Mastodawn

Prof. Sam Lawler Oct 13, 2023

Not worried enough about corporate over-development of orbit yet? New article: companies have now filed asking for a total of ONE MILLION satellites: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi4639

Non-paywalled version here: https://www.outerspaceinstitute.ca/docs/One%20million%20(paper)%20satellites%20-%20Accepted%20Version%20.pdf

There is no way we can have anywhere near one million satellites in orbit without going into full Kessler Syndrome and destroying everything in orbit - making satellite science, communication, and interplanetary exploration impossible for decades.

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Demi Marie Obenour

@sundogplanets Is the problem a lack of Space Traffic Control?

This is a serious question. Obviously even 1 million satellites is still a tiny fraction of the volume available in Earth orbit, so collisions should not be a problem provided that all of the satellites are functional and perform active collision-avoidance maneuvers when needed. That last part is the hard one, of course.