Satellite space junk might wreak havoc on the stratosphere

sciencenews.org

16 points·OtomotO··5 comments

What kind of messed up unit is "billion grams"? Is that an effort to make the numbers sound bigger?

Just say kilotons, or 1000 (metric) tons, if you're speaking to laypeople.

The problem with this topic is it gets wound up with the whole Elon Musk thing. His supporters claim the problem doesn't exist because of asteroids and space dust, his opponents think it will completely destroy the ozone layer.

The truth is somewhere in the middle and we should do the research to figure it out. If it does turn out to be a problem we should already start thinking about possible solutions. Denying the problem exists or shutting down megaconstellations are not solutions.

Until that research is complete it cannot be claimed that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It might be that one of the sides is completely right.

And the opposite is also true

Until that research is complete it cannot be claimed that EITHER of the sides is completely right. It might be that the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I am a 'supporter' of Starlink, and I don't 'claim the problem doesn't exist'. I think its what we have done in space literally since we had space. And it was never considered much of an issue until now.

Of course SpaceX changed changed the scale.

Unless as humanity our position was, we will never do more in space then in the 1960s, we would have eventually study this.

That's what we should do study it seriously.

With Starship we can potentially move to a future where we return garbage to earth or various other things we could think off.

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