Russia and China have developed a joint plan to counter the U.S. Starlink satellite communications constellation.This was reported by The Insider as part of a joint investigation with Der Spiegel […]
Blowing up a low orbit satellites can lead to many particles reaching high altitudes, if only temporary as you say, where they can cause cascades. Unstable orbits make the probability of collisions smaller, but they need to shatter only one satellite to end up with a mess in stable orbits.
There’s a whole concept about this, a Kessler countdown of some sort. Some scientists are trying to figure out in the hypothetical situation where all satellites in orbit lost attitude control and evasive maneuver capabilities, how long would it take to initiate the Kessler syndrome. Apparently we went from months to days within the last decade.
An astrophysicist I follow on Matodon is super vocal about it. I’ll have to find her posts.
Blowing up a low orbit satellites can lead to many particles reaching high altitudes, if only temporary as you say, where they can cause cascades. Unstable orbits make the probability of collisions smaller, but they need to shatter only one satellite to end up with a mess in stable orbits.
Space is pretty big. I understand the odds are non zero but it’s still really small in this scenario.
There’s a whole concept about this, a Kessler countdown of some sort. Some scientists are trying to figure out in the hypothetical situation where all satellites in orbit lost attitude control and evasive maneuver capabilities, how long would it take to initiate the Kessler syndrome. Apparently we went from months to days within the last decade.
An astrophysicist I follow on Matodon is super vocal about it. I’ll have to find her posts.
Ok found it, is is pretty relevant.
https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/116880423574782457
I think it will depend on how they would disable the satellites. There’s a lot of Starlink satellites, it’s a lot of particles if they use explosives…
I’ll grab my popcorn and watch all the fireworks and Star link bits twinkle