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A comment on The most unethical thing I was asked to build while working at Twitter. Parent comment

Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by drdeca on Monday November 07, 2022 @05:18PM (#33513361)
Are any of them truly free of drag? Like, are there 0 molecules of atmosphere at some height, or just entirely negligible amounts of atmosphere for all practical purposes?
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Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by denkmoon on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:03PM (#33513790)
None. In theory there are parts of space that are a true vacuum but not everywhere, and definitely not near planetary bodies.

There's a reason our satellites need station-keeping fuel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_station-keeping

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Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by lmm on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:03PM (#33513791)
Even in deep space there are something like two atoms per cubic meter just "there". But atmospheric density drops exponentially with altitude.
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Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by adastra22 on Monday November 07, 2022 @06:45PM (#33514168)
Yeah anything above about ~1000km or so is essentially zero drag.
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Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by tomrod on Monday November 07, 2022 @07:04PM (#33514332)
It adds up. Also, Kessler syndrome potential is not negligible.
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Re:The most unethical thing I was asked to build while worki... by adastra22 on Monday November 07, 2022 @07:06PM (#33514353)
Kessler syndrome is important but somewhat unrelated.

Beyond LEO the drag is really negligible in the sense that other factors (e.g. gravitational abnormalities, the moon) have larger effects.

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