Satellites – Greg Laden's Blog

How many satellites are there, and will there be?

Greg Laden — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 22:20:17 +0000

The number of satellite circling the Earth right now is approaching 5,000. The number that are not broken, and are being actually used, is just over 1,000. However, Space X, Elon Musk’s megacompany, is approved to launch well over 10,000 satellites over the next several years, to serve a single purpose: Give broadband internet to every human on Earth no matter where they are.

Unless it is cloudy, I guess. I mean, Satellite TV does not work when the weather is bad.

Not to be a curmudgeon about this, but I wonder if this increases the likelihood of a Kessler event?

There are important details. Most of these satellites will be in low orbit, and a large number will be in even lower orbit. I assume this means that of the several thousand satellites circling the Earth at 1,000 to 1,400 km, there will be a regular replacement cycle, because don’t low orbit satellites’ orbits wear down?

Anyway, it is a very interesting project. Read about it here.

Government Responsibility in Addressing Weather Disasters

Greg Laden — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 14:45:50 +0000

The US National Weather Service does a pretty good job at predicting weather, but there are problems. In fact, we are behind compared to other nations, and parts of our infrastructure is deteriorating. Paul Douglas has been telling people for some time that we need to pay attention to our aging satellite system, and here Kate Sheppard talks about the slow but steady development of legislation to advance our storm prediction abilities:

Buckled Roads, Broken Buoys, and Doomed Satellites

Greg Laden — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 14:01:28 +0000

Two related things came across my desk this morning that should concern anyone who sees climate change as an important issue.

In Germany, the roads are buckling and breaking because of excessive heat, and there seems to be inadequate funding to re-engineer them. Here’s a photograph from Spiegel Online of what happens when the rubber meets the road (where the rubber is global warming):

“Crack on the A93 at Abensberg: Here the pad burst through the intense heat, a motorcyclist built so a fatal accident.” (google translated)

Meanwhile, over at The Guardian, John Abraham has a post describing the decline in numbers of critically important instruments measuring climate data. This includes sea moorings that collect temperature data and satellites that collect all sorts of data. Funding to maintain these and other types of equipment is lacking, and we can expect that over just a few years from now large amounts of important data will be unavailable unless this situation is reversed.

John tells us that these data collection programs…

…require adequate funding for equipment and personnel. Presently, many systems – in particular satellite platforms – are headed for declines in coverage. This means we will be operating blindly, in an information deficit. If we are to make good decisions about how to react to greenhouse gas increases, we need good information. When the economic costs of climate change are compared with the very modest costs of measurement, it seems that maintaining a robust measurement capacity is a no-brainer.

Egg Earth Photo Credit: AZRainman via Compfight cc