Submitted by OvidPerl t3_119wv28 in askscience
Inspired by a Mastodon thread by Astronomy Professor Sam Lawler.
Elon Musk plans 42,000 Starlink satellites. With an operational lifespan of five years, after which they're de-orbited. We will have an average of 23 (42,000/(365*5)) satellites entering the Earth's atmosphere every day.
At 1,250 kg each (for the Starlink 2.0 satellites), that's 29 tons of satellites entering our atmosphere every day, much of that being aluminum. In other words, that will be almost 10,000 tons of aluminum effectively being aerosolized in our upper atmosphere every year.
Have there been any environmental impact studies of this?
Side note: For those who point out that we have two to three times more meteorites (by mass) entering our atmosphere than Starlink satellites, the meteorites are mostly silicates.
Also, unlike geoengineering techniques to inject aerosols into our atmosphere to combat global warming, we will have no effective way of shutting off the rain of Starlink satellites. Even if launches are stopped immediately, that's five years worth of satellites coming down. And without a "smoking gun" demonstrating the damages, SpaceX will likely continue launching those satellites to protect their revenue.
[deleted] t1_j9oo5tu wrote
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