3 ms·

This is known as the Kessler syndrome. And it is not a good solution to the Fermi paradox by itself. Because it would only require a very small fraction of civi

This is known as the Kessler syndrome. And it is not a good solution to the Fermi paradox by itself. Because it would only require a very small fraction of civilizations to avoid it to spread.

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FeepingCreature 5y ago
Also, Kessler syndrome doesn't keep you from leaving the planet, just from having satellites. When passing through a debris shell, as opposed to staying in it for years, the collision risk is very small.
- labster 5y ago
  How deep are those debris shells anyway? If we had a collision cascade in LEO, would geosynchronous orbits be generally safe? They’re pretty far apart, but I don’t know for sure.
  - didgeoridoo 5y ago
    I have no intuition for this, as it is not modeled in KSP :) I’m trying to imagine a collision cascade that would generate debris with a significantly higher apoapsis than the original satellites… perhaps a head-on collision between prograde and retrograde orbits that ends up “squirting” some debris at extreme velocity in the normal/antinormal direction? Alternately, an object on a highly elliptical orbit (probably already space junk) near its periapsis with max kinetic energy hitting a satellite prograde?
worldsayshi 5y ago
Fermi tangent: I wonder if the Fermi paradox is a bit of a fallacy of reverse casualty in a similar vain to asking - how come we end up in the Goldilocks zone around a star? Because sentient life is not likely to appear in other conditions. Why are there no aliens making contact? Because if there were such aliens it would be a high probability that they wouldn't want to leave earth alone and then humanity wouldn't have a chance to evolve here. In other words, any surrounding aliens or non-aliens that have left earth alone for enough time for humans to have evolved are unlikely to suddenly want to make contact at any certain point of our development.
- bluGill 5y ago
  The speed of light alone is enough to explain it. Aliens cannot get here, and so they don't know we exist. Even if you believe there is life elsewhere, odds are it is far enough away that they cannot detect us (not to mention radio hasn't make it 150 light year yet - which is a much smaller amount of stars).
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    The universe is 14 billions years old. That plenty of time for a civilization to spread around all the galaxy, at least.
    - hunterb123 5y ago
      To be fair only some of that time is usable as you have to wait for the many conditions of life to happen. That's a lot of coincidences to wait for, then the long evolution process...
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]

This is known as the Kessler syndrome. And it is not a good solution to the Fermi paradox by itself. Because it would only require a very small fraction of civilizations to avoid it to spread.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

FeepingCreature 5y ago

Also, Kessler syndrome doesn't keep you from leaving the planet, just from having satellites. When passing through a debris shell, as opposed to staying in it for years, the collision risk is very small.

labster 5y ago
How deep are those debris shells anyway? If we had a collision cascade in LEO, would geosynchronous orbits be generally safe? They’re pretty far apart, but I don’t know for sure.
- didgeoridoo 5y ago
  I have no intuition for this, as it is not modeled in KSP :) I’m trying to imagine a collision cascade that would generate debris with a significantly higher apoapsis than the original satellites… perhaps a head-on collision between prograde and retrograde orbits that ends up “squirting” some debris at extreme velocity in the normal/antinormal direction? Alternately, an object on a highly elliptical orbit (probably already space junk) near its periapsis with max kinetic energy hitting a satellite prograde?

worldsayshi 5y ago

Fermi tangent: I wonder if the Fermi paradox is a bit of a fallacy of reverse casualty in a similar vain to asking - how come we end up in the Goldilocks zone around a star? Because sentient life is not likely to appear in other conditions. Why are there no aliens making contact? Because if there were such aliens it would be a high probability that they wouldn't want to leave earth alone and then humanity wouldn't have a chance to evolve here. In other words, any surrounding aliens or non-aliens that have left earth alone for enough time for humans to have evolved are unlikely to suddenly want to make contact at any certain point of our development.

bluGill 5y ago
The speed of light alone is enough to explain it. Aliens cannot get here, and so they don't know we exist. Even if you believe there is life elsewhere, odds are it is far enough away that they cannot detect us (not to mention radio hasn't make it 150 light year yet - which is a much smaller amount of stars).
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  The universe is 14 billions years old. That plenty of time for a civilization to spread around all the galaxy, at least.
  - hunterb123 5y ago
    To be fair only some of that time is usable as you have to wait for the many conditions of life to happen. That's a lot of coincidences to wait for, then the long evolution process...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]