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What about space debris? Isn't there a non zero chance that a satellite could hit some debris and cause a chain reaction?
by Jonnax 7y ago
What about space debris? Isn't there a non zero chance that a satellite could hit some debris and cause a chain reaction?
- gingabriska 7y agoIsn't there enough redundancy in space that one sat going down means nothing for the system
- xvector 7y agoNo, the issue with space debris is that we are quickly approaching the point where a single unfortunately placed collision could chain using a sort of exponential “shotgun effect”, destroying virtually all satellites at a given orbit and rendering space travel impossible for decades if not centuries, setting human space exploration back significantly as launches have to deal with thousands of metal shards traveling at tens of thousands of mph. See this video[1] by Kurzgesagt: “End of Space - Creating a Prison for Humanity.” [1]: https://youtu.be/yS1ibDImAYU https://youtu.be/yS1ibDImAYU
- akiselev 7y agoSpace debris is largely an issue for low earth orbit, through will all space activity has to pass through and is a pretty tight orbit. GPS satellites are in geosynchronous orbit which is over 30,000km from the surface of the earth so there is much more volume of open space, making debris a much smaller risk (for the same amount of debris, since 600^3 << 30,000^3).