Prof. Sam LawlerMay 10

So, everyone worrying about the Venus probe reentry: yes, it's not designed to burn up in the atmosphere, and that's bad.

But, remember Starlink? There's something like one Starlink per day reentering now, and they weigh more than the Venus probe! SpaceX says they will burn up completely, but now one Starlink piece has been discovered in my province. (And if they don't make it to the ground, that means that half-ton of metal and plastic is deposited in the stratosphere instead. Yum).

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 10

More than 7,000 Starlinks in orbit now, and they have permission for 42,000. Even conservatively, at peak operation, they'll dump 25x more aluminum into the stratosphere than falls naturally as they launch and burn up 20-25 sats PER DAY. What will that do? We actually don't know. That metal is already measurable. SpaceX is just running this experiment.

We need fewer satellites in orbit with longer operational lifetimes. THAT is the new engineering challenge in LEO.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 10

LEO sat disposal is a new environmental disaster brewing, mostly because of the actions of a single private company, but really, it's everyone's operating procedure in LEO. Just burn those sats up in Earth's atmosphere when they're done! They just disappear! And if they don't, they probably won't hit anyone anyway.

Ok, this is turning rambly and I'm tired and need to put my goats in the barn. I hope the Venus probe reenters with no injuries, and just to be abundantly clear: fuck Starlink.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 10
P.S. Don't explain reentries or orbits to me.
Show threadThe Sleight Doctor 🃏

@sundogplanets
It's difficult to distinguish between someone innocently agreeing - and expanding or underlining - and someone arrogantly mansplaining online, eh?

I try to roll with words to the effect of, "I realise *you* know this already, but for others reading..." (or words to that effect).

It must be especially annoying when you spent several years studying a subject and Joe Shmo is up in your comments telling you something you learned in 101. 🙄

May 10 at 2:16pmWeb
Show threadRob BosMay 11

@ApostateEnglishman @sundogplanets

Sometimes I run into "I didn't understand this aspect of the post, so I did some reading up on it, and here's what I learned, just in case someone else is also confused."

Like, I'm not mansplaining. It's something that I feel like the author (who is clearly conversant with it better than myself) simply didn't explain well enough, and that OTHER people may have been as confused as I was.

Sometimes, experts are just over-familiar.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

Average Familiarity

xkcd
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@rbos @ApostateEnglishman Thank you for this perspective. I'll admit that as a woman in science, I deal with this kind of microaggression all the time so I'm hypersensitive to it. I realize some people mean well, but WOW it can be incredibly infuriating when someone tries to explain a topic to you that they read a Wikipedia article about, when you are one of the top experts in the world on said topic....
Show threadRob BosMay 11
@sundogplanets
Yeah, makes sense. And NGL, I have been known to do it. :(
@ApostateEnglishman
Show threadcyMay 11
It's like the microaggression of "agreeing with you." It's totally something sexists do, agreeing with a woman in a condescending way. There will always be innocuous behaviors that are hard to distinguish from the passive aggression, since the aggressors are trying to mimick the innocuous behavior as a sort of camoflage. So you snap at someone who wasn't even trying to get under your skin, and it's a sad time for all involved.

(An appropriate response to this post if you know all about what I'm saying is "Did you think that up all by yourself? Good for you, Cy!" because I'm a big boy and I'm proud of saying the smart words, and any bigot getting that response will seethe with rage.)

CC: @rbos@mastodon.novylen.net @ApostateEnglishman@mastodon.world