02-26-2019, 03:13 PM
HOTPE,
"TomK - Can satellites (and their potential debris) travel at different speeds in the same orbit? That is, is the orbital speed of an object in a 150 mile high orbit different from another object in a 300 mile high orbit? Elliptical orbits would cross paths with circular orbits so I can see how their debris would be a wild card in LEO."
The orbit of something is mainly determined by its velocity, i.e., objects in the same object have the same speed, so debris from a collision of explosion would end up having a spread of orbits. Small changes in the gravitational field of the earth also cause the debris to spread out in both the vertical and horizontal direction, so you can quite quickly end up with a large swathe of satellite-killing debris.
I believe the small satellites the proposed Keaau launch site would put into orbit will be placed in orbits that decay quickly so the satellites would return to earth relatively quickly and burn up in the atmosphere so that they don't add the the ever-growing amount of orbital debris although I need to double check that though. However, even in those low orbits, a Kessler syndrome-like event would put them in danger.
"TomK - Can satellites (and their potential debris) travel at different speeds in the same orbit? That is, is the orbital speed of an object in a 150 mile high orbit different from another object in a 300 mile high orbit? Elliptical orbits would cross paths with circular orbits so I can see how their debris would be a wild card in LEO."
The orbit of something is mainly determined by its velocity, i.e., objects in the same object have the same speed, so debris from a collision of explosion would end up having a spread of orbits. Small changes in the gravitational field of the earth also cause the debris to spread out in both the vertical and horizontal direction, so you can quite quickly end up with a large swathe of satellite-killing debris.
I believe the small satellites the proposed Keaau launch site would put into orbit will be placed in orbits that decay quickly so the satellites would return to earth relatively quickly and burn up in the atmosphere so that they don't add the the ever-growing amount of orbital debris although I need to double check that though. However, even in those low orbits, a Kessler syndrome-like event would put them in danger.