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The ironic thing would be if we detected a large asteroid and had no way of deflecting it in time because we had shutdown SpaceX in an attempt to better find sm
by gitfan86 5y ago
The ironic thing would be if we detected a large asteroid and had no way of deflecting it in time because we had shutdown SpaceX in an attempt to better find smaller asteroids.
- sschueller 5y agoOr we can't launch anything to save us because of Kessler event caused by startlink sometime back.
- simondotau 5y agoThe Kessler Syndrome doesn’t apply at Starlink’s altitude.
- buzzwordninja 5y agoMy knowledge basically ends at knowing of the concept, so can you elaborate how/why it is different in different orbits?
- kitsunesoba 5y agoThe lower the orbit, the more quickly objects de-orbit. This is especially true of the lowest LEO orbits that Starlink sits in, where atmospheric drag also enters the picture. Worst case scenario, a totally dead satellite will deorbit on its own in a couple of years and they can very easily suicide if required to avoid catastrophe.
- throwaway2048 5y agocollisions can easily push things into higher orbits.
- aidenn0 5y agoI'm not a rocket scientist, but this seems unlikely; sure two large satellites colliding could create smaller debris with a much higher apogee, but it seems to me that the perigee would not increase, so it would still spend a significant fraction of its orbit in atmospheric drag.
- throwaway2048 5y agobut could easily collide with something at apogee, especially if the collision lead to a cascading style kessler syndrome event.
- gpm 5y agoKessler syndrome will never prevent us from launching things, it could theoretically stop us from parking things in certain orbits, but the risk to launch through those orbits will be minimal. Source (wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome#Implications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome#Implications
- mlindner 5y agoStarlink can't cause a Kessler event. It's orbit is too low.