Posted on 11/30/2021 11:49:39 PM PST by blueplum
Elon Musk said on Tuesday that SpaceX's Starlink satellites have had to dodge debris from a Russian missile test.
Russia blasted one of its satellites with a missile on November 15, causing an explosion of debris that spread throughout Earth's orbit, traveling about 10 times the speed of a bullet. ...
..."If [a satellite] gets hit by one of the bigger pieces of debris... it could completely destroy the satellite into thousands of more pieces," astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who tracks satellites and debris objects, told Insider after the missile test. "You could see debris hitting the satellites, causing more debris ...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I wonder...
Is Putin shorting Tesla (SpaceX) stock?
So their test was successful!
The old Kessler syndrome rearing it’s ugly head. Fortunately space is called space for a reason it’s full of well space. The chances of Kessler syndrome are pretty small. SpaceX next gen are being built stronger with the idea that some will get hit eventually and they are designed to not fragment as much. Gen1 and gen2 both have active collision avoidance thrusters and extra fuel for maneuvers and deorbit ops so at end of life they are put into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean to harmlessly burn up. I know two people who have starlink beta testing it they say it’s a huge improvement over hughsnet or 4G rural cellular the only options far from the cities.
For those who don’t know who Kessler is.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
I wonder how much (percentage wise) weight of a satellite has to be dedicated to self preservation (active collision avoidance, fuel for maneuvers and de-orbit ops, radiation shielding, etc). It would seem that only the larger units would incorporate all that safety gear. The little guys are on their own ...
I wonder if anyone is working on collecting dead units in space. Charge a fee to remove a dead unit from space and either return it to the owner or send it down to burn up. Of course collecting working units could also be an option ...
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