3 ms·

since starlinks may change positions autonomously it's impossible to predict their positions. and they are so damn many

• dnautics 7y ago
  You don't need a position prediction to remove an anomaly.
  • cbanek 7y ago
    Actually, you kind of do, because how do you know it's an anomaly and not something you want to observe? Especially if it's just occluding things in its path, and you can't see it. It's really helpful to know where everything is.
    • dnautics 7y ago
      Optical signature.
• nradov 7y ago
  Starlink satellites are too small to do much orbital maneuvering. They only carry a small supply of krypton gas for their station keeping thrusters.
  • greglindahl 7y ago
    They have enough propellant to change their orbital height by quite a lot, more than the typical satellite (other than GTO-to-GEO thrusters.) OTOH you can just ask SpaceX or the Air Force where they have been in the past, SpaceX uses GPS and the Air Force radar is accurate enough for knowing where they were.
    • londons_explore 7y ago
      If the astronomer community requested it, I'm sure spacex would give them a real-time (or even a few minutes ahead of time) feed of satellite positions accurate to less than a pixel on these telescopes.