I have to update the Starlink numbers in my talk. But this time, I last gave my talk TWO DAYS AGO. This is stupid.
There are 27 more Starlinks in orbit today than there were on Monday: there are now 9,526 Starlink satellites orbiting above our heads.
1,458 have already been burned up in the atmosphere (and at least 1 of those made it to the ground in the easiest place in the world to find space debris...) adding many hundreds of tons of weird metals to the stratosphere. #ProfSamLectureTour
@sundogplanets @olivia thats a lot of rocket fuel
Are you fucking kidding me?? I have to update the Starlink numbers AGAIN from YESTERDAY.
There are now 9,551 Starlink satellites in orbit. 25 more than yesterday. FUUUUUUCCCKKKK I am going to bed.
@sundogplanets just wait for this guy to orbit his 5400 TeraWave LEO sats too...
@sundogplanets Money beats people nearly everytime.
@sundogplanets How are they doing this this fast? Are there like daily rocket launches and multi-satellite deployments per launch? I feel like this should be a way bigger deal?!
@joshsutphin @sundogplanets they do frequent launches from each coast that deploy about two dozen satellites.
You can see the upcoming/completed launches to get a sense for HOW frequent. All the ones that say “Starlink mission” https://www.spacex.com/launches
@sundogplanets sorry for the intrusion but I imagine you update these numbers before your speech. What if you did it during your speech to show just how crazy it is. You could say you last updated it on so and so but lets update the number right now and then possibly people would be shocked at just how many more there are. Anyways disregard if this is silly nonsense.
@thejacenallen HA!! I love this idea! Doing math in front of a lot of people is a recipe for disaster, but I love this
@sundogplanets oh yeah the math. No way. I would never attempt this myself.
@sundogplanets Keep fighting the good fight, Professor. We need someone to give us accurate information we can rely on.
@sundogplanets Blue Origin announced TeraWave today.
is anyone quantifying/studying the possible effects/persistance/deposition specifics of the injection of vaporized metals etc in the atmosphere from de-orbiting starlink satellites (and others) ?
Is this ~15% attrition rate on these starlink satellites expected to be a sustained rate over the life of the program? If so... cumulatively, this could become quite significant over time. I do hope it's being looked at.
So, "yearly excess of more than 640% above natural (meteorite contribution) levels" plus "a noticeable delay (~30 years) between the beginning of the injection process when orbiting bodies are decommissioned and the eventual ozone-depletion consequences in the stratosphere." seems to add up to a potential ticking time bomb for the ozone layer. 😰
Other than saying "significant" they don't attempt to quantify the impact...i'd be curious as to what that might be.
@sundogplanets and then there's TeraWave, which is Jeff's high bandwidth space based 5k+ LEO, 18 MEO constellation which starts launching next year.
They just keep on banging 'em up there 🙁
@sundogplanets I saw a really bright red shooting star trailing sparks two nights ago when I went out to look for auroras, and wondered if it were a dissolving satellite
it was traveling south to north in the sky east of my house in coastal Oregon
@sundogplanets I've just read that they are aiming for at least 12K (potentially 34K) satellites, with an average lifetime of 5-7 years.
Sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere already, but... is there any information about what 2,000 downed satellites each year will do to our atmosphere, exactly?
Here is thought experiment, which might make you incredibly depressed if being any more depressed in this day and age as possible: these satellites have a definite lifetime, and there is some expectation that some of them will become damaged and fall from orbit.
Injection of satellites means a consequential and maybe exponential death rates. That’s just basic demographics.
@sundogplanets correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.09643 kind of saying that we have at most 11 years (another solar maximum cycle) to basically have 100% probability of a Kessler syndrome more or less locking us from accessing LEO (at least with humans aboard) … and screwing up astronoy for years AND dumping bunch of interesting stuff into the upper layers of atmosphere? If yes - Why The F”&£ we are still allowing any mega-constellations and not downing the ones in orbit?
@sundogplanets So what are your proposed solutions and alternatives? Are you lucky enough to live in an area without light pollution? (regardless of satellites)
@sundogplanets cape canaveral hit their record for launches last year. i believe it was 109. i used to work down there, and starlinks were going up every week or so.
@sundogplanets “This Starlink satellite crashed in the easiest place in the world to find space debris. Is that near your house?”
Oh fuck, there are 9 more Xingwang megaconstellation satellites in orbit compared to Monday as well. Time to go outside (and not see any stars. I am really tired of cities).
@sundogplanets scene in a netflix scifi movie: why are the stars following me? Those arent stars those are drones and satepites...run!!!
I can only manage a day in a city... and I used to live in London! (I loved it.) Now, give me nature and the countryside, any day 👍👍👍
Of all the things that could be achieved with that money @sundogplanets 😔
@sundogplanets
So, Starlink must have at least 100 million customers to justify this, right?
Right?
