16
top 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] borlax@lemmy.borlax.com 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

my favorite part is that humans have created an orbiting pile of garbage.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 10 points 2 years ago

Yeah, but it’s pretty cool that the orbiting pile of garbage can dodge space debris…

[-] towerful@beehaw.org 10 points 2 years ago

Ah, the new Lemmy switcharoo!

[-] Sharkwellington@lemmy.one 6 points 2 years ago

Hold my garbage, I'm going in!

[-] borlax@lemmy.borlax.com 1 points 2 years ago

A lot of the debris is man made that we put up there is my point.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Now there’s a bunch more of it was my joke.

[-] chahk@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

The only solution? Put more of it up there, of course!

[-] Sharkwellington@lemmy.one 6 points 2 years ago

Does space debris have any known natural predators?

[-] Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago
[-] jcarax@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago
[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Atmosphere. Gravity just helps smash them against it.

[-] jcarax@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Even without an atmosphere, gravity would pull the debris to crash into the planet itself.

[-] alcyoneous@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Not content with trashing the surface of Earth, now we have to trash the space around us too!

[-] RealAccountNameHere@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Have we created orbiting poles of garbage, or are WE in fact orbiting piles of garbage?

[-] Cipher@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

The answer to your question is yes

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 8 points 2 years ago

Maybe we should clean up space?

[-] Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

For the most part, they all are falling towards earth and will burn up. No need to do anything.

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago

Great. Another $900 million wasted. We could have laid a lot of fiber with that money.

[-] drwho@beehaw.org 8 points 2 years ago

Nah, there would have been another stock buyback and the existing "shitty DSL meets all of the FCC requirements for broadband Internet access" would have closed out another hearing.

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago

I detect no lies.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Running fiber globaly is very expensive. The satellite solution has its cons, but it's available to a lot of people who otherwise might not have access.

It is expensive, but in SOME rural areas it's still affordable. Obviously not in poorer ones, but it might get cheaper over time. Or it might not. Who knows.

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago

I recall that the decaying orbit means that they constantly have to put more satellites up. All that energy, all that propellant, and all that space garbage. Billions of dollars wasted. Better spent on fiber. Once installed, baring cuts, it will last for nearly 100 years or more. It has benefits for some, but, IMHO, resources are better spent on fiber.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Universal global fiber is sadly unlikely to happen. I wish it wasn't so, but the fight for me to get fiber in a town has been a decade.

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

I spent five years and gave up on it because Republicans.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Different country here, I'm getting it in autumn.

[-] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago

Humans who punch down have no borders.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

True. We've just managed to keep ours mostly in check. It helps that they scored multiple blunders before the last election, otherwise it would've been scary.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Kessler syndrome is one hell of a lot more expensive than fiber.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

These are in LEO. Once they lose propulsion after 3-5 years, they fall and burn up on re-entry. It isn't possible for these satellites to cause Kessler Syndrome.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Could a high-speed impact not send debris flying into a higher orbit?

[-] mike901@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

It could send debris into a more elliptical orbit, but it wouldn't be possible for it to raise the entire orbit above LEO. The point of impact will remain in the orbital path and since the entire orbit is currently in LEO, there will be, by extension, some part of the new orbit still in LEO and therefore subject any debris to atmospheric capture.

[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Fiber is too slow when you want to charge billions for letting High Frequency Trading bots running arbitration across different markets to get a few miliseconds advantage over those running through fiber.

Having a mesh of satellites running on "laser through vacuum" to go around the globe, can get you those billions. Which, let's be clear, is the real business goal of Starlink.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago

Wasted how? Because some satellites moved to dodge debris?

[-] supercriticalcheese@feddit.it 5 points 2 years ago

Will need one very powerful vacuum to do that.

[-] Morphit@feddit.uk 4 points 2 years ago

Make sure it doesn't go from suck to blow!

[-] targetx@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Perhap we should focus on cleaning up earth first :-)

[-] drwho@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

After being warned repeatedly since 2014. Whee.

[-] otl@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

Is it just Starlink satellites going through this?

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
16 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

39548 readers
260 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS