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NASA fears SpaceX plan for 30k satellites could hamper space missions

• bmitc 5y ago
  I'm not at all excited about the privatization and "free market" reign of space. Who gets to say yes or no to these satellite proposals? Also, I have seen what seems to be a surge in space startups, almost all revolving around the satellite space. What is driving the need for these and who is paying for them? I've been curious about that.
  • 1123581321 5y ago
    For the US, the FAA and FCC regulate satellite launches and communications.
• mchusma 5y ago
  Space is much bigger than the ground of earth. So 30k in a larger volume than the ground. There are over 1.4 billion vehicles on just a small fraction of the earth. There is a long way to go before traffic in space is a serious concern.
  • Planktonne 5y ago
    It's not a huge problem now, but it will be a lot easier to handle/prevent becoming a problem if we think about it before we've filled space with junk.
  • emergentstate 5y ago
    Sure, but satellites do cluster in useful orbits — it’s not some uniform distribution over the space. That significantly increases the chance of direct collision, which has already managed to occur a few times, despite back-of-the-envelope low odds. And the risk of a runaway effect is fairly unique to the orbital setting. If cars magically kept careening down the highway after a collision, constantly tumbling and shedding parts and disintegrating without losing any kinetic energy, we probably couldn’t tolerate the current density of vehicles on roads.