Not worried enough about corporate over-development of orbit yet? New article: companies have now filed asking for a total of ONE MILLION satellites: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi4639
Non-paywalled version here: https://www.outerspaceinstitute.ca/docs/One%20million%20(paper)%20satellites%20-%20Accepted%20Version%20.pdf
There is no way we can have anywhere near one million satellites in orbit without going into full Kessler Syndrome and destroying everything in orbit - making satellite science, communication, and interplanetary exploration impossible for decades.
@sundogplanets It’s rather centuries, not decades. At 1000 km a satellite stays up there for 1000 years.
@jknodlseder I'm thinking Starlink altitudes, but yeah, you are right, and some debris will end up on higher orbits light that if we do indeed enter this worst-case scenario ugh.
Do you have a good scientific reference for drag/deorbit time vs. altitude?
@sundogplanets Unfortunately not. I got the 1000 km - 1000 years rule from an expert on orbital debris from the French Space Agency who gave a talk at our lab.
@jknodlseder @sundogplanets I thought it was few years for LEO, few decades for MEO and few centuries for GEO (likely the same source).
Bottom line: exact time doesn’t matter, it’s way too long anyway.
@AlexSanterne @sundogplanets I guess once you are in GEO you basically stay up there
@jknodlseder @AlexSanterne @sundogplanets
What's the green line (and why does the "debris" line end there)?
@robryk @AlexSanterne @sundogplanets The green line is the ISS altitude, I guess the calculations were just stopped here (there exists another version of the plot where the debris line continues)