SpaceX files for new 29,988-satellite W-band network

Re:SpaceX files for new 29,988-satellite W-band network by dreamcompiler on Thursday October 12, 2023 @11:23AM (#37858511)

By way of comparison, there are currently about 8900 total active objects (read: working satellites) in orbit around Earth and 35700 pieces of debris [0] or as-yet-unidentified junk [1].

That's only stuff at least 10cm in diameter, which is about the smallest object that can be tracked. There are several orders of magnitude more objects smaller than that.

So this plan would more than quadruple the number of active satellites in orbit. Not quadruple Starlink's satellites, but quadruple the total number of all satellites in operation. Ruining our view of the night sky -- as bad a problem as that is -- is nothing compared to Kessler Syndrome [2]. But we'll probably have to learn that the hard way.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris

[1] https://www.space-track.org/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

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Re:SpaceX files for new 29,988-satellite W-band network by kasdi on Thursday October 12, 2023 @03:02PM (#37861550)

Unfortunately, this seems to be the future. While now the sky is largely empty with an occasional plane, in the future it will be filled with drones. It already happened with cars. A century ago the land was mostly quiet, now you usually have a loud and busy street somewhere in the vicinity. And in the farther future, it will be spaceships in the solar system (and maybe beyond).

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