Polluting atmosphere doing so.
Comment on A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky — for everyone on Earth
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
LEO satellites decay very quickly every one of them will burn up in the atmosphere within 10 years. They need to be replaced constantly. As soon as spacex goes out of business these will all fall out of the sky.
Mihies@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s fair but unfortunately nothing compared to the pollution from launching them
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Which is also nothing compared to a slew of other pollution sources
Zorque@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Which is also nothing compared to the general entropy of the universe.
Manjushri@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Don’t count on it. These things don’t just zip along in their orbits. LEO is crowded. They have to maneuver to avoid collisions… a lot.
Over the past six months, Starlink satellites have been increasingly performing collision avoidance maneuvers. According to a report filed by SpaceX with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX broadband satellites were forced to avoid more than 25 thousand times from December 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023. And since their launch in 2019, the total number of maneuvers has reached 50 thousand.
If Starlink or any other mega-constellation company loses control of their satellites for any reason, there could be collisions. A recent study (Note: PDF) suggests that a sufficiently powerful CME could cause a runaway Kessler Syndrome in as little as 2.8 days.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Eh, i’m not so sure. I just did a quick doodle.
My opinion is that when a collision happens, it’s probably very unlikely for a single fragment to actually stay on a stable orbit around Earth. Chances are high that it gains a lot of energy and the orbit is significantly distorted. Now, if an orbit is already very close to Earth, that means that any distortion will make it not fit tightly around Earth anymore, instead will make it go elliptic and therefore on trajectory of collision with Earth. The only way a fragment would not do that is if it’s accelerated perfectly sideways, in which case it would continue to circle around Earth for 10 years before deorbiting due to atmospheric friction. So, the cascading is a bit limited.
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
I don’t think you are familiar with orbital mechanics. A collision would barely disturb an orbit.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
then are the fragments dangerous?
tempest@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I mean with proper regulation or would be slightly better. If they can maneuver to avoid collisions they can likes deorbit themselves at a quicker pace.
The main issue is if ever they went under someone would buy it, or try to buy it, at a discount. So they likely wouldn’t go away even if Star link went under.
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And the orbits of that debris would still decay within a decade in LEO.
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
What’s your point? We would have a LEO like a minefield for 10 years.
cole@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
even less for Starlink
Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I expect that we will get in orbit refueling to extend their life once you get a good nuclear and solar panel power tug with an electric thruster that can deliver fuel, they’re in a similar orbit if you just do that.
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Especially with the number of them it’s probably cheaper to just put up new satellites. LEO sats are designed to be temporary.
thejml@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Cheaper and easier to upgrade the constellation to newer and faster tech. If you have backwards compatibility, you just start launching v2 and v1 will eventually just burn up, and hopefully finish just in time for v3 to start launching so you only have to be compatible with n-1 versions.
Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world [bot] 3 weeks ago
sooo then this isn’t a problem if they all burn out eventually? hehe i’m just being pedantic of course
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There’s reasonable hope at least that this is a problem that will solve itself, and unfortunately we have bigger problems to worry about.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Any way to help them do that?
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No way that’s cheaper or easier than waiting
Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
At least not legally
artyom@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Who enforces space law?
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’m wondering from a pure academic standpoint here honest. Like What about a laser?
youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lmao I wish. Satellites and their components have to be “hardened” to survive extreme temperatures and radiation in space. There’s probably nothing on it you could disable with any laser you could buy. Plus there’s the matter of targeting them.
arcine@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
It starts with ass and ends with assinate.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Ha ha, yes, took me a half hour.