Re:Oh, 2022
by runarberg on Sunday January 09, 2022 @07:34PM
(#29869103)
Yes, space is big. Lower earth orbit is still very big. However if you have dozens of operators, each with thousands of satiates making multiple round the world trips. The chances of a specific satellite colliding perhaps is tiny (given how big space is). However the chances of one of the thousands colliding with any of the other thousands over any of their orbital periods increases exponentially as the number of satellites increases.
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Tens of thousands.
> There are currently over 1,600 Starlink satellites in orbit, and that number will continue to grow; SpaceX has filed paperwork for up to 42,000 satellites for the constellation.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-internet-satellites-la...
They're aware of the risk of collisions, but toss in a few more vendors trying for the same size, and you can have potentially hundreds of thousands of satellites in the shells. They're big, but they're not that big.
What worries me personally is that they are aware and simply don’t care. Our current climate catastrophe is a testament that big business can be completely aware of an impending disaster, but still ignore it while profits are showing.