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Low Earth Orbit Visualization

platform.leolabs.space

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Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#91

Post by matheusmoreira »

ck2 wrote: post #32

We need "Space Roombas"™ Starlink was first but what happens when a dozen companies eventually want to put up their own 10,000 low-orbit satellites?

How would that work? A rocket launches into orbit an unmanned satellite capable of autonomously intercepting the orbit of debris in order to collect it and then deorbit itself? Seems extremely expensive for little benefit.

It's my understanding that atmospheric drag and orbital perturbations due to the gravity of other celestial bodies cause satellites to need station keeping maneuvers just to avoid crashing into the Earth. So it seems to me that this debris problem will eventually take care of itself.

Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#92

Post by [deleted] »

101008 wrote: post #90
modeless wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For spotting satellites at night, try my site: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ Most of the satellites shown on the Leolabs site are too dim to see without a telescope because they don't reflect enough light. My site calculates brightness and filters down to the ones that you can see with the unaided eye. There are still quite a few! ISS in particular is very bright and can even be seen before sunset. The new…

Wow. I allowed Chrome to know my location for the first time and Street View was in my front door. I thought it was going to use the IP but it's impossible to be that accurate, does it Chrome use my Home on my profile location or something like that?

[deleted]

Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#95

Post by netrus »

101008 wrote: post #90
modeless wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For spotting satellites at night, try my site: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ Most of the satellites shown on the Leolabs site are too dim to see without a telescope because they don't reflect enough light. My site calculates brightness and filters down to the ones that you can see with the unaided eye. There are still quite a few! ISS in particular is very bright and can even be seen before sunset. The new…

Wow. I allowed Chrome to know my location for the first time and Street View was in my front door. I thought it was going to use the IP but it's impossible to be that accurate, does it Chrome use my Home on my profile location or something like that?

The Street View cars log information about wifi access points, and use wifi data from your device to guess your location.

Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#96

Post by kaboomerizer »

kidme5 wrote: post #86
ubj wrote: post #28

Those long, straight-line convoys of Starlink satellites are fascinating. There's a few of them I could see scattered around the Earth. At what point do they start breaking up into unrelated orbits? Looking forward to using this website to try spotting satellites at night. There's something strangely thrilling about seeing objects in the night sky that were placed there by people.

Looks familiar...(!) https://youtu.be/fEkXTV69yo4?t=22s

>> https://youtu.be/fEkXTV69yo4?t=22s

Holy S$#! I didn't know about that.

Are there links between this Space Force project and Starlink?

Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#99

Post by mlindner »

kidme5 wrote: post #86
ubj wrote: post #28

Those long, straight-line convoys of Starlink satellites are fascinating. There's a few of them I could see scattered around the Earth. At what point do they start breaking up into unrelated orbits? Looking forward to using this website to try spotting satellites at night. There's something strangely thrilling about seeing objects in the night sky that were placed there by people.

Looks familiar...(!) https://youtu.be/fEkXTV69yo4?t=22s

How's this related?

Re: Low Earth Orbit Visualization

#100

Post by mlindner »

beardyw wrote: post #9
nerdponx wrote: post #2

I don't really know what I'm looking at here, but it feels very sci-fi and I'm into it. I also wonder, how do they track so many objects? Who actually tracks them? How much does it cost (energy, engineers) to maintain the tracking systems? Edit: Are these all simulated orbits? Is there a big "orbit registry" somewhere? And what are the "beams"?

I am pretty certain they must be dead reckoning the location with occasional updates.

That's how all space debris tracking works. Luckily orbits are rather predictable paths, but there's still atmospheric drag, lunar and solar gravity, non-uniform Earth gravity, solar photon pressure and measurement imprecision to deal with.
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