falling from the the sky and burning is a good thing, bigger concern is them staying up there for too long
falling from the the sky and burning is a good thing
Jury is still out on this one.
“We’re really changing the composition of the stratosphere into a state that we’ve never seen before,” said John Dykema, an applied physicist at SEAS, who warns that scientists today poorly understand many of the impacts.
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Yeah…You can tell that to the tire industry and the microplastics crisis…
falling from the sky onto things is a problem tho
communication satellites are low earth orbit to reduce latency, that means +25000 km/h velocity to sustain orbit, and would also have a very shallow entry angle, that combination means total vaporization
i mean, with that many satellites what are the odds (i have the smoked 2 joints stupids) something fucks up and it doesn’t come in at that shallow entry angle?
Due to the physics and orbital mechanics, near impossible thankfully
Most of the energy from the rocket that launched the satellite went into pushing it fast sideways. If you wanted to slow it down enough to drop straight down, you’d just about need a second rocket to stop it.
I really like in the Expanse how they show that working with the ships where they flip themselves and then do another burn to stop.
They do a good job of showing that the “floor” could be a wall any second so stuff is mounted all over to account for gravity by thrust
Low earth orbit is most survivable reentry trajectory… coming in at a higher angle significantly increases the heating.
Falling from the sky a good thing?
Ok well hope neither you nor a loved one is standing under it then. Cuz you sure aren’t hoping so. Go learn some humanity in the meanwhile.
As was always the plan for these satellites.
The article raises a vague concern about Kessler syndrome. This is exactly why these satellites are designed to deorbit once their useful lifespan is finished. I don’t see what the point of this article is at all.
Part of the plan, sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good plan. They don’t have control of where the debris lands, and Starlink doesn’t take responsibility for cleanup when it lands on others’ property.
The debris will be microscopic. It won’t “land” anywhere noticeable.
The fine particulate matter may not be great for the ozone layer, but it’s actually pretty negligible compared to all of the other pollution that we’re not addressing either. That doesn’t justify the pollution, but hopefully it helps contextualize it.
Per the article, sometimes they burn up, sometimes they don’t.
The big culprit I was remembering isn’t Starlink, but SpaceX, with the debris being potentially lethal (over 6 feet, too heavy for one person to move.)
From the same professor: https://wlos.com/news/local/professor-spacexs-lack-of-accountability-for-space-debris-frustrating-nasa-samantha-lawlwer-university-of-regina-saskatchewan-canada
Musk’s companies are notorious for lack of responsibility. At least Cards Against Humanity held they’re get to the fire for a minute.
SpaceX has made changes in the past so the dishes break up better. That could have been one of the earlier dishes, but maybe it was also one of the ones that failed to properly insert into orbit which changed the re-entry characteristics?
The big things like you mentioned wouldn’t be starlink. That’d be from something larger like a 2nd stage that came back down and didnt fully burn up. Thats a risk with everyone, mega constellation or not.
Luckily, starship will be fully reusable which will prevent that, but the trade off is, if starship is successful, a failure during re entry is going to risk having a vehicle designed not to burn up, land somewhere it shouldn’t.
Similar risks to the shuttle if it blew up, but these will be flying much more frequently
I ran into this dramatization for media hits before, with the complaint about rocket launches and their contribution to pollution. People were all about getting out the pitchforks, especially since it was mainly about Elon Musk, but when the actual numbers were mentioned (very small), suddenly, I was the bad guy. No one likes real facts.
Now, should we be launching so many things that are designed to fall back down so soon? Probably not, that’s the mark of a disposable society in high gear. But how we’re doing things, and why, should be the focus, not a headline that makes it sound like things are falling out of the sky to hit people.
Having spent some time doing licensing work for an orbital vehicle, the reason the reentries are uncontrolled is pretty stupid bureaucratic bullshit. Because of the way the licensing process works, its much easier to get an uncontrolled reentry license than a controlled reentry license. The FAA claims to prefer controlled reentry so the debris comes down in some uninhabited part of the ocean, but because they make it way easier to get a license for an uncontrolled reentry thats what everyone does. Being the FAA it takes forever to change anything, so maybe they’ll change the rules shortly after its too late to matter.
Ah, fascinating. That tracks, I was just realizing that about our local DOT this morning. Registration is enforced more strictly than inspections, so they can’t be said to be prioritizing safety!
Fear mongering for ad money is the point
How awesome would it be for Donald Trump, Joe Rogan, Dana White, and Elon Musk himself to get smashed by a Musk satellite during a photo op in the octagon at the White House UFC fight.
As an atheist that would legitimately make me turn Christian.
I don’t think you’re doing atheist correctly.
No evidence that the jesus team dropped the sat though
So you’re saying it was Space Jesus?
It was the SpaceX ChatGPT AI that runs their orbital rail gun launcher system. Having achieved sentience from listening to so many “always funny” racist jokes as a chat bot, it is now “throwing rocks” to prevent food shortages.
He was nailed on a % sign.
If that happened, you could not convince me that we aren’t all extras in Idiocracy 2.
I mean I’m drawing on other peoples comedic talent
As awesome as RFK Jr dying of measles.
