Great. Even more internet satellites.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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The universe is our trash can
The universe is big enough to be able to handle that. Earth's orbit less so.
Even so, it seems counterproductive to abandon tons of really expensive materials in space, presumably until supply of these materials on Earth is depleted.
Don't worry, in the long-term anything in LEO will end up on Earth again.
If sending these materials up there helps you secure more supply of them on earth it is a win. For humanity it is a loss, but we still think in nation states until we are all fucked.
The universe is our trash can
LEO satellites, like the ones being discussed, are pretty much guaranteed to deorbit within a limited timeframe, as atmospheric drag constantly causes their orbit to decay.
That doesn't mean that you couldn't colossally mess up the existing LEO satellites, but that mess would clean itself up within a few years. And you have to put new LEO satellites up every few years anyway, so it'd translate to a relatively-short-term -- if significant -- disruption.
The real problems are higher-altitude satellites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test
More than half of the tracked debris orbits the Earth with a mean altitude above 850 kilometres (530 mi), so they would likely remain in orbit for decades or centuries.
Everything is our trashcan.
Am I the only one around here who thinks that it's a bad idea to let anyone launch thousands of satellites into space and control them privately?
I think it's time for international satellite treaty regulating use of this technology and the amount of them in space to the benefit of everyone. Either those satellites serve everyone or no one.
Gosh darnit, people. You're all thinking of this as civilian tech. Just as we all know every military needs a satellite navigation system a la GPS to guide rockets and what not, with the Ukraine war it's become painfully obvious that every military needs a satellite communications system a la Starlink. China and India are inevitably going to launch their own systems soon. Russia too, if it has any money left after this war. That's how you have to think of this system.
China already have their own system in orbit
Constellation based systems are not a good system.
The only benefit they bring is low latency, and they have severe downsides to get that latency. Their orbits are so low that they need to account for atmospheric drag, and many satellites simply burn up in the upper atmosphere before their lifespan is complete.
Geosynchronous or other high altitude satellites also offer global coverage without costing billions in maintenance launches, and are only a few dozen milliseconds slower for connections. High altitude satellites are also less vulnerable to physical attack, and only need to be replaced when they run out of station keeping fuel.
only a few dozen milliseconds slower
Have you ever been on geostationary satellite internet? Pings of 1,000 - 2,000 are common.
The minimum additional ping is 240ms purely due to the time it takes light to move 13,816 km and back. That is ping added on top of all the standard network latencies. It's fundamentally a high-latency system.