[HN Gopher] Satellite Drag Analysis During the May 2024 Geomagne...
___________________________________________________________________
Satellite Drag Analysis During the May 2024 Geomagnetic Storm
Author : croes
Score : 47 points
Date : 2024-07-21 11:11 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arxiv.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (arxiv.org)
| perihelions wrote:
| If their altitude is low enough to begin with, this atmospheric
| expansion can drag satellites all the way into reentry.
|
| https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-lost-geomag... (
| _" SpaceX says a geomagnetic storm just doomed 40 Starlink
| internet satellites"_ (2022))
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30267587 ( _" Starlink lost
| 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm"_)
|
| In the OP paper, the 486 km satellite (fig. 5) dropped down about
| 300 meters. The Starlink satellites that were lost were at 210
| km. (For mass optimization, they're released at below operational
| altitude, and use slow, electric propulsion to get to their
| nominal orbits).
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> mass optimization, they're released at below operational
| altitude
|
| Literally everything to do with spaceflight is connected to
| mass optimization. The more practical reason is to better
| separate the sats within the orbital plane. They sit in the
| lower/faster orbit until in position and the last in trail
| boosts into the higher/slower orbit. Put them all into the
| final orbit and they would all be bunched up. Put them too high
| and you are just wasting fuel springing them back down.
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| Sometimes I despair of humans, sticking all our eggs into a
| Crowdstrike basket, or billions of people condemned to wars and
| poverty, and then, we go and do things like "hey we can measure
| the freaking Sun's solar storms from actual space vehicles we
| have put into orbit around this planet"
|
| We have come a long way from James Watt thinking "you know we
| could keep some of that hot gas" - it's not all to do with the
| free energy boost we have been digging out of the ground. We do
| have our moments.
|
| Just less wars and more co-operation please.
| kidme5 wrote:
| the sad thing is Starlink satellites have a significant impact
| on one of the scariest human threats-- nuclear war.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1dgyujd/comment/l8...
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| So that link seems to be suggesting that US funding for space
| exploration and NASA has a significant nuclear weapons
| component.
|
| I mean my kids are covering this in their History GCSEs. It's
| not a secret. And if you believe in / agree with escalation
| management strategy it's a good thing (unless you think
| humans should all unite together and turn swords into
| ploughshares which I do agree with, just hard to get from
| Here to there, but would love to see it)
| wongarsu wrote:
| I think the core is how we stand towards missile defense.
| During the Cold War the prevailing opinion was that
| mutually assured destruction was the best strategy. Missile
| defense undermines that strategy and was thus treated as a
| worse offense than building first-strike weapons.
|
| Now the threat landscape has shifted. There is a closing
| window of opportunity where the US is the sole superpower
| and could get away with deploying such a system without
| much pushback. Whether it's a good idea is debatable.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| We already have the X37 for unconventional nuke delivery.
| There is no need for a conspiracy with SpaceX for existing
| capabilities.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-07-21 23:07 UTC)