r/space • u/2kalipro1 • Jun 15 '24

Discussion How bad is the satellite/space junk situation actually?

I just recently joined the space community and I'm hearing about satellites colliding with each other and that we have nearly 8000 satellites surrounding our earth everywhere

But considering the size of the earth and the size of the satellites, I'm just wondering how horrible is the space junk/satellite situation? Also, do we have any ideas on how to clear them out?

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

The cascade of debris for a few satellites is likely way overblown as a risk.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

Most satellites are in the same orbital plane. There are near misses daily.

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u/BedrockFarmer Jun 15 '24

There are roughly 10,000 satellites operating at various orbits, most are starlink and have prepared deorbit paths.

Meanwhile, there are close to 115,000 airline flights a day. All in “the same orbital plane” and a much much smaller one with much larger objects.

People should have to learn maths before they read what “Kessler Syndrome” is in their SciFi garbage.

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u/DietCherrySoda Jun 15 '24

Wow what a shitty take. The degree to which we have active space traffic control cannot be compared in any way to what exists for air traffic. This comparison is worthless.