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 […]
Orbits are elipses, which are loops. So after the explosion gives an object more energy it’s in a new orbit right? That orbit has LOOP. Which means it has to come back to a similar point it’s at now. Therefore if an object passes through low orbit, no one explosion can make it be in a high orbit. At best it’ll be an ellipse with a point in high orbit and a point in low orbit.
Any amount in low orbit means a decaying orbit due to drag with eventual falling out of the sky.
If you get to the high orbit point and you get a SECOND explosion that’s perfectly timed you could theoretically enter a new high orbit that’s stable over the long term and contribute to Kessler syndrome.
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.
Yay!
Kessler Syndrome! Kessler Syndrome! Kessler Syndrome!
/s
On the plus side, global cooling achieved through a shield of reflective debris!
Low Earth orbit means that the debris will get dragged down by the atmosphere before it becomes a cascading problem. Thankfully.
So we can directly pollute the upper atmosphere with heavy metals? I’m sure that’s a good thing. /s
Assuming none of the debris gets pushed into higher orbits.
Orbits are elipses, which are loops. So after the explosion gives an object more energy it’s in a new orbit right? That orbit has LOOP. Which means it has to come back to a similar point it’s at now. Therefore if an object passes through low orbit, no one explosion can make it be in a high orbit. At best it’ll be an ellipse with a point in high orbit and a point in low orbit.
Any amount in low orbit means a decaying orbit due to drag with eventual falling out of the sky.
If you get to the high orbit point and you get a SECOND explosion that’s perfectly timed you could theoretically enter a new high orbit that’s stable over the long term and contribute to Kessler syndrome.
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.
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…
Who needs GPS and climate data anyway, right?
GPS is comically higher than starlink.
I’d be much more worried about a direct attack.
Yea but you still have to get the GPS satellites up there safely. I see though that it might actually not be that big of an issue of GPS.
Yes, but a screen of tiny reflective particles spread through orbit between the Earth and the GPS satellites might cause communication problems.
That’s not what these satellites are used for.