Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sometimes baffled how people's knee jerk reaction is to think how to ban this. And yet those same people complain about their parents that claimed that Rock'n'Roll or DnD should be banned because it's satanic. This is literally the coolest thing we as a species achieved that doesn't serve self-preservation purposes.
Problem is this capability is concentrated in the hands of 1. A private company. 2. Of a single country with inconsistent leaders. I’d be less anxious if Europe had this capability instead.
Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
81–90 of 108 posts
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Respectfully disagree as you're comparing the surface to the size of the object, so it definitely matters. Here's some math: Average Earth diameter: 12742kms + 10km Average airplane surface area = 500m2 12752^2*pi = 510,865,389km2 Surface flight/plane = 1021730 planes Starlink orbit height = ~500km Surface at orbit = ~551,712,377 so ~8% increase (which is non-negligible) Average Starlink satellite surface area = ~7m2…
I would argue that 8% is absolutely negligible; however one thing that isn't is that airspace is a narrow band vertically (12 km? Not sure exactly), while LEO is about 800 km thick (from about 200 km, because the Kármán line isn't good enough, to about 1000 km). Conversely: > Daily flights 50k-100k. Total number of satellites Those 20k satellites orbit roughly every 95 minutes, so they're doing ~15 orbits per day, an…
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#83I always like looking at this one https://platform.leolabs.space/visualization
Moreover, are the satellites all moving around like that, haphazardly?
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is this capability is concentrated in the hands of 1. A private company. 2. Of a single country with inconsistent leaders. I’d be less anxious if Europe had this capability instead.
Europe isn't the sort of place that would develop this capability
Germany had SES/Astra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SES_Astra>.
The EU as a whole as the Galileo satnav / GPS project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation_...>.
There are numerous other EU satellite comms providers, though most are aimed at commercial/broadcast services. That's a departure point for satellite-phone or satellite-internet, however.
Europe can and has developed similar and/or precursor capabilities.
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a lot of space in air, and yet we have multiple midair collisions every year.
Surface of a sphere (spheroid) is the square of the diameter. Planes fly at ~10kms, satellites at orders of magnitude higher.
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sometimes baffled how people's knee jerk reaction is to think how to ban this. And yet those same people complain about their parents that claimed that Rock'n'Roll or DnD should be banned because it's satanic. This is literally the coolest thing we as a species achieved that doesn't serve self-preservation purposes.
Problem is this capability is concentrated in the hands of 1. A private company. 2. Of a single country with inconsistent leaders. I’d be less anxious if Europe had this capability instead.
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#87Why are there demarcations towards the poles where the satellite density drops off? Seems Norway, Sweden and Finland have a much lower density of satellites .
polar orbits are hard, you have to take a big oblique track dipping into the lower lattitudes to run a trajectory that allows you to counter gravity. the anti collision manuevers are hard as well. orbits are simpler at lower lattitudes where you run a trajectory, close to parallel to the equator.
This affects both commercial potential (fewer possible subscribers) and bandwidth congestion (dittos). For both you'd want fewer birds in those orbits, and orbital dynamics only strengthen the argument.
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#88I always like looking at this one https://platform.leolabs.space/visualization
i just clicked on one satellite and followed it as it moved. it crossed a continent in like a minute. Is that accurate? Seems too fast. Moreover, are the satellites all moving around like that, haphazardly?
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#89I'm surprised that getting our low space to this state was even legal
Re: Satellite Tracker – Live Map of Starlink and 30k Satellites
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
10% is an outrageously large change in a normal loan interest rate and an irrelevant change when comparing the weight of a paper plane to a real one. Keeping in mind another factor in your comparison was 7700%, I'm inclined to agree the 10% is negligible in context. It's fun to think about though.
But 10% is 50 million square kilometers. If we project this surface area to a theoretical planet with a diameter of 2000kms this planet alone would support 2000+ Starlink satellites in LEO. This is again not negligible.