Project Kuiper: Amazon’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink passes ‘crucial’ test::Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which uses optical inter-satellite link (OISL) technology to connect more than 3,000 satellites in a mesh network that blankets Earth, just cleared a final hurdle needed to launch next year.
Oh good, more space junk in LEO
What happens when China and Russia send up their own constellations? How many companies and governments are allowed to launch their own? Every new constellation significantly increases the chances of a kessler syndrome in LEO, for minimal gain, beyond maybe 2 for redundancy.
There is no real danger of Kessler syndrome because these satellites burn up in the atmosphere after a few years anyways.
It could still fuck space up for 3-5 years which would be a pain.
There are reasons to be concerned about the situation. Kessler syndrome is not one of them, not in LEO
It’s LEO. If they shut off navigation tomorrow, they’d all be falling cinders in a year.
I’d like to hope that in a few years when we collectively decide this was a bad idea we can start hitting them with lasers and ablatively decelerating them to burn up in the atmosphere.
I mean I don’t have a lot of hope for that, but call it a wistful fantasy.
If we do nothing at all they’ll burn up in 3-5 years anyway. Starlink operates in a very low orbit. Thats one of the reasons there have to be so many of them. A higher orbit (like MEO instead of LEO) would mean fewer needed satellites for the same level of coverage of the Earth.
I want to SHOOT THEM DOWN. Send a FUCKING MESSAGE.
(I know you’re right I’m just a cranky pants)
It’s worse than that. The laser communications between them could also cause issues with earth-based systems like observatories.