Recent comments in /f/space

thawingSumTendies OP t1_jay71ku wrote

Reply to Canadian rover to help in global search for frozen water on dark side of the moon, in a future planned mission by thawingSumTendies

Sorry everyone,

It’s my first time posting here.

The last post I used the same title as CTV, and I agree it appears to be sensationalized for something that is not yet an active mission.

I was allowed to repost with a revised title and hopefully we can continue our discussions

Special thanks to mod SpartanJack17 for allowing me to post with a revised title.

My apologies everyone. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to change the title from the default article’s previously, so that’s why I kept it as is at the time.

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PEVEI t1_jay58f4 wrote

Reply to comment by BeerPoweredNonsense in Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem by ye_olde_astronaut

Virtually no one on this sub I've met understands Kessler Syndrome, nor do they understand why it isn't a meaningful issue for the sort of orbits we're talking about. Impact on astronomy is a big issue, although it appears that for interesting reasons, many here are unmoved by that.

I would add that the "13,000 objects in orbit" is both a lowball (the estimate from NASA is well over 20k) and not referring mostly to inactive satellites. In fact that number refers to anything 10cm and over, and the majority is junk. The number of inactive sats is much lower, a fraction of that number, about 7500 according to the article we're responding to above. SpaceX accounts for half of that number.

As far as dead sats, they're in a different stat which includes spent rocket stages, and that number is about 3000. There are in fact more SpaceX sats in LEO than dead sats and rocket stages from all other sources in history.

With more launched every year.

Edit: Virtually none of that space junk making up the 25K+ number is visible to the naked eye, nor does it have a material impact on Earth-based astronomy.

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simcoder t1_jay4u4v wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem by ye_olde_astronaut

I think they may have nailed one of the problems right on the head.

A couple excerpts:

“Starlink is the densest patch of space that has ever existed,” Lawler says. The satellites are constantly navigating out of each other’s way to avoid collisions (SN: 2/12/09). And it’s a popular orbital altitude — Hubble is there, and so is the International Space Station and the Chinese space station.

So far, there are no international regulations to curb the number of satellites a private company can launch or to limit which orbits they can occupy.

“The speed of commercial development is much faster than the speed of regulation change,” McDowell says. “There needs to be an overhaul of space traffic management and space regulation generally to cope with these massive commercial projects.”

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BeerPoweredNonsense t1_jay4bff wrote

Reply to comment by PEVEI in Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem by ye_olde_astronaut

>active satellites

The main issues with "too much shit in orbit" are, I believe: 1. Risk of Kessler Syndrome 2. Impact on astronomy.

In both the above, a dead satellite is as much of a risk as an active satellite. More so in fact - an active satellite can be ordered to dodge an imminent collision.

The US are tracking IIRC 13,000 objects in orbit. To focus only on active satellites is unscientific.

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crazytown69 t1_jay3p2k wrote

Reply to comment by ForceUser128 in Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem by ye_olde_astronaut

It’s easier to just not engage on these posts. It’s all Elon hate bs they don’t care about astronomy. I’ve asked several astronomers and not one has complained. There will be thousands of these articles and it won’t change a thing. It’s sad that politics got involved but that’s the world we live in now. Even the green movement that was loving Elon has turned on him even though he sells more EV’s than all the others combined. Haters gonna hate and paid haters gonna hate even more.

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SpartanJack17 t1_jay1xhe wrote

Reply to Should Mercury be considered not a planet? by canmakeareligion

Hello u/canmakeareligion, your submission "Should Mercury be considered not a planet?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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SpartanJack17 t1_jay1uk9 wrote

Reply to Does anyone here know more about Dark Matter? by deluchas15

Hello u/deluchas15, your submission "Does anyone here know more about Dark Matter?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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Adeldor t1_jay1f1t wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem by ye_olde_astronaut

No, he did not cut off service. Starlink provided service and hardware free of charge after the Ukrainian vice prime minister's plea for help. No one realized the war would drag on for as long as it has, and after a while Musk wanted the US to pay for future service, just like Raytheon et al are being paid.

Meanwhile, the service continues uninterrupted, with the quoted Ukrainian minister saying Musk is "one of the biggest private donors of our future victory."

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