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About 3% of Starlinks Have Failed So Far - Universe Today

About 3% of Starlinks Have Failed So Far - Universe Today

About 3% of Starlinks Have Failed So Far - Universe Today
Oct 25, 2020 2 mins, 21 secs

SpaceX has drawn plenty of praise and criticism with the creation of Starlink, a constellation that will one-day provide broadband internet access to the entire world.

To date, the company has launched over 800 satellites and (as of this summer) is producing them at a rate of about 120 a month.

There are even plans to have a constellation of 42,000 satellites in orbit before the decade is out.

Aside from the usual concerns about light pollution and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), there is also the rate of failure these satellites have experienced.

Specifically, about 3% of its satellites have proven to be unresponsive and are no longer maneuvering in orbit – which could prove hazardous to other satellites and spacecraft in orbit.

From this, he determined that about 3% of satellites in the constellation have failed because they are no longer responding to commands.

The concern is that even a normal failure rate in such a huge constellation is going to end up with a lot of bad space junk.”.

SpaceX began deploying its Starlink constellation on May 23rd, 2019, with the launch of its first batch of 60 satellites.

Therefore, A 3% failure rate means that roughly 25 satellites will fail and become part of the growing problem of “space junk.”.

Not long ago, SpaceX secured permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy about 12,000 Starlink satellites to orbits ranging from 328 km to 580 km (200 to 360 mi).

However, more recent filings with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) show that the company hopes to create a megaconstellation of as many as 42,000 satellites.

In this case, a 3% failure rate works out to 360 and 1,260 (respectively) 250 kg (550 lbs) satellites becoming defunct over time.

As of February of 2020, according to the ESA’s Space Debris Office (SDO), there are currently 5,500 satellites in orbit of Earth – around 2,300 of which are still operational.

That means (employing naked math) that a full Starlink megaconstellation would increase the number of non-functioning satellites in orbit by 11% to 40%.

Beyond non-functioning satellites, the SDO also estimates that there are currently 34 000 objects in orbit measuring more than 10 cm (~4 inches) in diameter, 900 000 objects between 1 cm to 10 cm (0.4 to 4 in), and 128 million objects between 1 mm to 1 cm.

From this, they claimed that based on a satellite failure rate of 1% and no corrective maneuvers, there was “approximately a 1 percent chance per decade that any failed SpaceX satellite would collide with a piece of tracked debris.”.

Deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/x83OvjB4Pa.

There’s also the likely scenario where Starlink satellites will naturally deorbit if their propulsion systems fail and they are unable to raise their orbit or apply corrective thrust.

In the meantime, Musk announced earlier this month that with the latest batch of their satellites released in orbit, Starlink is planning on launching a beta test of its internet service?

51:37 Are there any full views of the Earth from satellites

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