Posts by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #B86bPIzw3dqUWohgno by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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I missed reading Starlink's latest conjunction report when it came out a bit over a month ago. I just skimmed through it and I think I need to go lay down for a while. It's terrifying how close we are to major collisions in orbit all the time... (I especially love the note about how space-track.org being offline briefly caused them to miss a potential collision... SO FRAGILE AAUGH)Article summarizing the report here: https://ca.pcmag.com/networking/16653/260-starlink-satellites-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-as-more-head-for-fiery-endsFull report here: https://www.scribd.com/document/1057502572/SpaceX-Gen1-Gen2-Semi-Annual-Report-7-1-26
(DIR) Post #B86bPJXy174GEMcrqa by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Oh gosh I just did the math on the maneuver rate, which I couldn't bring myself to do earlier. More than 207,000 collision avoidance maneuvers in 6 months. That means that somewhere in the Starlink megaconstellation, a satellite is performing a collision avoidance maneuver EVERY 1.25 MINUTES (EVERY 75 SECONDS)AAAHHHH I'M SURE THAT'S FINE.And now I find myself reading about asteroid collisional cascades. For no particular reason...
(DIR) Post #B86bPKGzJj52Tzgp1M by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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I mean, to be fair, they have done it perfectly so far. No Starlink collisions. But there is a shitload of untracked, lethal debris orbiting around up there. And they are completely dependent on so many systems (like space-track.org, apparently). And our future use of orbit is completely dependent on Starlink operating perfectly, every minute of every day, forever.
(DIR) Post #B86bPL76BylR5c4RFI by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Like their last report, they also have a Shit List of which objects Starlink had to maneuver for the most often, and complained a lot about it. "SpaceX coordinated with other satellite operators hundreds of times over the reporting period"What they fail to say is that this is because anyone who wants to travel to higher orbits is REQUIRED to coordinate with them, because they effectively control Low Earth Orbit.
(DIR) Post #B86bPNjoR0v5EGCNrk by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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They also have a list of deorbits, I haven't managed to get the pdf from the FCC (because their website fucking sucks, on purpose I'm sure). And scribd wants me to pay to download it. Anyway, the PC mag article says 260 Starlinks reentered. At some point I'll count up the gen 1 and gen 2 and get a mass estimate. But that's 1 or 2 a day. And a lot of new weird metal in the stratosphere. Thanks, SpaceX.
(DIR) Post #B86bPPCD0vEDkcUZlY by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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They also list 4 "disposal failures" which are satellites that died before SpaceX purposefully chucked them into the atmosphere. This includes Starlink 34343 which either exploded or got hit by debris a couple months ago. https://keeptrack.space/deep-dive/starlink-343434 out of thousands of launched satellites is pretty good. But when you have nearly 11,000 satellites, you have to operate COMPLETELY PERFECTLY every minute of every day, forever. Please don't fuck up more than you already have, SpaceX.
(DIR) Post #B87zvEYkgfoK5Thqt6 by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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HAHAHA FUCK SpaceX just launched a nuclear powered satellite. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-just-launched-the-1st-ever-nuclear-powered-commercial-satelliteSounds like this particular satellite is tiny and doesn't have a lot of tritium on board but HOLY SHIT this is a bad precedent.
(DIR) Post #B87zvF7UbVbFpDxb2O by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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This is exactly the kind of news I want to see after spending a whole day reading and writing about Kessler Syndrome (specifically about SpaceX and Kessler Syndrome) right before I go to bed. Fuuuuuuck.
(DIR) Post #B8Bp3NhYGAo5tTLPbU by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO https://ca.pcmag.com/news/16760/fcc-approves-reflect-orbitals-giant-mirror-satellite-that-astronomers-hate
(DIR) Post #B8Bp52tUamYjwKiu12 by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Want some reminders of how fucking terrible this idea is? https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/true-cost-solar-power-night-reflect-orbital/https://theconversation.com/a-us-startup-plans-to-deliver-sunlight-on-demand-after-dark-can-it-work-and-would-we-want-it-to-264323https://darksky.org/news/organizational-statement-reflect-orbital/Journalists: please write about how dangerous this is. Lawyers (especially if you're based in the US): please help fight this, it will take legal action now
(DIR) Post #B8Bp53F7INrB1OqAim by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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GREAT guess I'm not going to sleep tonight either. Maybe there will be auroras. I need to enjoy the night sky as much as I can now, I guess. Fuck you, FCC, for approving this. Fuck Reflect Orbital and all the copycats it's going to spawn. Fuck techbros everywhere. Fuck venture capitalists for funding this destructive, useless bullshit.
