Questions tagged [starlink]
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22
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6
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1answer
119 views
How has the brightness of SpaceX's Starlink constellation changed since May?
Shortly after the launch, before full orientation of the solar panels and raising of the orbits, the Starlink satellites were surprisingly bright and easily seen with the naked eye.
Back then, I heard ...
4
votes
0answers
129 views
Is it feasible to paint SpaceX Starlink satellites black so as not to frequently saturate the CCDs of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope?
This interesting answer to What is the LSST's plan to address frequent satellite trails in data? quotes:
From the LSST webpage:
The first group of Starlink satellites are sufficiently ...
2
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3answers
111 views
How is the brightness of satellites measured?
We would like to perform measurements of the brightness of Starlink satellites.
Is there any approved technique available ?
I see the name Mike McCants connected with magnitude values of ...
7
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0answers
100 views
Has SpaceX made any commentary on StarLink posing a threat to astronomy?
As an amateur astronomer I've always wondered how detrimental 1,000 StarLink satellites could be to viewing the stars from an Earth-bound location. Apparently, according to this article, it is a lot ...
3
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2answers
186 views
How quickly can the Starlink spacecraft respond to an impending collision?
update: The word "refused" might be inaccurate:
CNET: ESA's near collision with SpaceX Starlink satellite blamed on a 'bug'
Ars Technica: SpaceX satellite was on “collision course” until ESA ...
8
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1answer
1k views
Is SpaceX propulsively deorbiting a Starlink satellite already?
The plot below shows that most of the SpaceX Starlink satellites have moved from circa 450 km to circa 550 kilometers already, using their argon-based ion engines.
A few, along with four unidentified ...
4
votes
1answer
142 views
Would SpaceX's Starlink constellation contribute inordinately to space debris?
I mean they already launched a large constellation of 60 satellites and have plans to launch many more; won't all this contribute inordinately to existing space junk, which is actually becoming a real ...
5
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0answers
194 views
What are these four “debris” objects along with the Starlink satellites?
Celestrak has an updated system of categories for retrieving lists of current TLEs, and there's already one for Starlink, yay!
Currently https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/starlink.txt contains ...
3
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1answer
154 views
What are Starlink's available momentum unloading strategies?
Today's Teslarati article SpaceX wants to offer Starlink internet to consumers after just six launches talks about the new website https://www.starlink.com/ shows several images from it, and tries to ...
2
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1answer
264 views
Delta-V of Starlink Satellites
The recently launched Starlink satellites are designed to use their HAL Ion thrusters to seek their own independent orbits, evade collisions, and de-orbit at the end of their lives. That's a lot of ...
2
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0answers
139 views
Larger data rate, Oneweb or Starlink? [closed]
Which satellite constellation will provide the larger downlink data rate, in total and per satellite, Oneweb or Starlink?
My consideration: starlink will operate in a lower orbit, with more ...
10
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2answers
1k views
Is the Starlink array really visible from Earth?
I was browsing YouTube when I came across this video, recorded from a sky gazer who apparently spotted the Starlink satellites. In my lifetime, I haven't seen many satellites in the night skies (maybe ...
2
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0answers
125 views
What caused these strange lights around the Falcon 9 grid fins (Starlink launch)?
Early in the video of the launch of the first sixty SpaceX Starlink satellites we can see that after stage separation the first stage grid fins open.
Around that time there are some phenomena I don't ...
2
votes
1answer
87 views
Impact of Constellations on Space Debris and Launch Windows
With the decline of massive GEO satellites and a big increase in smallsat and cubesat, especially those in constellations, I wonder what their impact is on space debris.
Those smaller satellites do ...
1
vote
2answers
475 views
What performance specification would be lower for Krypton than for Xenon in Hall effect thrusters?
The Ars Technica article SpaceX scrubs first attempt to launch 60 Internet satellites [Updated] (found here) discusses the use of Krypton rather than Xenon in the Starlink Hall effect ion thrusters:
...
7
votes
1answer
385 views
How will Starlink satellites deploy from the fairing and reach their orbits?
Elon Musk posted this picture of the first 60 Starlink satellites packed densely into the fairing of the Falcon scheduled to launch in a few hours.
There doesn't appear to be a launcher or ejector to ...
8
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2answers
3k views
Why will Starlink satellites use krypton instead of xenon for electric propulsion?
The press kit for the first Falcon 9 Starlink launch and deployment of the first 60 satllites scheduled for May 15, 2019 says:
With a flat-panel design featuring multiple high-throughput antennas ...
3
votes
1answer
187 views
How will Starlink satellites be capable of tracking on-orbit debris and autonomously avoiding collision?
The press kit for the first Falcon 9 Starlink launch and deployment of the first 60 satllites scheduled for May 15, 2019 says:
Starlink satellites are capable of tracking on-orbit debris and ...
4
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1answer
221 views
What does the StarLink constellation look like now? Numbers of planes and inclinations?
In the question SpaceX's 4,425 satellite constellation - what's the method to the madness? I took the orbital parameters in SpaceX's filing SpaceX non-Geostationary Satellite System Attachment A - ...
0
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1answer
109 views
How are satellites made “demisable” and what else do recent FAA documents tell us about SpaceX's plans for StarLink satellites?
Comments in chat mention that recent FAA documents show that there have been design changes in the StarLink satellites that make future builds "demisable".
This sounds interesting but I don't really ...
3
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0answers
159 views
Have the Starlink precursor Tintin satellites been talking to each other? If so, how?
Tintin A and B are the first two exploratory and testing spacecraft for SpaceX's Starlink program.
It looks like they are in very similar orbits in both space and time, and are probably that way so ...
2
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0answers
421 views
What technology will SpaceX's StarLink satellites most likely use for sat-to-sat linking?
The question How does SpaceX plan to make money with StarLink Broadband? has got me thinking about how the satellites will link to each other.
Wikipedia says it's something greater than 10,000 GHz ...
