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If you save a billion dollar satellite every decade, and it costs $50 million year, you come out ahead. And that's not even counting the negative externalities

If you save a billion dollar satellite every decade, and it costs $50 million year, you come out ahead. And that's not even counting the negative externalities of unintended conjunctions. Kessler Syndrome is the boggieman of course, but even a few thousand pieces of debris from a single conjunction makes life harder for everyone who operates in space.

moralestapia 1y ago
Has this ever happened?
- cco 1y ago
  Yes it has.
  - moralestapia 1y ago
    Source? Google doesn't give me anything.
    - Bootvis 1y ago
      There is a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_collision
    - mschuster91 1y ago
      There was a collision between two comm satellites about 16 years back [1], and that was with satellites that we could track and theoretically control - with the debris collision of 2005 [2], that makes two events. We've been lucky that this is the only publicly known satellite to collide with another satellite, other than satellites that got shot down as a demonstration of power. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision [2] https://www.space.com/969-china-space-debris-collide-orbit.html https://www.space.com/969-china-space-debris-collide-orbit.h...
- notahacker 1y ago
  Satellites make conjunction avoidance manoeuvres on a regular basis; about 275 Starlink satellites need to move every day. A non-trivial proportion of those would result in a collision otherwise. Satellites orbit at multiple km per second and manoeuvre to adjust orbit much more slowly, so they need advance warning. Satellite operators obtain much their space situational awareness data directly or indirectly from US govt sources. The fact that collisions are presently infrequent because satellite operators act on that data isn't a particularly good reason to eliminate much of it
- adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
  measles was extinct in the US until the antibaxers gained enough momentum
andsoitis 1y ago
> If you save a billion dollar satellite every decade, and it costs $50 million year, you come out ahead. Why should the (US) taxpayer foot the bill rather than the companies who operate and profit from the satellites?
- adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
  the government already needs to track satellites to prevent its own from getting hit, and to track foreign spy satellites. IMO it would be reasonably for Congress to pass a law to allow the FAA to charge private companies who launch satellites in the US, but killing the program is just very dumb
- CamperBob2 1y ago
  Would you argue that every road should be a toll road, too?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]

moralestapia 1y ago

Has this ever happened?

cco 1y ago
Yes it has.
- moralestapia 1y ago
  Source? Google doesn't give me anything.
  - Bootvis 1y ago
    There is a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_collision
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    There was a collision between two comm satellites about 16 years back [1], and that was with satellites that we could track and theoretically control - with the debris collision of 2005 [2], that makes two events. We've been lucky that this is the only publicly known satellite to collide with another satellite, other than satellites that got shot down as a demonstration of power. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision [2] https://www.space.com/969-china-space-debris-collide-orbit.html https://www.space.com/969-china-space-debris-collide-orbit.h...
notahacker 1y ago
Satellites make conjunction avoidance manoeuvres on a regular basis; about 275 Starlink satellites need to move every day. A non-trivial proportion of those would result in a collision otherwise. Satellites orbit at multiple km per second and manoeuvre to adjust orbit much more slowly, so they need advance warning. Satellite operators obtain much their space situational awareness data directly or indirectly from US govt sources. The fact that collisions are presently infrequent because satellite operators act on that data isn't a particularly good reason to eliminate much of it
adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
measles was extinct in the US until the antibaxers gained enough momentum

andsoitis 1y ago

> If you save a billion dollar satellite every decade, and it costs $50 million year, you come out ahead. Why should the (US) taxpayer foot the bill rather than the companies who operate and profit from the satellites?

adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
the government already needs to track satellites to prevent its own from getting hit, and to track foreign spy satellites. IMO it would be reasonably for Congress to pass a law to allow the FAA to charge private companies who launch satellites in the US, but killing the program is just very dumb
CamperBob2 1y ago
Would you argue that every road should be a toll road, too?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]