4 ms·
Do we not have a global regulating body for what people can put in LEO? Cause I'm gonna have to say yes on this one. A 9-month occasional bright light in the
by gooseus 9y ago
Do we not have a global regulating body for what people can put in LEO? Cause I'm gonna have to say yes on this one.
A 9-month occasional bright light in the sky is a brief annoyance for astronomers, but avoiding the Kessler Syndrome should be a global imperative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
- 2474 9y agoHaven't you seen The Astronaut Farmer? Billy Bob had a hell of a time getting permission to launch himself into space. Had to finally just do it.
- jerf 9y agoThe forces that make Kesser Syndrome an issue in high orbits work in reverse in low orbits. Two objects in an otherwise fairly stable orbit that collide with each other in LEO will break into pieces, each of which will far more rapidly encounter atmospheric drag (much more surface area / volume on the fragments) and deorbit than the original objects would have. Instead of a chain reaction mess, you get a self-cleaning mess. I have to say "otherwise fairly stable" because technically, there is no stable low Earth orbit because atmospheric drag will drag down any orbiting object within a human timespan.