Prof. Sam LawlerJun 3

Updating talk slides so you all get to be horrified along with me at the current Starlink numbers.

There are now 7,652 Starlink satellites in orbit (>500 more than there were in February, when I last updated these particular slides).

2-3 Starlinks per day are burning up in the atmosphere. That's a lot of weird metal in the atmosphere (and undoubtedly lots of random bits getting to the ground too).

Starlink is a stupidly wasteful and dangerous way to use orbit.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerJun 3
And before you explain to me that there's 50 tons of meteoroids burning up in Earth's atmosphere every day, remember that meteoroids mostly rocks, not metal, and have an extremely low fraction of aluminum (~0.3 tons aluminum "naturally" burning up per day). Satellites are ~50% aluminum by mass, and Starlink satellites are several hundred kg to ~1200 kg in mass. Yes, it's bad.
Show threadKoboldJun 3
@sundogplanets 50 tons of meteoroids every day? I never thought about it tbh, but this is a number I would never have guessed.
Show threadMichael Busch

@kobold

It depends a bit on when one measures; but that's about right - nearly all as millimeter-scale grains.

Which, as @sundogplanets wrote, are less of a problem per unit mass than the Starlinks are: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280 .

Jun 3 at 6:42pmWeb
Show threadKoboldJun 3

@michael_w_busch @sundogplanets I was just blown away by the sheer amount of material burning up within earth's atmosphere.

No challenge to #starlink being prototypical #musk

Show threadTirrimas Jun 3
@kobold @michael_w_busch @sundogplanets we owe a lot to our atmosphere