Russia, China can't take down Starlink's 2,000+ satellites, says Elon Musk

[kankan326]

A particle cloud warhead with a mass of only 1000kg will result in a density of 10^-3 kg/m³ or 1000 times more than normal or similar to ~170km altitude. If you can aim better and have a cube of <(50m)³ the density will reach ~10^-2 kg/m³ similar to 100km altitude. In a retrograde orbit the tiny Starlink sats will hit this particle cloud with around 14 km/s and will lose their speed in very short time.

Much easier than I thought

 

[dbc]

What I meant is making starlink orbit contaminated by millions of objects, balls, rectangle plates or anything. The replacement capacity is meaningless.


Because Russia has not been cornered yet.

all space debris will deorbit in hours / day at very low orbit in which starlink operates.

 

[kankan326]

all space debris will deorbit in hours / day at very low orbit in which starlink operates.

But launching debris is much much economical than launching satellites. Even Musk's rockets can not change this fact.

 

[dbc]

But launching debris is much much economical than launching satellites. EVen Musk's rockets can not change this fact.

not really, SpaceX is fully reusable, Starship is expected to cost 10m$ per launch.While our adversaries will have to a build an entire new rocket for every launch.But once again, the US can fight without space assets with minimum degradation of capability. Our adversaries will suffer greater consequences of space junk insertion..

besides GPS III is not in LEO it is 22,000 km from Earth.and safe from ball bearings..

 

[kankan326]

not really, SpaceX is fully reusable, Starship is expected to cost 10m$ per launch.While our adversaries will have to a build an entire new rocket for every launch.But once again, the US can fight without space assets with minimum degradation of capability. Our adversaries will suffer greater consequences of space junk insertion..

besides GPS III is not in LEO it is 22,000 km from Earth.and safe from ball bearings..

After SpaceX sent 1000 or 10000 satellites to space, several debris launches will get the work done. Do a calculation. And you forget the cost of satellites loss.

China's anti-satellite missile can destroy 36,000km from earth target.

 

[dbc]

China's anti-satellite missile can destroy 36,000km from earth target.

sure..if you say so. But military analysts that have modelled ASAT scenarios don't think anyone has enough payload launch capacity to MEO to realistically target MEO assets.

 

[NotSure]

Much easier than I thought

In this case you would have 2 effects. First is the slow down, second is the abrasive effect of the particles hitting the sats at around 14km/s and so destroying the surface. You could optimise the particle size so it has enough lifespan to deorbit the Starlink sats but at the same time getting deorbit itself fast enough through friction and not endanger other sats.

This would be a elegant solution, because it would not produce space debris, actually reducing them through deorbiting the space junk named "Starlink".