Without any context, anyone who sends things to space can easily pay $150k. For context though, they are worth $3.35 billion as of September. $150k is probably less than a days electric bill for their offices.
Comment on US issues first ever fine for space junk to Dish Network
NENathaniel@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Idk much about this company but I’m assuming $150,000 is nothing to them.
But I suppose it’s the precedent this sets, not the fine itself
Guy_Fieris_Hair@lemmy.world 8 months ago
ares35@kbin.social 8 months ago
sofa cushion money.
$150k fine to a company with ~ $17 billion in annual revenue is less than ninety cents for someone that earns $100k a year.
thejml@lemm.ee 8 months ago
The $150,000 fine represents a tiny proportion of Dish’s overall revenue, which was $16.7bn in 2022.
It’d probably cost $10M-$20M to launch a falcon 9 up to that altitude alone, not to mention the tech and equipment to change its trajectory without also causing more space debris.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Fines exist only to hurt the poor.
For the rich/big businesses they are just a rounding error.
thejml@lemm.ee 8 months ago
The $150,000 fine represents a tiny proportion of Dish’s overall revenue, which was $16.7bn in 2022.
It’d probably cost $10M-$20M to launch a falcon 9 up to that altitude alone, not to mention the tech and equipment to change its trajectory without also causing more space debris.
Jarmer@slrpnk.net 8 months ago
Dish/DirectTV/whatevertheyarecalledthesedays won’t be long for this world. Eventually any amount of fine will be worth more than they have which will be $0. But for now, yeah, let’s ad another 0 to this fine AT LEAST!
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Now they know it’s worth just 150k to litter all they want.
NENathaniel@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Not necessarily how they’re viewing it.
Once if was free, now it’s $150,000+ with the possibility of that increasing anytime
ThePantser@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Don’t tell ole muskrat.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 months ago
SpaceX satellites are in a different place so the rules and limits are different.
Dish Network’s satellite is in geostationary orbit. This is a narrow 2 dimensional circular ban of space approximately 20,000 miles away from the Earth. Earth sits in the middle of the circle. This is very valuable space because how objects there have very little gravitational interference (rather gravity is canceled out by other source of gravity). The reason Dish Network was asked to move its old dead satellite was to make room for a new one to sit in the same place. Again, very limited space there. So when Dish Network didn’t move all the way out, it means its much harder (impossible) to use that space for someone else’s satellite. What’s worse is that it will take from 40 to 100 years for the Dish Network Satellite to fall out of orbit on its own. So unless a vehicle goes out and gets it to move it, that slot is unavailable for decades!
SpaceX satellites, like thousands of others, are in LEO (low earth orbit). Instead of 20,000 miles away its about 200 miles from the surface of the Earth. Additionally, unlike geostationary, there’s no narrow band. its all the way around the Earth’s sphere. LEO is considered “self cleaning”. Any dead satellites in LEO will re-enter and burn up in 3 to 5 years. As in, do nothing and LEO satellites go away relatively soon.
Nighed@sffa.community 8 months ago
I think you are getting confused between geostationary orbit and legrange points.
Geostationary orbit is just the narrow band where you can have a stable orbit at the same speed as the earth’s rotation (so it stays in the same place in the sky) no other gravitational bodies involved.
Pxtl@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
The worry with the self cleaning band is the possibility of Kessler syndrome. See, the geosynchronous satellites are basically stationary relative to each other, and geosync is huge, so if one is junk, it’s stationary junk with nothing around it.
LEO orbits, in the other hand, criss-cross each other in a maddening dance. And if one shatters into dozens of tiny projectiles, that could shatter another and another into a cascade of space shrapnel. And then low Earth orbit is closed. No starlink, no iss, no manned spacecraft, etc.
It would self clean in a few decades. Three. Maybe five.
JudCrandall@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Thank you and @Nighed@sffa.community. That was a great explanation.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
His fall downward and burn up in the atmosphere due to the low location. His actually leave no space junk in orbit.