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Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

spacex.com

111–120 of 508 posts

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)

Would spacex be liable if one of their satellites hits your car or house?

If there’s so little atmosphere that a Starlink doesn’t burn up before it hits your car, the ICE engine would have trouble running anyway.

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the correct comparison is losing one launch. Most companies could handle that fine. That's what insurance is for.

Huh, I've never thought about insurance for stuff like this. Do you think this was covered?

It would be tricky and expensive to insure so many of their own launches so I'd guess no.

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)

Would spacex be liable if one of their satellites hits your car or house?

Yes. But they're designed to burn up on entry. I think it's been mentioned on HN that the delay in their laser link network was due to the need to redesign the laser component to ensure it would break up.

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)

Would spacex be liable if one of their satellites hits your car or house?

Small satellites like Starlink burn up in athmosphere. But if you're curious about liability laws for falling satellites, here's the relevant UN convention: http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gares/ARES_26_2777E.pdf

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)

Would spacex be liable if one of their satellites hits your car or house?

Probably? But I imagine that won't/can't happen because the satellite is likely designed to burn upon reentry. It would seriously surprise me if no regulatory body thought of this before they sent thousands into LEO.

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#118
post #20

40 sats makes up about 2% of the current fleet - so a rounding error in cost and time. The important part of this news is how those 40 sats deorbit and leave no junk either in orbit or on earth.

If you earned $100k, that would be $2000.

Would you write it off as a rounding error?

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#119
post #78

Who's gonna clean after SpaceX' now? It's amazing that I'll get a $1,000 fine if I drop a small piece of garbage here in Irvine, but SpaceX can go away polluting the sky indefinitely without any responsibilities!

SpaceX is using their satellites to accomplish useful things for a lot of stakeholders. They also get special permission to allow their satellites to descend to the earth at EOL. These satellites stop orbiting quite quickly after they're no longer functional - they don't orbit indefinitely. Your litter in comparison would be a totally different kind of problem, and evidently, it is a problem at human scale. That's wh…

Well, I'm talking about small litter like a banana peel, which lots of other Earth inhabitants will actually appreciate. Even if these satellites burn into the atmosphere, they still pollute with the fumes. Not to mention the pollution from the launch itself!

Re: Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm

#120
post #88
post #78

Who's gonna clean after SpaceX' now? It's amazing that I'll get a $1,000 fine if I drop a small piece of garbage here in Irvine, but SpaceX can go away polluting the sky indefinitely without any responsibilities!

The constellation is self cleaning to some large degree because of their relatively low orbits. Satellites that die on final orbit have ~5 years before they've reentered on their own, and before they orbit raise right after launch, it can be as low as a couple weeks. These orbits were an intentional choice by SpaceX. One of intentional effects benefits is to not contribute to space junk concerns.

That still leads to pollution though - and I'm not even mentioning the pollution from their launching!
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