up/break up and no-one will be hurt.
When I was a kid, Spacelab fell out of orbit. I was terrified. I had this incredible fear that it was going to hit our house. I was 5 or 6 I guess.
Anyway, I love the word boffin. One of my career aspirations is for The Register (a technology site) to refer to me as a boffin. I doubt I’ll reach it, but it’s a nice goal.
As to the OP question, 即将到来 apparently (according to google translate) means “coming soon”, which I guess is close enough. And since I live at 34 North, I’m in the potential hit zone (not something I’m going to worry about, however; driving in Alabama on the weekend is stressful enough).
In ‘The Economist’ all the time. Somehow I always picture a very stereotypical Brit (maybe something like Austin Powers but with an octave or so higher voice) saying it.
No, it would be too strong to say that it’s derogatory. If it has a slight negative connotation it’s the implication that a boffin is so tied up in advanced research that he’s perhaps quirky or eccentric; but it’s respectful and almost affectionate. It’s fundamentally a positive term, with the emphasis on the status of the boffin as expert scientist, it’s not a word anyone would use to denigrate somebody’s social skills. It’s definitely not synonymous with “nerd”, which emphasizes the lack of social skills but doesn’t imply much status.
Last I heard it was due to fall into Oregon, which that article does not mention. My favorite part is the first chart with its optimistically phrased “average altitude”.
So long as no boffins are harmed, I don’t think most of us care.
Boffin does get used as almost derogatory sometimes, but generally by the sort of newspapers in which if they insult you, you’re probably doing something right.
I want a puffin boffin to share tiffin and a muffin.
The Chinese seem to be somewhat cavalier about flight hazards and safety. They’ve also left a number of objects in non-graveyard orbits that have to be tracked. Of course, the US and USSR did this, too, in the early days of spaceflight before anyone appreciated the potential for damage and hazard but now we know better and most nations and operators agree to standard protocols to minimize hazards. The Chinese have basically not agreed to any of those and do as they please, which will be ‘interesting’ the first time they drop something in a populated area.
