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It could be a discrepancy is orbit. Most space debris is not on circular low earth orbit. In fact, that is not a stable orbit because of atmospheric drag. And
by rocqua 5y ago
It could be a discrepancy is orbit. Most space debris is not on circular low earth orbit. In fact, that is not a stable orbit because of atmospheric drag.
And circular LEO is where most satelites are. So satelites in that same class of orbits would indeed be 'hyper achievers'.
- bell-cot 5y agoFrom NASA graphics (1 Jan. 2019 data) - https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery/# https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery/# - it looks like a great deal of the debris is in low or low-perigee orbits. (The latter still have plenty of opportunity to hit low-circular-orbit objects.) I might accept Starlink satellites being 10X or even 100X performers, based on arguments about orbits, cross-sectional area, etc. But ~100,000X? No.