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Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

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Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#21

Post by seydor »

user32489318 wrote: post #5
aledevv wrote: post #2

10,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth?? I didn't know there were so many, really so many. Their presence has already radically transformed the orbital environment. There are so many that in 2025 alone they performed around 300,000 collision avoidance maneuvers. In short: on the one hand, they're convenient for us because of their fantastic internet connection, but on the other, they're generating truly unprec…

Imagine a threat actor blowing up one or two of them. Or malfunction leading to collision with a launcher. Or any satellite malfunction and failure to de-orbit in time. Remember MAD, mutual assured distraction? Well we created another one for access to space

while most of LEO satellites are already probably used for military purposes, they are not subject to MAD deterrence, but probably one of the first easy targets should war erupt

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#22

Post by aaron695 »

aledevv wrote: post #2

10,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth?? I didn't know there were so many, really so many. Their presence has already radically transformed the orbital environment. There are so many that in 2025 alone they performed around 300,000 collision avoidance maneuvers. In short: on the one hand, they're convenient for us because of their fantastic internet connection, but on the other, they're generating truly unprec…

[dead]

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#23

Post by LightBug1 »

madaxe_again wrote: post #8
user32489318 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but at scale of 10k, chances of collision due to malfunction are not 0.

And so what if they collide? This isn’t Kessler syndrome territory, it’s low enough orbit that debris would re-enter and burn up rapidly. You’d lose the colliding satellites, and that’s likely all. Not that there has been a single starlink collision, but y’know.

Wait until multiple, non-coordinated copy-cat constellations are sent up there ...

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#24

Post by homebrewer »

mikkupikku wrote: post #4
aledevv wrote: post #2

10,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth?? I didn't know there were so many, really so many. Their presence has already radically transformed the orbital environment. There are so many that in 2025 alone they performed around 300,000 collision avoidance maneuvers. In short: on the one hand, they're convenient for us because of their fantastic internet connection, but on the other, they're generating truly unprec…

You shouldn't be worried about it, these satellites are in Low Earth Orbits that readily decay if the satellites don't regularly reboost themselves using their electric thrusters. And performing collision avoidance maneuvers is just part of how they're designed to work. Note that its 300,000 avoidances, not collisions. These are more like ballerinas than careening billiard balls.

It's an LLM spambot, it is incapable of worrying. I'm much more worried about another instance of nobody noticing what they're replying to.

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#25

Post by ohyoutravel »

homebrewer wrote: post #24
mikkupikku wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't be worried about it, these satellites are in Low Earth Orbits that readily decay if the satellites don't regularly reboost themselves using their electric thrusters. And performing collision avoidance maneuvers is just part of how they're designed to work. Note that its 300,000 avoidances, not collisions. These are more like ballerinas than careening billiard balls.

It's an LLM spambot, it is incapable of worrying. I'm much more worried about another instance of nobody noticing what they're replying to.

No no their profile says “software dev.”

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#26

Post by gosub100 »

user32489318 wrote: post #5
aledevv wrote: post #2

10,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth?? I didn't know there were so many, really so many. Their presence has already radically transformed the orbital environment. There are so many that in 2025 alone they performed around 300,000 collision avoidance maneuvers. In short: on the one hand, they're convenient for us because of their fantastic internet connection, but on the other, they're generating truly unprec…

Imagine a threat actor blowing up one or two of them. Or malfunction leading to collision with a launcher. Or any satellite malfunction and failure to de-orbit in time. Remember MAD, mutual assured distraction? Well we created another one for access to space

Space is big. Really, really big.

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#27

Post by gosub100 »

wongarsu wrote: post #16
user32489318 wrote: post #3

What I found so fascinating about starling is how easy it was for a single country, even a single company in this case, to pollute near-earth space. I understand the mechanics of LEO, and the de-orbit mechanics put in place. But the world-wide impact, unknown side-effects on the upper layers of atmosphere on the re-entry of literally thousands of satellites within fairly short period of time?

It wasn't easy at all. Nobody except SpaceX could have done it at the time. This is the result of SpaceX being able to launch much cheaper than anyone before them, and being able to use these high-cadence launches to both implement and test incremental improvements in their rockets and streamline their reuse of preflown boosters. SpaceX was the only conceivable launch provider for this, and if it had been an external…

And phased-array antennae. The network would be next to useless if each receiver needed to track the satellite physically.

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#29

Post by rob74 »

mikkupikku wrote: post #9
user32489318 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but at scale of 10k, chances of collision due to malfunction are not 0.

Nobody says the chance of a collisions is zero. That's why it being in LEO is relevant. Internet fools who just get scared by the big number without considering the details of the situation always get this wrong.

So, because the 10,000+ Starlinks launched so far (and the countless future satellites Bezos and others want to launch for their own constellations) are in LEO, nothing bad can happen (it can only good happen)?

That is, if you disregard the following quote from the article:

> Each re-entry deposits about 30 kg of aluminum oxide into the upper atmosphere--an uncontrolled chemistry experiment on a planetary scale.

Re: Animation 10k Starlink Satellites

#30

Post by mikkupikku »

rob74 wrote: post #29
mikkupikku wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody says the chance of a collisions is zero. That's why it being in LEO is relevant. Internet fools who just get scared by the big number without considering the details of the situation always get this wrong.

So, because the 10,000+ Starlinks launched so far (and the countless future satellites Bezos and others want to launch for their own constellations) are in LEO, nothing bad can happen (it can only good happen)? That is, if you disregard the following quote from the article: > Each re-entry deposits about 30 kg of aluminum oxide into the upper atmosphere--an uncontrolled chemistry experiment on a planetary scale.

The bad that can happen is limited by it being in LEO. If these were MEO sats but 50x fewer (Bezos sats BTW) you wouldn't be whining about it even though the potential debris would last thousands of years instead of less than ten. And appealing to the fear of the unknown is little more than motivated reasoning, the amount of rocks and rock dust entering the atmosphere dwarfs Starlink reentries.
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