Discussion
Damn, looks like the freaking huge AST satellite launched successfully. I guess we'll find out soon how incredibly fucking bright and radio-loud it is 馃槶
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtp5dj2o6rqnge56sz2db5a/post/3mapcxxetwk2o
Damn, looks like the freaking huge AST satellite launched successfully. I guess we'll find out soon how incredibly fucking bright and radio-loud it is 馃槶
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtp5dj2o6rqnge56sz2db5a/post/3mapcxxetwk2o
...and how hardy it is to debris hits. That's a big cross-section: 2,400 square feet, a bit bigger than a basketball half-court. This paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027311772030644X suggests 1 hit energetic enough to penetrate 1 mm of aluminum per m^2/yr from debris and 1 from micrometeorites at AST's altitude, so about 1 hit per day. Good luck...
(Especially given a much smaller Starlink satellite and the similar cross-section Chinese space station both likely got hit by debris in the last few days)
@sundogplanets I've heard that some of the ISS people are starting to wonder if increased rates of debris strikes are due to Starlink launches, but I haven't seen any releases on it yet.
@sundogplanets Be pretty satisfying if it got destroyed right away, but that causes *other* problems.
@sundogplanets i鈥檇 argue they should be limited to cover remote regions and war zones to lessen the risk for negative impacts, and therefore not operated by private entities
@sundogplanets We had a need for a handheld satphone at one place I worked because of the remoteness of location where things were being installed. An iSatPhone Pro that used the Inmarsat geo constellation worked. Iridium could also have done the job too. I doubt there really is a need for the leo spacejunk doing direct-to-cell, other than bragging rights, and the ability to "borrow" earth/space spectrum for terrestrial use (like LightSquared/Ligado tried).
@ingram Agree! There are internet providers that work from geosynchronous orbit (which is highly regulated, yay) and from higher orbits with fewer sats (like iridium - though that constellation has some issues with flares and radio frequency leakage, it was only a handful of satellites)
@sundogplanets Another option is long-endurance autonomous aircraft.
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