Yeah could be terrible. As such risks go it’s relatively* well-covered by the military-astronomical complex, though events continue to reveal the inadequacy of our monitoring. It’s on our Other list.
* This is not saying much: on the absolute scale of “known about” + “theoretical and technological preparedness” + “predictability” + “degree of financial and political support” it’s still firmly mediocre.
Russian arms control officials have now made public statements suggesting that commercial space infrastructure that is used to support the conflict may be a legitimate target.
EA did the analysis on alienating billionaires, so nobody is going to mock a US billionaire who wants to colonize space, but deployed a commercial sat swarm that is now being talked about as a valid military target.
I’m guessing nobody funded by EA is putting the work in from an engineering standpoint to see if there’s an existential risk there.
There are no new physics required, just engineering analysis. An engineer at a relevant firm could answer the questions. What breaks their system, how much debris does that course of action generate, is their constellation equipped to avoid cascading failure due to debris, what would be the impact on launch windows for high orbits of the worst case scenario?
I guess it has been done already and everything is totally fine, let’s focus on other stuff, no need to call this an emergency.
I guess it has been done already and everything is totally fine,
Right, just like there’s no cause for concern about the human health impacts of living on Mars for awhile, I should just wait for my space ticket to go join the colonies, assuming my ship makes it through the building wall of space debris orbiting the planet
Yeah could be terrible. As such risks go it’s relatively* well-covered by the military-astronomical complex, though events continue to reveal the inadequacy of our monitoring. It’s on our Other list.
* This is not saying much: on the absolute scale of “known about” + “theoretical and technological preparedness” + “predictability” + “degree of financial and political support” it’s still firmly mediocre.
Russian arms control officials have now made public statements suggesting that commercial space infrastructure that is used to support the conflict may be a legitimate target.
EA did the analysis on alienating billionaires, so nobody is going to mock a US billionaire who wants to colonize space, but deployed a commercial sat swarm that is now being talked about as a valid military target.
I’m guessing nobody funded by EA is putting the work in from an engineering standpoint to see if there’s an existential risk there.
There are no new physics required, just engineering analysis. An engineer at a relevant firm could answer the questions. What breaks their system, how much debris does that course of action generate, is their constellation equipped to avoid cascading failure due to debris, what would be the impact on launch windows for high orbits of the worst case scenario?
I guess it has been done already and everything is totally fine, let’s focus on other stuff, no need to call this an emergency.
Go run it, I’d read it.
Someone at spaceX is taking meaningful action to mitigate this, thankfully. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spacex-curbed-ukraines-use-starlink-internet-drones-company-president-2023-02-09/
Maybe seeing the Russian sat throw debris is what it took to ask the ‘so...about our constellation’ question: https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-satellite-breaks-up-orbit-space-debris-could-last-century-2023-2?utm_source=reddit.com
Thanks for the downvotes everyone!
Right, just like there’s no cause for concern about the human health impacts of living on Mars for awhile, I should just wait for my space ticket to go join the colonies, assuming my ship makes it through the building wall of space debris orbiting the planet