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A comment on Amazon's Kuiper responds to SpaceX on FCC request. Parent comment

Re:Amazon's Kuiper responds to SpaceX on FCC request by zamadatix on Sunday February 07, 2021 @02:52PM (#26057645)
Despite the strong responses already it's only been a recent development that Starlink requested all orbital shells be the 5 year decay orbit or lower (and that change still not approved yet). Assuming they go forward with that plan though even the worst case scenario is a relatively temporary problem - they've shown the satellites can move and de-orbit on command and when they don't the newly proposed highest shell is about a 5 year natural decay.

Also it's not so much the concern about hitting a satellite on your way up (easy to track and space is spacey) rather the concern that over many years any 2 satellites in the shell will collide creating a lot of debris that could collide with more satellites in the shell and so on. That's why there are requirements about being able to move your satellites actively as part of these proposals, to prevent such a scenario from happening or growing if it did.

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Re:Amazon's Kuiper responds to SpaceX on FCC request by teruakohatu on Sunday February 07, 2021 @03:02PM (#26057722)
> they've shown the satellites can move and de-orbit on command

Are there cost weight savings if they can remove the fuel or equipment needed to force a deoribit? So if a sat dies on day one they can just shrug and say it will burn up in 5 years.

Or can they induce drag without extra equipment?

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Re:Amazon's Kuiper responds to SpaceX on FCC request by zamadatix on Sunday February 07, 2021 @04:00PM (#26058143)
Technically yes, as long as it will de-orbit in less than 25 years you don't need to. That being said not being able to de-orbit on command or maneuver out of a collision course is going to make getting tens of thousands of such satellites approved much less likely.

Also they are used as part of the normal operation of the satellites anyways, ~60 are launched together in one big clump and then the ion thrusters get them into the individual target orbits and keep them there over time (until fuel runs out trying to keep the orbit on track or the satellite stops being operationally useful), so getting rid of it does make it lighter but not necessarily better suited.

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