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I always assumed all satellites were much much smaller than this. Seems like they'd be prone to space debris something considerable!
by flippyhead 5y ago
I always assumed all satellites were much much smaller than this. Seems like they'd be prone to space debris something considerable!
- throwanem 5y agoEh. I knew a physics professor once who had a story about a charismatic preacher who unloaded a revolver into a telescope mirror for being a violation of God's domain, and they just put a little black paint around the holes and returned the mirror to service with no meaningful degradation to its imaging capability. I'd expect a small hole in a big radio-collecting dish to behave more or less likewise.
- chipsa 5y agoIt's big, but relatively insensitive to the debris hitting the majority of the satellite. It's mostly reflector, so punching small holes mostly just reduces the signal amount it gets, unless it hits a supporting rib.