Re:SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched
by titzer on Sunday January 24, 2021 @08:00PM
(#25897866)
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.
Re:SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched
by m4rtink on Sunday January 24, 2021 @09:46PM
(#25898472)
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.
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