This isn't the original title, and this alternate title makes an argument not made by the article.

Earth's orbit is absolutely nothing compared to the entire solar system. We couldn't "litter" the Solar System in any way that mattered at all, even if we tried our best to do so right now.

It's not just countries. It is companies as well. I fear SpaceX is going to be the worst offender with Starlink, as they seem to have this nonchalant entitlement to everything they touch. They will seek to fight any regulation that adds cost to their operation. They are overzealous with their goals and ignorant in their execution of them. [1] [2]

[1] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/starlink-already-thr...

[2] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229643-spacex-starlink...

Aren't starlink all low enough that they will naturally decay? And presumably it's impossible for a collision to prevent this as you would need a second collision at the far side of the orbit to circularize?

As far as collisions; I am not sure. I know that US Space Command monitors low earth orbit and if you are the operator of an asset which is in the path of another asset they will contact both parties to organize a response. Usually this requires one or more assets being moved. Whether or not the operator of the asset is cooperative with US Space Command is entirely deterministic on the relationship of the operator to US Space Command. Russian military satellite operators probably won't answer that phone call.

But that is not the only threat they pose. If you see the links I posted, the satellites are so low, so reflective, and so numerous that they impact ground based astronomy of all kinds. From the reflection of the sun off their metal components to the radio interference they emit; these satellite's are a menace to the scientific community.

I'm sure the logistical challenges they provide to operators trying to launch new spacecraft is significant as well. And there are other organizations from other countries building similar constellations in low-earth orbit. These are all disjointed teams with little to no knowledge of each others existence, let alone communication with each other. We need a regulatory body with the authority to gather all vested parties and hash out some rules that work for everyone. We needed this done BEFORE SpaceX shipped a portion of the world's precious metals into low earth orbit. But that didn't happen. And universities are paying the price while SpaceX turns profit in space.

> BEFORE SpaceX shipped a portion of the world's precious metals into low earth orbit.

Admirable passion, but I suspect you've been informed unevenly: do please read further on what exactly "low earth orbit" actually means. This stuff will be back, fairly soon.

> From the reflection of the sun off their metal components to the radio interference they emit; these satellite's are a menace to the scientific community.

May I suggest that the development of this technology, cheap satellites, for commercial purposes will reduce the costs for scientific purposes. More labs will eventually be able to launch observing satellites for themselves. Not a perfect outcome, better if we had our cake and got to eat it, but in this case we get cheap global internet and cheap(er) satellite launches for all purposes.

There's a world of difference between launching a comms satellite and launching a telescope. The most affected form of astronomy (radio astronomy), can't even be feasibly done from orbit, not even with the next few generations of launch vehicles.

(Also starlink is a solution for a relative few: it does not represent serious competition for traditional ISPs because there are still significant limits on the density of connections it can support. It's great if you're in the middle of nowhere and there's relatively few people around you. It sucks in cities. It's not going to supply internet to even a significant fraction of any country, bar some micronations)

Astronomy will only be possible from satellites that are further away from earth than all the LEO satellites.

I’m not convinced the squeeze is worth the juice. Starlink wasn’t necessary, there are/were alternatives. Hopefully it forces the terrestrial providers to step their game up, we all get FTTH, and then starlink can all crash in to the atmosphere before collisions pollute all of earths orbits and render them all unusable for the few valuable services that can only be done from space.

5 miles per second, minimum.