Very interesting article
The issue feels a lot like climate change. Pollution that effects us on a global scale that will make some people immensely rich and it’s up to the cooperation of countries to research, mitigate, and control it
“affects us” 👍
Updated
Not sure why I’m being down voted so much, lol.
Wish people would engage if they disagree instead of just doing a drive by
I’m friendly, I promise!
I think a lot of people believe the science in this article to be problematic. Another poster went into several reasons. It’s heavy on persuasive language, shy of facts, and many of the facts are suspect, and it hasn’t been accepted by any publications so it hasn’t gotten any peer review. It’s possible it hasn’t gotten any publication because the apparently quality is so low.
It might be that people see your comment as accepting the validity of the claims which suspiciously have no peer review, and are then jumping the gun by associating it to things which ARE well scientifically established like climate change.
It’s kinda leaping to an ethical and political discussion when there are a lot of outstanding questions about the science. And this is /c/science.
I can’t speak for others. I didn’t downvote you. But, your comment wasn’t really… Science?
In before Kessler Syndrome
I looked at the paper they’re talking about (which has not yet been peer reviewed), and I couldn’t find any past peer reviewed research from the author. The paper also doesn’t really explain any of its arguments past referencing sometimes unrelated stuff that “sounds scientific,” so I suspect it will be rejected from any reasonable journal. One example is the statement that the Van Allen belts protect earth, they are just belts of captured particles that could have been harmful to earth. There have been proposals to eliminate them to protect satellites (see https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD1095699.pdf). Also I don’t like how they keep using their quoted van allen belt mass of 180 mg to make other numbers seem very large, what makes the Van Allen belts relevant is their electrons have a lot of energy (moving at >0.2 c), whereas the particulate from reentry is much lower energy. The paper doesn’t explain how lots of low energy particulate is related to a tiny amount of captured high energy radiation, so mass comparisons between them (“a billion times heavier”) don’t make sense.
Interesting, thanks for the tip on your comment. 👍
This will be a problem for everyone, which sucks. If I have to die a fiery death, at least I’ll die knowing the super rich won’t make it off planet because of all the space junk. As a plus we might not need a BBQ if it gets hot enough…^eat ^^the ^^^rich
Can’t get rich to go smaller…surprise…
I think you’re getting downvoted because usually we come to this community for space-related news, and not hear about politics stuff for five minutes, jest or not.
No one thinks the shit going on in politics right now is funny. It is not even gallows humor.
Could ‘trap or deflect’ our magnetosphere. I’m not a scientist… and it sounds like the writer isn’t either.
Are dead satellites really “filling” space with trash?
Yeah, an ISS piece recently crashed through some guys house. This will become a problem sooner than you think.
Not really, see my other comment on the post for what I think about the article.
