Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites
by rtkwe on Friday March 09, 2018 @10:59PM
(#16557021)
The problem is that these are small enough that they couldn't be reliably tracked if they stopped transmitting. As for PocketQubes I only see one that's been launched as the smallest 5cm cubed version most are >=1.5u. I'm guessing the 2.5cm smallest dimension was too small combined with the proposed orbit, I bet they're more willing to accept poor tracking on objects that won't be there long.
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Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites
by bagels on Saturday March 10, 2018 @12:52AM
(#16557308)
They're not too small, as they seem to be actively tracked by AFSPC and others.
Also, there are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris smaller than these satellites. It's not clear that four more satellites are really going to raise the risk bar that much.
Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites
by rtkwe on Saturday March 10, 2018 @11:22AM
(#16559029)
They can be tracked but the FCC was concerned about how reliably they would be tracked.
> Also, there are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris smaller than these satellites. It's not clear that four more satellites are really going to raise the risk bar that much.
Yeah but intentionally putting up more is still not a good idea.