Apparently instead of once in a while at a predictable time/path, now satellites are going to be dropping from the sky all the time?
https://gizmodo.com/spacexs-next-gen-starlink-satellites-have-started-falli-1850299668
Has anyone verified that is safe for the planet and people below?
Almost seems like someone throwing toxic sludge into the ocean and saying “well the ocean is huge and it’s only a little toxic so no big deal” until it’s done thousands of times over and over and it’s only trivial to them because they can’t see the final damage?
In: 5
Things burning up on reentry are literally vaporized. Things in orbit move incredibly fast. Like 17,000 MPH fast. Once something moving that fast hits the atmosphere it starts running into air that can’t get out of the way fast enough. Since it can’t get out of the way it’s simply compressed in front of the object and that generates an enormous amount of heat (dealing with temperatures around 3000F) and the object is vaporized.
We prevent this on manned space flights by covering the craft in heat resistant tiles that keep the craft cool enough for both it and the passengers to survive the heat generated at reentry.
Latest Answers