Discussion
Any journalists want to write an article about all the environmental costs of the more than 10,000 Starlinks that are now in orbit? All I'm seeing are breathless articles mindlessly worshiping That Awful Billionaire for crossing the 10,000 satellite mark.
Every single one of those will come down in an uncontrolled reentry. That's a lot of metal in the atmosphere, and a lot of dice-rolling to see if any more pieces will make it to the ground.
SpaceX is truly awful.
@sundogplanets Do your own calculation of dice rolling and check what percentage is water and what percentage of land is densely populated (:
@sundogplanets i am trying to make an appointment with an astronomer friend for my podcast to talk about this very topic, but we can't match the date as we are both extremely busy, so it had been postponed a few times now.
@sundogplanets @distinctdipole Not to mention the way it screws up astronomical observations. Companies run by philistines rarely improve the human condition without cost.
now add to the radio noise pollution problem too.
@sundogplanets
Once SpaceX causes Kessler Syndrome, making LEO unusable, that will put an end to their Starlink business model for a while.
The good thing about Starlink satellites is that they don't stay up there long.
The bad thing about Starlink satellites is that they don't stay up there long.
@sundogplanets It is not the metal elements that pose a problem when entering the atmosphere, but the lenses and laser elements that were supposed to provide communication via optical path are resistant to the temperatures generated during atmospheric entry.
@sikorski Do you have a reference for that? Would be extremely useful if you can share!
@sundogplanets would that also measurably reduce the efficiency of solar panels?
@sundogplanets been wondering about Kessler with regard to low orbit objects. It seems to me that any collision is likely to induce elliptical orbits for the debris. Would this cause substantially increased drag as junk dips into the atmosphere - thus speeding the process of decluttering?
@sundogplanets not only that. It starts with the launch of the rocket:
Lots kerosine is burnt.
The second stage burns up in the atmosphere.
All that burns up in the atmosphere stays there for quite some time and influences the atmosphere.
@sundogplanets like throwing a boxful of knives and axes high in the air and hoping they don't hit you on the way back down. With the added joy of the pollutants liberated when many of them burn up on re-entry
@sundogplanets I'd do it in a heartbeat but I'm a freelance writer and would have to pitch it to newspapers. Still, I'll consider it. I've seen the night sky up in the mountains 15 years ago and quite recently and it is such an awful contrast already.
@sundogplanets When satellites reenter, they don't cleanly vaporize, they ablate, releasing aluminum oxide and other metallic compounds into the upper stratosphere. Research has found measurable concentrations of satellite-derived metals at altitudes where they didn't previously exist. The long-term effects on stratospheric chemistry, ozone dynamics, and potentially cloud formation are not well understood and critically, they're not being studied at anything close to the pace of deployment.
Not to forget the pollution! Burning up in the athmosphere does not mean disappearing.
@sundogplanets Try https://theconversation.com/ca. "The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, from the academic and research community, delivered direct to the public." URegina is a member. They have science writers work with academics to write accessible science communication pieces.
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