Comment on A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky — for everyone on Earth
Manjushri@piefed.social 3 weeks agoDon’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.
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.
And the orbits of that debris would still decay within a decade in LEO.
What’s your point? We would have a LEO like a minefield for 10 years.
even less for Starlink
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Eh, i’m not so sure. I just did a quick doodle.
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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?
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
Definitely.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The fragments are dangerous to other things in low earth orbit. They will burn up before they hit the ground here. So really it might be for the best because I would rather see a world where every single satellite is destroyed at this point.