You can still launch through the debris field into higher orbits because the collision probability will be quite low at any given moment, it just adds up over time for things that want to stay there.
Uhhh, that’s quite some time.
On the scale of human history, that's a moment in time. Today, as we learn about the history of colonial Europe, there's lots of exploration, then the 30 Years War in 1618 slowed that down a lot for a while, then things resumed. In 2500 AD, astronauts will learn of the early history of 1900s first flights, and the 2020-2045 setback, and then 400 years of further development.
But in the short term, that's a full career for everyone who just entered the field. Space companies would publish 100 quarterly earnings statements with zero progress, just waiting for the window to open again. I just don't know that modern society has the ability to think long-term for an event like that.
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/13851/how-long-can...
EDIT: Here: https://twitter.com/SpaceJosh/status/1119721780254371840
Always embarrassing to make a fool of myself on the Internet, but losing an argument IS a very effective way of learning.
> That seems unlikely, as that requires like 11km/s which is more than the sum of the two velocities[...]
Isn't the first problem here that you're assuming a spherical cow in a vacuum physics problem? Two satellites colliding aren't two indivisible pebbles colliding.
They're going to pulverize on impact, and some of the now-expanding debris cloud might even contain combustibles the satellites were carrying.
The debris also won't only collide once, there'll be a series of rapidly occurring re-collisions. Some of those might impart extra velocity on some of the expanding debris.
I don't know if the person edited it after you replied, though.