It's really starting to get crowded up there...

There are currently 2218 satellites in earth orbit.

Sure, there's a lot of room in earth orbit, but not all of these sats behave or travel as predicted.

There are going to be more near-collisions and possible collisions if this keeps up.

And OneWeb just brought 34 more to the party...

urlzs.com...

Yea I got tired of the crowds myself, so I came back to the surface to avoid all the battles in orbit keeping me up at night.

a reply to: Riffrafter

Wasn't there a potential collision between 2 satellites recently that was in the news? I'm guessing it was a swing & a miss?

Does this include spy satellites? Aren't there more, that we don't know about?

Makes me think about flies buzzing around an animal, thinking about all those satellites up there.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: Riffrafter

Wasn't there a potential collision between 2 satellites recently that was in the news? I'm guessing it was a swing & a miss?

Yes...it was a pretty close call too, relatively speaking.

It's really becoming a zoo up there. Especially with some sats "dying" and just floating around aimlessly.

Supposedly, that was the impetus for Trump's initial announcement of Space Force, but that has since morphed into something more.

This is the part where people who have never heard of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), start paying attention.

Your tax dollars at work.

originally posted by: chiefsmom
Does this include spy satellites? Aren't there more, that we don't know about?

Makes me think about flies buzzing around an animal, thinking about all those satellites up there.

Absolutely!

There's more of them than most people know too.

Of course, you'll never get a straight answer out of the gov't about it though.

As it should be.

originally posted by: worldstarcountry
Yea I got tired of the crowds myself, so I came back to the surface to avoid all the battles in orbit keeping me up at night.

Me too.

Damn kids dont know how to drive anymore...

Looks like instead of "Get off my lawn!"
It's goin to be "Get off my dawn!"

Most of the junk up there is dead, too. IIRC both of the sats in that near-miss were unoperational- just space junk. One was a spy sat, too- declassified some years after it died.
If they had collided, since they were going in different directions, it would have created a very large unpredictable spray of space junk in hundreds of high speed untrackable orbits, risking damage to other things in those same orbits, or other things passing near them.
It's a real mess.... makes me miss playing KSP

Something like starlink but with search-and-deorbit drones instead of MORE space junk would be neat- but it takes a lot of speed to get into orbit, so it's hard to change direction, even a little bit.

What is the value of precious metals and other materials in these derelict satellites. I would think for someone it could become a pretty good business or at the very least a potential cost savings for NASA as they could use "experimental" flights to also grab the junk.

originally posted by: Charliebrowndog
What is the value of precious metals and other materials in these derelict satellites. I would think for someone it could become a pretty good business or at the very least a potential cost savings for NASA as they could use "experimental" flights to also grab the junk.

If SpaceX and other private firms keep it up, eventually getting to space and deploying a habitat to work out, would be a reality as cost to get there drop.

I wouldn't mind working as a space junk collector, very lucrative and no laws in space mean we can collect defunct spy sate and other items of interest.

The cleanup will not be easy, all these particles have their own unique orbit.
Thats like catching a 50 caliber, while it is being fired. And thats just the small parts, imagine catching a 15 inch projectile fired from a naval gun.

With what material are you going to do that in space, and how are you going to counter act the energy of the impact?
Thats a real challenge

originally posted by: Charliebrowndog
What is the value of precious metals and other materials in these derelict satellites. I would think for someone it could become a pretty good business or at the very least a potential cost savings for NASA as they could use "experimental" flights to also grab the junk.

Not nearly enough to go up and get them. Old technology. What we need are little orbital "bugs" with ion engines that track a dead satellite or other piece of garbage, fly up to it and stick to it, then either yeet it out of orbit or at least guide it into the ocean where it's unlikely to hurt anyone.