"About 200,000 of the 1 million proposed SpaceX AI1 satellites would be decommissioned each year. Based on their May 29 FCC filing, about 40,000 would definitely deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. (Those materials would largely be dispersed throughout the atmosphere, turning a resource into a diffuse contaminant that slowly settles over the globe. One related issue: the aluminum would cause an unknown amount of ozone depletion over a period of decades.)"
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@gerrymcgovern If these "data centres" ever become more than just another Musk mouth-wank, they face the dilemma: 1) higher orbit+longer life BUT greater latency & cosmic radiation, vs. 2) lower orbit+less latency & radiation, BUT shorter life
