• BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Starlink is all in LEO. It doesn’t become space junk as there is sufficient drag in LEO that they readily deorbit purely due to air resistance (yes, there is enough air in LEO to make air resistance the factor in why Starlink does not become space junk).

    • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Let’s put actual numbers on it:

      • Starlink: 500-570km

      • Kuiper: 630km

      • Guowang: 900-1145 km

      And as far as passive deorbit times, this chart is for a 1u cubesat, and bigger satellites would come down faster, but it illustrates some of the point that Starlink isn’t actually the problem here:

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        The ballistic coefficient, mass divided by cross section area, still determines how drag effects trajectory in the LEO environment.

        It should be pretty straightforward to extrapolate if you know the relevant parameters on both spacecraft.