> SpaceX’s automated system for avoiding satellite collisions has sparked controversy, raising concerns from other satellite operators who say they have no way of knowing which way the system will move a Starlink satellite in the event of a close approach.<p>For aircraft, we have TCAS RA, which tells each pilot in which direction they should move, with the knowledge that the other aircraft has been told to move in the opposite direction. It might be time to consider something like that for satellites.
> collision probability of 1.3 percent, with the two satellites coming as close as 190 feet (50m)<p>LEO orbits have speeds around 7.8 km/s (rounding up to ~8000m/s for quick calculations) - this avoidance detection is saying that the two satellites both traveling at 8000m/s would be in the same 50m box at the same second.<p>A quick calculation shows that the collision avoidance is operating at least the millisecond level to predict this collision (50m/(8000m/s) ~.005 seconds.<p>One thing someone once mentioned to me is that space is big and things travel fast. It's hard to believe that the two satellites (most likely each <1m in diameter) came "close" to colliding, when a half second later they would be 8000 meters apart.
"Currently, there’s no national or global authority that would force satellite operators to take action on predicted collisions."<p>Exciting.
I saw this earlier: <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfHughLewis/status/1380647894705930242?s=19" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/ProfHughLewis/status/1380647894705930242...</a>
Given that starlink is in LEO does that mean there is enough friction to deorbit fragments of a collision in a relatively short time frame? Does anyone know?
Kessler syndrome is scary because it could render certain orbits unusable for a long time and starlink ups the risk by having a huge constellation but I've wondered how much of the risk is mitigated by being in LEO.
This event was way overblasted in the news by OneWeb despite SpaceX helping them out and disabling their system for OneWeb. It's pretty clear that OneWeb is playing political football here and trying to make SpaceX out to be some kind of bad actor despite SpaceX going out of its way to help OneWeb. These articles are just pure clickbait and aren't helpful.