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Rocketlab acquires Iridium

investors.rocketlabcorp.com

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Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#181

Post by shakna »

xp84 wrote: post #142
Sanzig wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is arguing that space isn't big. The argument is space is big but dynamic, and launching enough stuff up there means that over a sufficiently long time horizon, you will have a collision between uncontrolled objects. This is not a theoretical concern, it has already happened [1]. Collision risk is significantly reduced by having maneuverable spacecraft with good conjunction prediction systems in place. But fun…

Whatever happens to Starlink, the debris in their new lower orbit would decay within months at the worst. It’s not one of those “thousand years imprisoned on the planet by a cloud of deadly debris” that we’ve heard about. Not saying it couldn’t be bad if there were such a collision as obvi a really bad collision could in the short term damage Starlink and anyone else who decides to use that orbit, but this isn’t exis…

If they always got the decay correct, we wouldn't have confirmed debris impact on the ground. It would be destroyed long before it reached.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-fiery-displa...

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#182

Post by johnsimer »

proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

for what it's worth it would take the equivalent of launching 60 trillion cars into low earth orbit to blot out the sky

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#183

Post by johnsimer »

johnsimer wrote: post #182
proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

for what it's worth it would take the equivalent of launching 60 trillion cars into low earth orbit to blot out the sky

and that's assuming they are all in the same concentric plane as each other. you could stack them at different distances from the earth

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#184

Post by marcosdumay »

proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

> Apparently they don't just completely vaporize, but instead leave behind micro particles that float around for a long time.

That's not clear. There's no empirical evidence of it, and the computer models we have don't have definitive results.

Those alarms are not really proper.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#185

Post by preg_match »

cptaj wrote: post #116
proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

This is on a similar scale to complaining about there being too many tennis balls on the surface of the earth. Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Low earth orbit is actually not very big. And that’s what we’re talking about here.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#186

Post by dreamcompiler »

harrall wrote: post #175
Centigonal wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the arguments Hank makes in the video is that SpaceX is (via starlink) rapidly occupying large portions of useful LEO shells, which crowds out future competitors or users of that orbit (i.e. you can't put more satellites into the orbit without risking collisions, especially satellites that aren't part of the existing constellation), and that the natural consequence of not regulating orbital space in some way w…

I 100% agree but Starlink is the only profitable space division of SpaceX. The truth is diverting money to space exploration is not that popular. We only got the moon because we were in a battle with the Soviet Union about capitalism vs. communism. It was never about space or science. The instant the Soviet Union collapsed, we reduced NASA’s projects and budgets. So while I’m not a fan of the circumstances, I need so…

> The instant the Soviet Union collapsed, we reduced NASA’s projects and budgets.

The instant we beat the Soviet Union to the moon we reduced NASA's projects and budgets. That's why the Space Shuttle was such a ridiculous kludge.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#187

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

shakna wrote: post #181
xp84 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever happens to Starlink, the debris in their new lower orbit would decay within months at the worst. It’s not one of those “thousand years imprisoned on the planet by a cloud of deadly debris” that we’ve heard about. Not saying it couldn’t be bad if there were such a collision as obvi a really bad collision could in the short term damage Starlink and anyone else who decides to use that orbit, but this isn’t exis…

If they always got the decay correct, we wouldn't have confirmed debris impact on the ground. It would be destroyed long before it reached. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-fiery-displa...

That satellite's orbit very clearly did decay, though. The problem in that instance is the descent wasn't controlled, but that's a different kind of failure than the one this thread is worried about (i.e. satellites lingering for many years without active collision avoidance).

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#188

Post by nradov »

ceejayoz wrote: post #141
nradov wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think Russia will be willing to pay a tax on their new Rassvet constellation?

Seize a few shadow fleet tankers to pay for it. (This is already happening, today, for other bits of their misbehavior!)

I'm not opposed to seizing shadow fleet vessels operated by Russia (or any vessel sailing without a valid flag registration). But as a practical matter Russia is now legally registering much of the shadow fleet under their own flag, and even giving them armed escorts in some cases. So this is going to make additional seizures more difficult.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#189

Post by cbsmith »

iamtheworstdev wrote: post #100
Centigonal wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hank Green did a video recently advocating for an "orbit value tax" -- like a Georgist Land Value Tax, but for orbits. This tax would, among other things, help fund orbital cleanup and internalize the externality of polluting orbital shells. It's an idea that deserves more discourse IMO. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLjW6zuYmos

Ugh. People already trying to find ways to gate keep space by raising the financial barrier to entry before we've even been able to capitalize on cheap space flights. I'm sure SpaceX and others will be against this until suddenly, they're not, when they realize they're one of the few that can even afford to pay it. Like when Amazon finally had warehouses in all fifty states and suddenly quit campaigning against onlin…

Better a financial barrier than a physical one. If satellites and spaceships are literally smashing in to each other, I have a hard time interpreting it as anything other than a regulatory failure.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#190

Post by dreamcompiler »

I highly recommend the book Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story by John Bloom. The story of how Iridium came to be and how difficult it was to keep Motorola from literally destroying the whole constellation (which they had originally built!) is quite fascinating.

Tidbit: Author is also the real-life person behind the comedic persona Joe Bob Briggs. If you ever lived in Texas you know that name. And yes the guy can write seriously good nonfiction.

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