Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#12That is a pretty cool engineering feet. Never knew a shoe box sized telescope can give such detailed pictures. They have sent about 200 satellites, cost "six figures" each, so an estimate of 200,000 a piece, they have spent about 40 million dollars, excluding the price of launches. The data collected is definitely worth the price IMO. Imagine the ability to monitor storms and hurricanes, analyze their data and update…
Global surveillance networks.
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Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#13[deleted]
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#14That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
The other comments that are replying to you have it fairly accurate. It's not widely known but it isn't a secret either: the point of the doves is to be deployed en masse and with more capability with every subsequent build. A quick refresh in the constellation means there is fresh hardware in space every so often.
This means the intention is indeed for re-entry into the atmosphere after the operational lifespan of the dove has lapsed. (They physically stay in space only a few years depending on altitude, orbit, exposed atmospheric drag and a couple of other things)
The last two flocks alone have put close to 130 sats in space so the debris issue is something that is taken quite seriously at the company.
Source: I work at planet. I generally lurk on HN but I created an account just now to reply to this :)
EDIT: Relevant blog post from a couple years ago - https://www.planet.com/pulse/keeping-space-clean-responsible...
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#15This article is in desperate need of a r/spacex-style bullet point summary.
Yes, a tl;dr would be very much appreciated if anyone were to have the time and inclination.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#16That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
You don't have to worry too much about the low Earth orbit (LEO) sateillites as they will deorbit soon enough. My understanding is that there is also ongoing research into methods to deorbit them at end of life.
In the case of a Kessler syndrom event it remains a concern. Collisions will push some debris higher while causing other pieces to enter early. The result would be a debris cloud that persists for decades even in LEO.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#17That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
The other comments that are replying to you have it fairly accurate. It's not widely known but it isn't a secret either: the point of the doves is to be deployed en masse and with more capability with every subsequent build. A quick refresh in the constellation means there is fresh hardware in space every so often. This means the intention is indeed for re-entry into the atmosphere after the operational lifespan of t…
Unrelated and probably a stupid question -- but I am curious. What would these satellites see if they looked the other way - i.e. Outwards towards space. Would they see just darkness? Some stars? Lots of stars? Would you know?
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#18That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
The other comments that are replying to you have it fairly accurate. It's not widely known but it isn't a secret either: the point of the doves is to be deployed en masse and with more capability with every subsequent build. A quick refresh in the constellation means there is fresh hardware in space every so often. This means the intention is indeed for re-entry into the atmosphere after the operational lifespan of t…
It seems Planet currently only relies on passive de-orbiting, how long are sats expected to stay in orbit? And are active de-orbiting options being considered?
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#19That is a pretty cool engineering feet. Never knew a shoe box sized telescope can give such detailed pictures. They have sent about 200 satellites, cost "six figures" each, so an estimate of 200,000 a piece, they have spent about 40 million dollars, excluding the price of launches. The data collected is definitely worth the price IMO. Imagine the ability to monitor storms and hurricanes, analyze their data and update…
Another way to track animal and eventually bird migrations when resolution is high enough. Better coverage of large scale disasters, think earthquake and your mentioned hurricanes, but also fires in remote areas and possibly detection of avalanches. Perhaps even revealing ancient civilizations that haven't been identified yet? There is a lot of area on this planet not of interest and not extensively photographed to where its generally available.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't have to worry too much about the low Earth orbit (LEO) sateillites as they will deorbit soon enough. My understanding is that there is also ongoing research into methods to deorbit them at end of life.
In the case of a Kessler syndrom event it remains a concern. Collisions will push some debris higher while causing other pieces to enter early. The result would be a debris cloud that persists for decades even in LEO.
From first principles, I'm not seeing how a LEO collision pushes a significant amount of debris notably higher, but I'm certainly missing something:
Post collision, all debris orbits will still be passing through the point of collision. Any deflection with a vertical component (up or down towards the earth) will have a part of their orbit go through thicker atmosphere, which will make them deorbit faster. That leaves deflections which are in the plane spanned by the two orbits ("sideways" and "forwards/backwards"). If those deflections in any way slow down the piece of debris, that will also go through lower atmosphere and deorbit.
Disregarding debris under those effects, the remaining debris will have two more things going for it: They'll be out of the LEO orbit for a large part of their (now elliptic) orbits, and they'll be smaller so they'll slow down more from friction (due to the square-cube law).
Of course, cascading effects could still affect all satellites in LEO (and humanity's access to orbit for years), but it doesn't seem to me like it'd be a "permanent" issue in LEO? What am I not seeing?