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Friendly reminder that a private company with launch capability currently is massively increasing the space junk problem and about to trigger the Kessler scenario for a quick buck and internet access without cables, while at the same time ruining surface-based astronomy.

So why stop there? And as always, the Simpsons have predicted it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LbxDZRgA4

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I'm no Musk fan but is this true? I thought Starlink was low altitude so everything would fall back down pretty quickly. And while I imagine its not great for astronomy surely it's not much work for some institution or enterprising individual to create a tool for using the known position and timing of such satellites to help remove their impact on images?

Low-altitute, quick-decay orbits are fine as long as the satellite does not get damaged. Once one satellite is hit by something, the debris field will spread to all kinds of orbits, some of them pretty long-lived. [1] is a fascinating read that describes the phenomena surrounding orbital crashes.

[1] https://www.universetoday.com/103650/space-debris-a-tale-of-...

Well, just to keep in mind, internet access without cables is very valuable, and possibly the most valuable use of that space we can have.

It's important to control the space junk problem, of course. But not at the cost of not using the space.

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