Re:SpaceX’s Starlink near-misses with other spacecraft are g...
by ElijahLynn on Friday August 20, 2021 @03:18PM
(#28250230)
Question: Do the satellites fully disintegrate? What is the approximate maximum particle size of any leftovers? e.g. Will remnants ever not fully disintegrate and land on earth (people, buildings etc)?
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Re:SpaceX’s Starlink near-misses with other spacecraft are g...
by LeoPanthera on Friday August 20, 2021 @03:21PM
(#28250265)
100% of the Starlink satellites burn up during re-entry. End-of-life satellites are intentionally deorbited. Failed satellites are in such a low orbit that they will self-deorbit after 5 years due to atmospheric drag without their orbit being boosted.
Re:SpaceX’s Starlink near-misses with other spacecraft are g...
by jvzr on Friday August 20, 2021 @06:08PM
(#28251957)
There was concern at one point that the laser component of Starlink woulldn't burn up during atmospheric reentry. I don't think many (if any) satellites currently in orbit have that laser module (which will be used for satellite-to-satellite communication, and IIRC better latency by removing a necessary ground round-trip when the satellite leaves radio "line of sight" with your antenna; I don't have the correct terminology). I don't know either if that's been fixed
Re:SpaceX’s Starlink near-misses with other spacecraft are g...
by LeoPanthera on Saturday August 21, 2021 @01:24AM
(#28254457)
At the moment, only satellites in a polar orbit have the laser module installed, which I believe is a grand total of 13 right now.