[ This one gave me a good morning giggle. ]
Solar winds take out Starlink satellites Geomagnetic storm hits broadband from the skies provider. Juha Saarinen itNews Feb 9 2022 https://www.itnews.com.au/news/solar-winds-take-out-starlink-satellites-575813 SpaceX has lost 40 out of 49 recently deployed satellites, following solar winds creating a geomagnetic storm in space. The satellites were launched on February 3 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida by a Falcon 9 rocket, but were hit by a geomagnetic storm the following day. In a geomagnetic storm, energy from the solar wind is transferred to the Earth's surrounding space, and this can cause major disturbances in the planet's magnetosphere. "These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase," SpaceX wrote in an update. "In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches." The geomagnetic storm causing increased drag for the low-altitude satellites which orbit the Earth at just 550 kilometres, so they were unable to leave safe mode. [ I wonder what SpaceX's definition of 'safe' is, and safety of what, from whose perspective: http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/WS-1301.html ] As a result, up to 40 of the satellites have re-entered or will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. [ I think they left out 'a great deal earlier than planned'. ] Each Starlink satellite costs an estimated US$250,000, meaning the total loss for SpaceX was around US$10 million. SpaceX said the re-entering satellites pose no collision risk with other satellites ... [ Presumably that's because no-one else is silly enough to put lumps of matter into temporary, very-high-speed orbit that close to Earth. ] ... and will burn up while de-orbiting. The company said no orbital debris will be created ... [ Um, that's definitional, because these things have to flap their wings very hard, all the time, to stay in their unsustainable orbit-like path. ... and no satellite parts will hit the ground. [ 550km isn't all that far to fall, and 260kg is a fair bit of material to be vaporised. Maybe they've accumulated a bit of experience of de-orbital burn-up rates, particuylarly when falling from 1100m. Do they have empirical evidence yet from the 550km level? ] [ It's only 10 months since FCC exercised the US's claim of jurisdiction over space by claiming to 'authorise' the halving of the altitude of SpaceX's satellites. [ Have there been previous launches into the 550km level, which went as planned? Was the prompt loss of 40 of a batch of 49 really a once-off bit of bad luck, or an indicator that the environment at that level is simply too hostile for spacecraft to hang around? ] -- Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected] T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W. Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
