Submitted 2 weeks ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.zip
Starlink burns multiple retired satellites daily from its over 10,000-strong constellation
I’m so glad the FCC keeps giving them money for rural broadband grants instead of giving more to local PUDs. It warms my soul to know that tons of electronics are getting unevenly burned in our atmosphere.
musk probably knows a whole lot about pulling PUDs
This is how they were designed out of the gate. This isn’t a new problem. This was their solution from day 1.
So, we're breathing in hundreds of thousands of tons of vaporized e-waste pretty much constantly?
Fucking great, thanks.
Not just us! Also the dolphins and terns. Everything else is okay tho
Well, as long as we don't take a tern for the worse.
If it makes you feel any better; Starlink is also destroying the ozone layer
Don’t look up
Just wait until there’s too many and they bounce off each other until there’s nothing left but space debris, preventing the launch of more.
That is literally impossible in low earth orbit.
It has been a concern for many years, not aware of changes in thoughts on it.
Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So that’s 148,980 to 325,000 kilograms (or 148.98 to 325 tons) of electronics burned by single corporation in half a year.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
They’ve also been shown to have a not insignificant impact on the ozone. We’re so fucked
Fuckswearwords@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Does puncturing through our upper atmosphere during escape have any non insignificant effects? I’ve seen some of those videos of launches at night (when the solar wind lights up everything) and it sure looks like we are burning holes in our ozone layer when we do that. Just asking you cause you seem somewhat knowledgeable.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not just incinerated, incinerate red in the upper atmosphere while directly heating it.
They burn up from friction, it’s not just the flames the whole process is heating the planet and who knows how many things it’s fucking up we haven’t noticed before.
But the most important bit is if they don’t know how to get them down, they need to stop sending them up.
pennomi@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There’s no way burning satellites are putting enough energy into the atmosphere to heat it up. They cause other problems like ozone degradation and serious aerosol pollution.
Rockets on the other hand put a lot of greenhouse gasses high up in the atmosphere, including incredibly potent greenhouse gasses like water vapor. These launches account for a meaningful percentage of all emissions.
Rhaedas@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
That's a lot of electronics waste. Estimates for 2025 e-waste into landfills was around 65 million tons, and it continues to rise each year. It's not an either/or, we can complain about both, but the scale difference makes the first seem a bit less dramatic. We should do something about our throwaway society.
Revolver1864@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I work in IT and am resposible for e-recycle runs. I take the laptops home, re install windows, and give them away free to any poor person i come across.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I imagine most of that weight isn’t the actual electronics, but the housing.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
The housing isn’t great to be burning either.
…colorado.edu/…/within-15-years-plummeting-satell…
Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I have a feeling if I lit truck load of old computers on fire in a quarry or something, arguing “When you think about it most of the e-waste was just metal PC cases so it doesn’t count” would not fly in court.