Satellites keep breaking up in space. Insurance won't cover them | Hacker News Reader

Satellites keep breaking up in space. Insurance won't cover them

space.com

37 pointsnradov13 comments

> The event comes as a surprise given that the satellite only was in operation for seven years, while other satellites like it are rated for between 15 to 20 years of work. "We are coordinating with the satellite manufacturer, Boeing, and government agencies to analyze data and observations," Intelsat officials added in their statement.

Yea. Hard to figure out.

Can we let Boeing fail already? The vacuum would allow others to step in. You know people who actually want to make flying things that work.

If you take the "works" part out of the equation they seem really eager though. They regularly take a single flying thing and turn it into many flying things.

As funny as this is, sometimes shit happens in space. We may be seeing early effects of having a huge amount of orbiting space junk.

https://archive.ph/d1PZ6

I wonder if salvaging the orbiting debris may become profitable sometime in the near future.

Unless people are buying that orbit- never.

The debris is worthless. The orbit, were it freed of debris, may be valuable.

Whoever pays for the cleaning benefits anyone putting things into orbit, and bears the cost (without the profit) of that orbits previous space usage.

Cleaning up someone elses space trash has the same problem that cleaning up someone elses earth trash, the lesson is never learned and it creates a habit of not being responsible for your own garbage.

This is why orbits should be regulated like RF space is regulated. But it should probably require insurance, as the ability to put something into orbit does not imply the financial or technical ability to clean up the orbit. (Actually nobody has this capability today)

Ruined orbits should be made available essentially for free, and cleaning up that orbit would provide the entity that bought it with a very valuable resource they could then sell.

Of course, this plan requires cooperation between all nations and entities who have the ability to launch objects into orbit. We have precedent in RF, the sea, and in airspace regulation. To an extent.

The article is about LEO satellites, not geo-stationary ones.

LEO satellites like starlink will lose their orbit after a few weeks of not maintaining it.

Depends on altitude. Higher LEO could take years to clear, especially for higher-apogee debris that spends much time in an even thinner environment.

Not necessarily profitable but necessary. Debris will kill other satellites as it drifts to other orbits.

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