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Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

space.com

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Re: Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

#101

Post by mah4k4l »

Sure hope that Jello Biafra doesn't have his facts straight in his 1991 song The Sky Is Falling And I Want My Mummy (Falling Space Junk) with NoMeansNo. The part of the song about US orbital satellites carrrying plutonium waste with them. Please be just a little bidenism from this also so priestly character that JB is. The pitfall of the priestly archetypical character so many a time is just being out to to get the good old Holy Spirit emotional response from the churchgoers and not so much alawys concerned with getting the facts straight.

Increased solar flare EMP risk during the next years ain't a picnic either. Yo this all sucks. Bummer vibes. But don't shoot the messenger.

The song: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mE5ir7bJnDI

Re: Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

#102

Post by mirashii »

adolph wrote: post #84
mirashii wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who don’t click through to the other thread, I’d say that solar weather contributed, but the root cause was more an overzealous safe mode induced by the operations team that didn’t leave time to recover. A better operations plan would’ve shortened the safe mode duration to ensure that they attempted to raise their orbit even if it meant deploying during the solar event. Letting safe mode destroy the satelli…

> Take the chance and deploy anyways and hope you get lucky. If they got unlucky they might have spiked a space in which another satellite could have orbited (no pun intended).

There’s not really a shortage of space, even in LEO. This isn’t a place where Kessler syndrome or orbital slots are really a concern.

Re: Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

#103

Post by mirashii »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #88
mirashii wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who don’t click through to the other thread, I’d say that solar weather contributed, but the root cause was more an overzealous safe mode induced by the operations team that didn’t leave time to recover. A better operations plan would’ve shortened the safe mode duration to ensure that they attempted to raise their orbit even if it meant deploying during the solar event. Letting safe mode destroy the satelli…

Come on, 40 satellites is not all that much for Spacex.

Even on the cheap end of estimates at 250k/each, that's still 10 million in hardware alone, not to mention launch costs, opportunity cost of delaying operations, etc.

But really, that's neither here nor there, the point of the comment is that a combination of an unexpected solar storm and the operations procedures followed for dealing with them lead to a possibly unnecessary loss of satellites. Just because they have more doesn't mean they're happy about losing out on millions of dollars of hardware.

Re: Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

#105

Post by daniel-cussen »

mirashii wrote: post #103
daniel-cussen wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, 40 satellites is not all that much for Spacex.

Even on the cheap end of estimates at 250k/each, that's still 10 million in hardware alone, not to mention launch costs, opportunity cost of delaying operations, etc. But really, that's neither here nor there, the point of the comment is that a combination of an unexpected solar storm and the operations procedures followed for dealing with them lead to a possibly unnecessary loss of satellites. Just because they have…

10 million USD is an acceptable loss at that scale against other tradeoffs. Launch costs are low, so plus these sats aren't as expensively made because their supremacy (meaning their height off the ground here, that's my intent with that word) does not cost their weight in gold.

Same as Tesla crashes versus speed versus manufacturing cost, versus everything, tradeoffs. Are they justified or not?

Re: Unexpected solar weather is accelerating satellites' orbital decay

#106

Post by readerbaza »

rcardo11 wrote: post #20

I'm wondering if this solar cycle can be a reason for the recent wild summer temperatures? Anyone here can confirm?

how dare you! it's the evil co2

When the warning signs are ignored because they don't fit the political propaganda, then sure...it's "unexpected"

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