Just to tack on a little more seriously fucking important point to the space junk thing… When a certain level is reached, we will be trapped on this planet, because the space junk flying around at 5000km/s will destroy anything trying to leave.
It still takes 5 years and with the amount of satellites Musk wants to put into LEO, there’s a lot of chances for dead satellites to get turned into thousands of tiny bullets which will take out even more satellites and it turns into a runaway catastrophe.
The more finely sub-divided a satellite becomes the more rapidly atmospheric drag causes its orbit to decay.
Also, there’s basically only Starlink satellites at the altitude these are being placed in, and nothing in lower altitudes. So a brief burst of orbital debris would only inconvenience Starlink itself.
You misunderstand Kessler syndrome. It doesn’t “trap us on this planet”, all it does is make certain orbital regions no longer hospitable to satellites orbiting within those regions. Launching through those orbits would be fine, the payload passing through them wouldn’t spend long enough in there to be at significant risk of impact. You only get an unacceptable risk of impact if you remain there for years.
Also, Starlink satellites are at a low enough altitude that if they were to be disrupted the bits would fall out of orbit in a matter of months. That region is basically Kessler-proof.
Just to tack on a little more seriously fucking important point to the space junk thing… When a certain level is reached, we will be trapped on this planet, because the space junk flying around at 5000km/s will destroy anything trying to leave.
The Space junk thing is very serious but Starlink is not a problem in that regard.
The are such a low orbit they will de-orbit due to atmospheric drag with no input or de-orbit burn required.
That is what this story is about…
It is all the other sats from MEO to GEO that are the problem.
It still takes 5 years and with the amount of satellites Musk wants to put into LEO, there’s a lot of chances for dead satellites to get turned into thousands of tiny bullets which will take out even more satellites and it turns into a runaway catastrophe.
deleted by creator
The more finely sub-divided a satellite becomes the more rapidly atmospheric drag causes its orbit to decay.
Also, there’s basically only Starlink satellites at the altitude these are being placed in, and nothing in lower altitudes. So a brief burst of orbital debris would only inconvenience Starlink itself.
You misunderstand Kessler syndrome. It doesn’t “trap us on this planet”, all it does is make certain orbital regions no longer hospitable to satellites orbiting within those regions. Launching through those orbits would be fine, the payload passing through them wouldn’t spend long enough in there to be at significant risk of impact. You only get an unacceptable risk of impact if you remain there for years.
Also, Starlink satellites are at a low enough altitude that if they were to be disrupted the bits would fall out of orbit in a matter of months. That region is basically Kessler-proof.