It’s benign. Just shy of 50 tons of random space debris burn up in the atmosphere a day from non-human sources. Four Star Link satellites weight just over a ton.
The earth is normally getting hit with roughly 200 satellites worth of material a day, and it’s not even noticable beyond the shooting stars.
An inherent characteristic of any satellite in low earth orbit is that they will burn up without maintenance. This is because there is significant drag on LEO satellites from a very, very thin atmospheric remnant. Anything in a LEO orbit will burn up eventually, without periodic boost from thrusters.
Earth’s gravity is pulling them in, even the ISS which is farther away has thrusters to correct itself from earths pull. While working they thrust themselves to stay in prbit. These are much closer and once they’re non-functioning they won’t be able to keep themselves from falling (“orbital decay”)
The satellite burning up on re-entry is part of what makes starlink such an expensive proposition. SpaceX can’t fix them, they can’t re-use solar panels or wiring harnesses. No part of the shell or shielding. It’s all just…gone.
Low earth orbit- they burn up on reentry when they destabilize
This was (probably) the biggest reason they pushed so hard to create a re-usable rocket system. That shit gets expensive to replace.
Does all the burned gases fall back to earth?
Is vaporizing metal and raining or trapping it in the atmosphere benign?
It’s benign. Just shy of 50 tons of random space debris burn up in the atmosphere a day from non-human sources. Four Star Link satellites weight just over a ton.
The earth is normally getting hit with roughly 200 satellites worth of material a day, and it’s not even noticable beyond the shooting stars.
Becoming non-functional isn’t the same as destabilizing in their orbit. Can they be made to then destabilize and burn up?
They are low enough air resistance will pull them down and burn them up over the course of a few months if they don’t do station keeping
An inherent characteristic of any satellite in low earth orbit is that they will burn up without maintenance. This is because there is significant drag on LEO satellites from a very, very thin atmospheric remnant. Anything in a LEO orbit will burn up eventually, without periodic boost from thrusters.
Earth’s gravity is pulling them in, even the ISS which is farther away has thrusters to correct itself from earths pull. While working they thrust themselves to stay in prbit. These are much closer and once they’re non-functioning they won’t be able to keep themselves from falling (“orbital decay”)
The satellite burning up on re-entry is part of what makes starlink such an expensive proposition. SpaceX can’t fix them, they can’t re-use solar panels or wiring harnesses. No part of the shell or shielding. It’s all just…gone.
They are