News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space. Parent comment

Re:Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space by bagels on Monday January 18, 2021 @12:22PM (#25824051)
"much slower" is still >7000 m/s
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space by sandworm101 on Monday January 18, 2021 @12:42PM (#25824288)
Yes but at that altitude their orbital period is about 1/2 that of low orbits, meaning that even if two orbits do cross paths, there would be fewer potential collisions in a given time. They are 'slower' in relation to size of the sphere they occupy.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space by bagels on Monday January 18, 2021 @03:55PM (#25826524)
90 mins at 400km vs 110 mins at 1400km
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space by jbrot on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @12:49AM (#25830434)
I guess that makes sense since the Earth’s radius is around 6400km so from 400 to 1400km is really a change from 6800 to 7800km which is proportionally similar to a change from 90 to 110 minutes.

Edit: I just looked up the formula for orbital period and it turns out period is proportional to radius^(3/2) (See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_period)

[ Parent | on HN ]