(DIR) Post #B8ERk9ge0GDUgKE7YO by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Yet another article submitted for The Conversation, with some last minute modifications to express how fucking terrible the FCC's decision on Reflect Orbital is, which fit in perfectly with the overall theme of the article.(How many articles in The Conversation is too many? I think this is my 5th this year. Every single one about different aspects of how techbros are destroying things in orbit)
(DIR) Post #B8ERk9z4tixhbUqqHo by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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I just reached out to a bunch of journalists who already wrote about how awful Reflect Orbital is. I hope at least some of them will write more about it.(Please DM me if you have suggestions for journalists I should reach out to who might be interested in writing about this to a large audience)
(DIR) Post #B8ERkCts3XZyeDRE5Q by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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RE: https://beige.party/@adub/116896129245194088Oh fantastic, the FCC approved Reflect Orbital on Matariki. Just to make it more hideously disrespectful to absolutely everything.Relatedly, I got interviewed months ago as one of 3 experts for this Aotearoa-based podcast that just came out, which talks about Matariki, access to the sky, and how bad the situation is in orbit: https://linktr.ee/kpcnzRT: https://beige.party/users/adub/statuses/116896129245194088
(DIR) Post #B8ERkDnshINlRvdxOC by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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A New York Times journalist just interviewed me about Reflect Orbital! And I've got an interview for Scientific American set up for Monday. Excellent.
(DIR) Post #B8ERkEzyFpeB9iJ7s8 by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Reflect Orbital is going to launch a giant fucking mirror into orbit.SpaceX has asked to launch a million gigantic fucking orbital data centers, and they've already got 11,000 sats in orbit.The UN website that allows everyone to see what new satellites have been launched has not been updated since February. https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtp5dj2o6rqnge56sz2db5a/post/3mq7fzllgw22hAnd tomorrow, we're going to run out of satellite catalogue numbers, Y2K in orbit: https://celestrak.org/Time to go for a walk in the woods...
(DIR) Post #B8ERkHTT38Qipm7i7s by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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Well, I thought this was getting published next week, but it's out now! Come read about Weird Space Stuff, sponsored by Reflect Orbital and the FCC (who both suck massively)https://theconversation.com/a-giant-mirror-in-space-to-create-sunlight-on-demand-was-just-approved-low-earth-orbit-is-getting-weird-283482
(DIR) Post #B8ERkJIYGgt2UV21OC by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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I LOVE waking up on a Saturday morning and thinking about nothing but Reflect Orbital and how to fight it. And then sending lots of emails and texts to my many astronomer colleagues who woke up similarly angry this morning.The one thing that gives me hope is that 99.9% of people who find out about this react by saying some variant of "Wow that's such a stupid, useless, destructive idea." We have to figure out how to leverage that sentiment.Fuck you, Reflect Orbital. I will keep fighting.
(DIR) Post #B8PPHZ0KqWEfg3P26S by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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I calculated an average of 1 collision avoidance maneuver every 75 seconds in the Starlink megaconstellation based on the numbers they gave in their last conjuction report. But sure, launch more Starlinks.https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/every-spacex-starlink-satellite-has-to-dodge-a-collision-almost-weekly-and-experts-fear-the-worst
(DIR) Post #B8PPHZXeqctHLOze2i by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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"The avoidance maneuvers reduce the probability of a collision to about one in a million, which is so small that it's negligible," Lewis said. "The problem is that if you make a million maneuvers and you have a residual probability of one in a million, you end up with an aggregate risk across your entire constellation that you can't get rid of."The article goes on to say "SpaceX will have made a million avoidance maneuvers over the lifetime of the Starlink constellation as early as June 2027"