I calculated an average of 1 collision avoidance maneuver every 75 seconds in the Starlink megaconstellation based on the numbers they gave in their last conjuction report. But sure, launch more Starlinks.
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@sundogplanets The more avoidances the more fuel they’ll use from their thrusters. SO their working life will be shortened until they can no longer dodge. Amazon going for about the same orbits but Eutelsat is a fair bit higher.
@sundogplanets collisions with what? Other starlinks? Like cannibalism for techbros ?
@sundogplanets And soon we will have giant mirrors in orbit.
@sundogplanets
Und wer räumt den Müll weg? Könnten Menschen nichts anderes produzieren als potentiellen Müll?
@sundogplanets The pithy version of "every ... satellite has to doge a collision almost weekly" is that we are one thruster failure away from a collision in the next few days.
@sundogplanets Prof, do you ever wish that one chain reaction would occur and everything would come crashing down?
As a child of the 60's, sometimes I do.
@sundogplanets
One of the famous dead commies -- I forget which one -- said that a capitalist is someone who'll sell you a rope to hang him with.
Modern corporations will sell you dangerous and expensive crap that will make the planet uninhabitable for humans, if there's shareholder value in doing so.
#EndStageCapitalism #SpaceX
@sundogplanets
What’s the betting that they solve this by reducing the approach distance deemed to require an avoidance manoeuvre?
@sundogplanets Personally, I find #Starlink to be #wasteful and only effective at sabotaging #FTTH buildouts in #rural areas.
- Just like #Hyperloop was only pushed by #ElonMusk to #sabotage #CaliforniaHighSpeedRail!
There's a reason why #Iridium is the only "successful" truly global constellation and even that only works due to #Buyouts by the #US #Government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r9tAbaiXSg
https://www.iridium.com/products/iridium-9575a-us-government
https://www.iridium.com/services/netted-iridium
https://www.iridium.com/services/iridium-managed-access-dnx
What's the exchange rate for satellites to goats?
@sundogplanets bye stars, it was nice looking at you ☹️
@sundogplanets Would it be worse if there were, say, a million larger satellites?
@sundogplanets Yeah, this seems like a case where the 'Law of Large Numbers' is going to become a problem....
"The avoidance maneuvers reduce the probability of a collision to about one in a million, which is so small that it's negligible," Lewis said. "The problem is that if you make a million maneuvers and you have a residual probability of one in a million, you end up with an aggregate risk across your entire constellation that you can't get rid of."
The article goes on to say "SpaceX will have made a million avoidance maneuvers over the lifetime of the Starlink constellation as early as June 2027"
@sundogplanets Additionally, I now get to worry about how good they are at maintaining the software that's ordering those maneuvers. Because they CAN'T be doing it by hand.
@sundogplanets there is a quote attributed to a microsoft exec going "in our line of work, one in a million is next tuesday"
@sundogplanets@mastodon.socialaybe maybe they are working on Kessler Syndrome so they can later shelf the 'Mars mission'
