4 ms·

These are tiny 10cm nanosattelites. In a low earth orbit they will be slowed down by drag and reenter quickly. What is the concern?

• api 9y ago
  The concern is the precedent. If we let people just put up anything we could end up with (worst case) Kessler syndrome.
  • PHGamer 9y ago
    preventive measures are nice but pointless. we should develop technology such that whatever is floating above cant interfere with the object we put up regardless of it getting hit. More stuff going into space is going to be an inevitability and the US won't be able to stop other countries space programs from doing and launching what we dont like.
    • dmoy 9y ago
      > regardless of it getting hit. How is that possible? I mean that sounds like a problem that is physically impossible. We can't prevent problems when collisions occur at 100km/hr, let alone 10000+km/hr. Unless I'm misunderstanding your proposal....
• tezzer 9y ago
  The concern, as expressed by the FCC, is that the satellites are so small they are hard for U.S. Space Command to track them. Which means we could approve a rocket launch where one of these rapid little beasties knocks out a window or causes other catastrophic damage because we didn't know where it was precisely. And you could argue it's too small to do damage (not true) or to low to be a real concern (maybe true), but the precedent is dangerous to allow.
• saalweachter 9y ago
  The great thing about small satellites is that they are light and cheap and easy to launch. However, once they get to space, they take up just as much room as everything else: one orbit. Space isn’t a parking lot where you can park the smaller things closer together, and not being able to track the small satellites just makes that problem worse.