NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetime expectations

Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by Fordec on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @11:36AM (#29893759)

And those satellites, by bulk, are in low earth orbit with a lifetime of usually 4 years, and a legally mandated reentry in 25 years.

JWTs location in L2 (a mathematically unstable location that requires energy to not roll back into a gravity well in any direction) is like putting it on the satellite equivalent of K2 and not coming down from the peak for 20 years and you compare it to the thousands of commuters that made it up the hill down the road from your house.

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by dotancohen on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @12:07PM (#29894227)

  > legally mandated reentry in 25 years.

What is this requirement?

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by Fordec on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @01:58PM (#29896029)

A few, but he one that is the closest rubber that hits the road is part of the FCC filing for radio spectrum access on satellite projects. Without which, you're not getting on most rockets.

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by dotancohen on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @02:14PM (#29896271)

I am not aware of the FCC mandating satellite deorbit plans as a condition for receiving a transmission band.

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by Fordec on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @02:21PM (#29896414)

Swarm breached the "Mitigation of Orbital Debris Second Report and Order" which has been in place since 2004[0], for their launch on an Indian rocket because their 0.5Us would breach this and their aerodynamics wouldn't comply because the satellites were so small and didn't have enough atmospheric drag to bring them down in time. The tracked by radar aspect was resolvable by Leo Labs radars, but not the atmospheric drag component.

FCC subsequently fined them $900k.

[0] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-363486A1.pdf

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-satellite-fine-idUSKC...

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by dotancohen on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @02:33PM (#29896591)

Fascinating, thank you very very much.

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by jaywalk on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @12:57PM (#29895045)

There is no legal requirement of that sort that I'm aware of. However, it is recommended that LEO satellites should re-enter the atmosphere within 25 years of mission completion. This is to try and mitigate the ever-growing issue of space junk in LEO.

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by K5EiS on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @01:21PM (#29895435)

I couldn't find any legal requirements, but the ESA recommends a reentry withtin 25 years of mission completion to reduce waste in orbit.

https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Mitigating_...

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by dotancohen on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @02:12PM (#29896248)

I am aware of this, but it is not legally mandated as GP states.

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