This[1] suggests an orbit of 500-600km can a lifetime anywhere from 10-100 years. That's not short.

[1] https://www.spaceacademy.net.au/watch/debris/orblife.htm

The 5-year lifespan is for them to be intentionally deorbited. If they die, they become debris subject to atmospheric drag and other forces.

Thats a great link

I think it's inportant to note that a traditional 3 ton sattelite and a cubesat will have totally different lifetimes, and that articles appears to assume a larger satellite

Yea, I saw that. It seems the key thing is the ratio of surface area to mass. It seems reasonable for a smaller satellite to have higher surface area to mass, and thus deorbit faster, but I don't have a handy link to that data.

The Planetary Society Lightsail 1 mission was a 3U cubesat and went down really quickly from LEO once it unfurled its solar sail - IIRC it basically multiplied its cross-section 300 times.

Interesting. Spacex says it's 5 years for the 550km orbit without propulsion. Maybe the orbit isn't perfectly circular or something else changes the maths.

wiki citation - https://spacenews.com/starlink-failures-highlight-space-sust...

So like little space drones? But way more subtle I guess. Like a mini blowtorch prodding this little thing along, and in the background, a giant view of Earth, below.

And some clouds. Children love clouds.