Prof. Sam LawlerJun 24, 2024

Worst part of updating my talk: looking up how fucking many more Starlink satellites there were than last time I gave a version of this talk. 200 more than a month ago. Fuck.

There are now 6,209 Starlinks in orbit, fully 62% of the 10,009 active satellites in orbit.

All of these "fully demisable" Starlinks are planned to burn up and deposit their metal in Earth's atmosphere. I just saw multiple 100-pound pieces of another SpaceX "fully demisable" rocket, so I'm sure it'll be just fine.

Show threadAndrew LeaheyJun 25, 2024

@sundogplanets

I probably got out over my skis, but I wrote a piece a few months back about how we should probably be taxing these space billionaires for putting their junk in orbit.

It certainly seems there is something of a "commons" and something of a "tragedy" here.

Is there any way for someone like me to see your talk?

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerJun 25, 2024
@andrew The talk I'm giving tomorrow is selling tickets... which is kind of dumb and I didn't realize when I agreed to do it. I have a very similar one posted that I gave a few months ago though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0iRVVu2uk
Physics Colloquium Fall 2023 Nov 2 Samantha Lawler (University of Regina and Campion College)

YouTube
Show threadDavid Hembrow
@sundogplanets That's a really interesting video. Thank you. @andrew
Jun 25, 2024 at 10:31amWeb