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Recommend the brilliant Johnny Harris video about this issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8Rv6PaXVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8Rv6PaXVI In short n

Recommend the brilliant Johnny Harris video about this issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8Rv6PaXVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8Rv6PaXVI In short not only is a collision bad but it could create a chain reaction leading to billions of small objects flying around in the orbit forming a impenetrable barrier that bars further space travel and more importantly putting other (actually useful) satellites at risk

edoceo 5y ago
Is this grey cause it's un-possible or cause it's snark-junk? The probability of cascade-crash space-junk barrier is crazy small? Right?
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  Generally speaking, the higher the orbit the higher the chances of unrecoverable Kessler syndrome. For example if something went wrong way out in geosynchronous orbit and caused a chain of collisions, there's basically nothing we could do except clean it up manually — on its own it'd remain a mess for thousands of years. For the lowest orbits, worst case scenario is just waiting 2-5 years for it to clear itself up.
  - peeters 5y ago
    Thankfully GSO is also 4300x as spatious, and we don't need as many satellites up there in comparison.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    Would it be a big problem elsewhere than in Geo ? All the Geo birds are basically in one plane and don't really move in repect to each other. So I'm not sure you could really even trigger Kessler syndrome there & it would likely be quite easy to avoid that debris belt if you did.
- tick_tock_tick 5y ago
  > The probability of cascade-crash space-junk barrier is crazy small? Right? Yes
- rocqua 5y ago
  Mostly because the low orbit means any junk would suffer atmospheric drag pretty quickly and decay.
- mlindner 5y ago
  Not only is it crazy small, it's impossible. Kessler syndrome doesn't result in "space junk barrier" nonsense. That's from media and movies, not a possible reality.
patagurbon 5y ago
I used to like Johnny Harris quite a bit, but when your research is Wikipedia deep, and your method of convincing people is to make incredulous faces I start to lose interest. All of SpaceX's satellites are in low Earth orbit, and will deorbit themselves over time even if they die. Kessler syndrome is bad but overblown, and far more likely to occur due to antisat missiles from nation states. There is an increased risk of collision, but the increase is marginal at best.
mlindner 5y ago
That video is pure nonsense. What you describe isn't possible.

edoceo 5y ago

Is this grey cause it's un-possible or cause it's snark-junk? The probability of cascade-crash space-junk barrier is crazy small? Right?

kitsunesoba 5y ago
Generally speaking, the higher the orbit the higher the chances of unrecoverable Kessler syndrome. For example if something went wrong way out in geosynchronous orbit and caused a chain of collisions, there's basically nothing we could do except clean it up manually — on its own it'd remain a mess for thousands of years. For the lowest orbits, worst case scenario is just waiting 2-5 years for it to clear itself up.
- peeters 5y ago
  Thankfully GSO is also 4300x as spatious, and we don't need as many satellites up there in comparison.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  Would it be a big problem elsewhere than in Geo ? All the Geo birds are basically in one plane and don't really move in repect to each other. So I'm not sure you could really even trigger Kessler syndrome there & it would likely be quite easy to avoid that debris belt if you did.
tick_tock_tick 5y ago
> The probability of cascade-crash space-junk barrier is crazy small? Right? Yes
rocqua 5y ago
Mostly because the low orbit means any junk would suffer atmospheric drag pretty quickly and decay.
mlindner 5y ago
Not only is it crazy small, it's impossible. Kessler syndrome doesn't result in "space junk barrier" nonsense. That's from media and movies, not a possible reality.

patagurbon 5y ago

I used to like Johnny Harris quite a bit, but when your research is Wikipedia deep, and your method of convincing people is to make incredulous faces I start to lose interest. All of SpaceX's satellites are in low Earth orbit, and will deorbit themselves over time even if they die. Kessler syndrome is bad but overblown, and far more likely to occur due to antisat missiles from nation states. There is an increased risk of collision, but the increase is marginal at best.

mlindner 5y ago

That video is pure nonsense. What you describe isn't possible.