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A comment on Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whole Planet Daily. Parent comment

Re:Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whol... by jofer on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @10:47AM (#13652774)
LEO isn't the problem. Anything in the orbit these are in has a lifetime of a few years at most unless they have active propulsion (i.e. not debris or microsatellites).

The problem with space debris is mostly higher orbits where it will remain in orbit indefinitely. In LEO, the atmosphere does a good job of "cleaning up" debris and inactive satellites.

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Re:Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whol... by titzer on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @11:57AM (#13653405)
I'm looking at this http://scilogs.spektrum.de/kosmo/gallery/4/liftime_satellite....

I couldn't find a reference for what the orbital height for these satellites are, but I am guessing they are high enough to last decades.

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Re:Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whol... by chimere on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @12:43PM (#13653791)
This launch was to 500km, and the Doves are around 150kg/m^2 (4.5kg / 0.03m^2). This puts their lifetime at around 5 years according to that linked plot.

For reference, Planet's earlier launches were to the ISS (400km) and lasted less than a year, which your plot agrees with.

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Re:Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whol... by panzagl on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @12:34PM (#13653707)
The previous launch for their system has satellites with a perigee of 494 km, so not high at all.
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