• Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Whats that in Rhode Islands? And how about mass, can I get that measured in bigmacs?

        • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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          5 months ago

          129 / 4.307213e+10 = 2.9949761 x 10^-9

          That’s in sq ft. Rounded. Length x width of a pickup truck divided by surface area of Rhode Island as reported on Wikipedia

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It’s over 9,000 bigmacs. This is what the ruling class does instead of feeding us. That’s over 9,000 bigmacs in waste. Per loss. Just flame broiling in the atmosphere instead of going to where it would help the most.

  • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yep, they are in Low Earth Orbit. A place that has a very, very small amount of air, so the satellites experience drag, lose speed, eventually the propellant tanks run dry, and they burn up in the atmosphere. The ISS experiences the same thing, which is why its altitude slowly falls, then you see a sharp increase as they push to a slightly higher orbit.

    At the altitude the SpaceX satellites are at, they only passively stay up for a few years. With the onboard propulsion giving them each another few years.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Half the size of a pickup truck… a Mazda compact, or a jacked up GMC Hemi half ton?

    Even just saying Ford F150 gives a lot of leeway.

  • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Complaining about Kressler Syndrome

    Complaining about Starlink

    Pick one, asshole. As shitty as Musk is, Starlink is in too low of an orbit to cause Kressler Syndrome

  • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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    5 months ago

    Yeah that’s what happens to absolutely everything in Low Earth Orbit in just a few years. Well, unless you keep pushing them back up like we do to the International Space Station.

    These satellites are doing exactly what they’re intended to do. These are actually pretty small satellites overall, there are a lot up there quite a bit larger that deorbit and burn up on re-entry just fine as well.

    That’s part of the reason things are sent to LEO specifically, because their orbits naturally degrade and they naturally deorbit themselves without needing any assistance or fuel. It also means if a satellite in LEO fails quicker than planned, is put in an incorrect orbit due to a launch issue, or just failed prematurely, it will fail-safe and deorbit without any assistance.