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Kurzgesagt[1] convinced me that space debris will become a real problem if we're not careful. A "Swarm" of fist-sized cubesats whizzing around our planet at a f
by samcday 7y ago
Kurzgesagt[1] convinced me that space debris will become a real problem if we're not careful. A "Swarm" of fist-sized cubesats whizzing around our planet at a few thousand km/h sounds like a nightmare.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS1ibDImAYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS1ibDImAYU
- Wowfunhappy 7y agoPossibly stupid question, but I've been wondering about this for a while: Could space debris also make ICBM launches infeasible? If so, I honestly wonder whether the trade-off could be worthwhile.
- NikkiA 7y agoProbably not, ICBMs don't need to attain a full useful LEO, they only need to stay in an orbital path for 1-2 orbits as current warhead delivery vehicles are configured. That would allow them to use an orbital path lower than any orbit that could be sustainable for debris. Even if the current crop of ICBMs can't be configured to use such an orbit, development of such wouldn't take more than a few months.
- mdorazio 7y agoFWIW, these satellites and others like them don’t really pose the threat you are referring to. They are designed to operate in a very low orbit that will decay in a couple of years, causing them to naturally burn up over time rather than remain as space junk.