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Can you give a rough estimate of what fraction of space waste is due to differing orbits of satelites? Like very low vs low vs geostationary? I don't know the g
by WhompingWindows 5y ago
Can you give a rough estimate of what fraction of space waste is due to differing orbits of satelites? Like very low vs low vs geostationary? I don't know the gradations between those either.
- Ottolay 5y agoWikipedia to the rescue (note the log-log scale) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spacedebris_small.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spacedebris_small.png The biggest issue is by far the 600km to 2000km altitude band. It is popular for both LEO and SunSync sats and is high enough above the atmosphere that minimal propellant is needed for orbit boosting.
- orbital-decay 5y agoThe actual amount/distribution of stuff can be misleading. What really matters is the risk of collision, which is the highest for Sun-synchronous orbits. The fact that lower SSOs are also the most convenient for remote sensing work doesn't help. GEO is more or less safe because it's unstable (dead stuff drifts outwards), well kept (slots are limited by the resolution of customers' terminals) and typically doesn't have high relative velocities.