Satellites

[ammo]

There was an article in the NYT about two weeks ago titled "Elon Musk's Unmatched Power in the Stars." A little tidbit that stuck out to me is that these satellites are designed to work for 3.5 years. After that they're just space trash.

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They are slated for planned reentry after their lifespan so they won't persist in orbit/remain up there as space junk.

 

[Beignet]

They are slated for planned reentry after their lifespan so they won't persist in orbit/remain up there as space junk.

No kidding, huh? Glad to hear they aren’t just up there clogging up space forever.

 

[Schaaf]

I can certainly understand the benefits of something like Starlink and don't fault someone for getting it. With that said, I'd shoot them all down in a heartbeat if given the chance.

 

[Nicoli7153]

I can certainly understand the benefits of something like Starlink and don't fault someone for getting it. With that said, I'd shoot them all down in a heartbeat if given the chance.

Be tough to figure the lead on them!

 

[Dave N]

Be tough to figure the lead on them!

Guess that leads to the question of best weapon to shoot down a satellite!

 

[Redmt]

My comment about permanent retirement is to bury them head down/ feet up at 15' or better. There's very little heat signature, so I hear,

 

[blueridge]

Has anyone else here seen these? I was fishing out on a lake two nights ago and thought I was watching an alien invasion.

Here’s a link to the article.

 

[ashersdad]

Guess that leads to the question of best weapon to shoot down a satellite!

Gotta be 6.5 creed or crossbow.

 

[ismith]

Has anyone else here seen these? I was fishing out on a lake two nights ago and thought I was watching an alien invasion.
View attachment 287491
Here’s a link to the article.

Seen something familiar summer of 2020 and the kids found out I speak a second language and that nuclear weapons exist.

 

[RobG]

Has anyone else here seen these? I was fishing out on a lake two nights ago and thought I was watching an alien invasion.
View attachment 287491
Here’s a link to the article.

That’s Starlink satellites before they spread apart. Cool, but China and every other major company is going to want their own satellites and the sky will be trashed.

 

[Nameless Range]

The destruction of the night sky is something I am concerned about.

That said, something I think is cool is how the U.S was the first country to have GPS, and in addition, in the year 2000 Bill Clinton announced that the U.S. Government would discontinue the intentional degradation of our GPS Signals, called Selective Availability. Until then we actually added error to civilian GPS signals to deny the enemy use of our GPS. The decision to turn this off took commercial and private use of the GPS from a typical error of ≈ 50 horizontal meters and ≈ 100 vertical meters, to what we see today.

I know there are other GPS sats out there today, but think of all the things, from your OnX, to your Google Maps, to surveyors tieing into State Reference Networks, that rely on that decision.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Long before Starlink, we were sitting around the campfire in moose camp.
There were otters chattering behind camp and a great gray owl was calling.
All of a sudden silence.

We looked down across the river and about a mile away a super bright object appeared
at the treeline went up a few seconds and then back down.
Life resumed with otters started chattering and that great gray resumed calling.

Back in town on Monday the local newspaper reported a local miner was
moving a 100-lb propane tank with a front-end loader
and punctured a hole in it next to a campfire.
The three folks in that camp were rushed to the hospital.

 

[Wildabeest]

The destruction of the night sky is something I am concerned about.

That said, something I think is cool is how the U.S was the first country to have GPS, and in addition, in the year 2000 Bill Clinton announced that the U.S. Government would discontinue the intentional degradation of our GPS Signals, called Selective Availability. Until then we actually added error to civilian GPS signals to deny the enemy use of our GPS. The decision to turn this off took commercial and private use of the GPS from a typical error of ≈ 50 horizontal meters and ≈ 100 vertical meters, to what we see today.

I know there are other GPS sats out there today, but think of all the things, from your OnX, to your Google Maps, to surveyors tieing into State Reference Networks, that rely on that decision.

You don’t think Eschelman would give me 50-100m of leeway on my corner cross?