3 ms·
I see a bright future for satellite de-commissioning craft - I assume by staying in a parking orbit and then zipping around as needed and nudging them out of or
by thelazydogsback 6y ago
I see a bright future for satellite de-commissioning craft - I assume by staying in a parking orbit and then zipping around as needed and nudging them out of orbit at just the right time to avoid other satellites and ensure a innocuous (presumably oceanic) landing site for any remaining wreckage.
- WJW 6y agoNot to mention the "insurance" possibilities as soon as the mafia gets one of those! Gee that's a nice spy sat you have there. Would be a shame if it "caught fire" when you are not looking now wouldn't it. Luckily we have one of our sats nearby to keep an eye out for it, waddaya say?
- twicetwice 6y ago(To the best of my understanding; I'm not a rocket scientist; etc etc) You really, really need on-orbit refueling to make this work though. Because if you match the orbit of a satellite, push it out of orbit, well, now you're not in orbit either. So you need enough delta-v to match the sat's orbit, push it out of orbit, get back in orbit, then go to the next satellite (or refuelling depot.) Another reason to be eager for SpaceX's Starship platform to be operational ASAP!
- bryanlarsen 6y agoAll Starlink satellites contain ion thrusters to maintain their orbit. At end of life, those thrusters are used to deorbit them. These satellites are in such a low orbit that these thrusters are required to maintain orbit -- if the thrusters fail the satellites naturally deorbit within a couple of years. Any ion thruster powered satellite de-commisioning craft would take months to reach a failed satellite, so it wouldn't make a huge difference.