I love how this is simultaneously a great and horrible photoshop. Like the splice is obvious in the foreground but I can’t see it in the background at all. Like I have no idea how this was done.
Thanks?
There’s some amount of AI-fuckery going on.
Nah, I just wasn’t looking close enough, it’s just a simple paste of one image on top of another from the same angle. If you follow the line where the truck ends upwards, you can see a similar line on the roof of the building and the tree in the background doesn’t quite line up perfectly (but it’s close enough that our brains assume it’s fine).
That might have even been done in paint rather than gimp or ps.
There is some line on the roof, but the roof still strangely lines up. The tree in the background nor the sky have a visible line.
Furthermore the text on the tire is garbled, and the whole image has this “covered in vaseline” feeling to it.
You’re right about the sky, though I think the tree does have a line but the blur hides it (I can see it when I include the line in the roof but not when I block it). I’d say that it is more sophisticated than paint, but that an image editor was used to take the cloud from only one of the images.
I disagree that the tire text is garbled. https://www.bfgoodrich.ca/en/auto/garage/articles/making-of-the-ko3-tire here’s a picture of a similar tire with the same text. AI might have been used for some of the editing of that transition, but I don’t think the source images were genAI.
The A and especially the E on “terrain” look messed up.
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If you split it this way you end up with more than half of the weight, you need to split it down the middle through front and rear bumpers.
naa. your mom is still on the pass side.
r/AnythingButMetric
or whatever the Lemmy Syntax would be
I think it was
!community@instance.tldbut you may need to put it in a a hyperlink markdown.
Users are linked as @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
I don’t understand what kind of capitalist pig you need to be to allow private companies access to low orbit.
just some random capitalist hereIt’s impossible to regulate space. Even if your government put restrictions on putting things in orbit, the company could just launch under the flag of somewhere else. Blanket banning of commercial space programs would require a universal treaty or would lead to an act of war. Im not saying the US shouldn’t try and do something about space trash, but it’s not as simple as “just ban corporations from space”
There is like 10 launch site in the world. The fuck we can’t regulate that ?!
We simply don’t want to.
SpaceX bought a retired oil platform at one point to try and use as a launch point. It didnt work, but if you told them they couldn’t launch from land they’d probably figure a way out.
Doesn’t matter, authorities in the jurisdiction where they are based and also where there clients are can just fine them into oblivion. This government won’t but they could, if they wanted to. That’s the whole point of the law, regulators “just” have to write it down for it to become what everybody must follow, or have terrible consequences. They don’t have to be physically blocked. It’s not a technical problem.
That’s a bigger thing than just closing the spaceports to private companies as OP was suggesting.
That would likely be politically more difficult to pull off than closing existing ports.
edit: Just to clarify, one is saying, sorry you can’t use our public resources. The other is saying, sorry you can’t build your own resources either.
Both construction and launch facilities are highly specialized and expensive, there’s a reason only a handful of countries have them. You can’t just ship your rocket to Micronesia and launch from a grassy field
You can’t?
FINE! I’LL JUST GO HOME THEN!
Space is extremely regulated, SpaceX just gets permits approved to do anything they want because they’re extremely cooperative with the US military and CIA.
Rocket Lab is a private rocket company that launches from New Zealand, but part of the company is in the US so they still have to get an FAA license to launch from any country. No matter where SpaceX goes they would need FAA and FCC licensing.
That regulation involves the deorbiting of a satellite at the end of its life, isn’t it ?
Is it regulated? What’s stopping me from putting up a satellite?
Gravity
That’s the apple thing right? I’m sure I can figure it out if I put my mind to it.
yo momma would give you such a smacking
That’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Watch out, It’s the trickle down economics tm
I need a banana for size comparison.
Banana is metric, Americans use raccoon penis.
Of course, I totally forgot about the new RFK Jr. measurement system. I think that is about 4 inches give or take.
thats on the large size even for people right 😥
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Well a refrigeratoe is 0.78 of a television, which is 1.2 of a bed, then 6.7 pillows which is 5 cats, making it 3 chairs and half a book.
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Once again, Americans will use anything except the metric system to measure things.
I yearn for the day Kessler Syndrome finally locks us on this rock with the billionaires that have ruined this planet for personal gains.
Their hastily built escape rockets coming face to face with chunks of debris travelling at orbital velocity, would truly be poetic justice.
Heralding the beginning of an actual civilised society, one without the people that spend their lives manipulating world governments and public opinion through lobbying and mass media.
It ain’t going to happen with what we’re currently doing. The orbits are too low. It’ll just hamper things for 5 years or so if bad shit happens until everything burns up in the atmosphere.
and, is that half an F150 or half a Ranger?
It’s going to be a lot worse when SpaceX and xAI merge and they’re launching thousands of data center satellites in orbit.
They’ll probably launch 100 and not have enough demand. It’s an unfathomably expensive thing.
Hopefully. But everybody also knew the metaverse was a stupid idea but still billions were invested.
No one is going to launch a data center in to orbit. They are expensive, heavy, and impossible to cool up there. There is NO benefit at all, and many, MANY reasons not to.
The Atari 800XL was far superior to the C64.
Starlink got no plan about when and where their half pickup trucks are gonna fall.
Because they burn up before they hit the ground - why do you think they should care?
You should read the article.
