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SlightComplaint t1_j6mgq62 wrote

Reply to comment by Gawkhimm in 2 big pieces of space junk nearly collide in orbital 'bad neighborhood' by jeffsmith202

Question: If all the current satellites were destroyed at once. What would that change tomorrow? Some things I can think of: -GPS/GNSS. -Weather measurements. -Sat TV / news. -Some comms.

I am just thinking that it wasn't that long ago that we didn't have any of that, and we still managed two world wars just fine.

Alternatives to these are: -Knowing where you are/someone else is. -terrestrial weather measurement. -Short wave radio.

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RhesusFactor t1_j6mqtou wrote

  • Banking would stop due to loss of timing from GNSS. This has immediate and global ramifications.
  • Some disruption to air traffic control as space based ADSB is lost and only available near airports.
  • Global sea shipping loses tracking. Most navigation. Global disruption to bulk international supply chains until inertial nav and alternates are reinstalled.
  • Military communication and some crypto is lost. Many many intel sources are lost. Most guided munitions are hampered, deterrence is lost in some cases, likely leading to conflict sparking as adversaries try to make use of the more even power equations. SBRS no longer provides nuclear deterrence.
  • Weather prediction is significantly impacted. This has flow on effects to logistics, insurance and risk management. Military operations and rescue services are significantly impacted.
  • Hubble is lost.
  • TESS, Kepler, Chandra etc are gone, setting back some fields of astronomy.
  • Astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts die as the ISS and Tiangong are inhabited satellites. All research aboard is lost.
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SlightComplaint t1_j6pbnjc wrote

Surely many of these systems have a terrestrial backup.

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RhesusFactor t1_j6pfuzu wrote

You'd hope they do but many are not implementable in a quick manner or to the scale we have achieved with space based services. The question was about if they all failed at once, which is why we are quite concerned about coronal mass ejection and other space weather that could knock out our space systems all at once.

There are ground based PNT/augmentation seeking to lessen reliance on GNSS/space based PNT.

The US considers some of these capabilities as critical infrastructure with limited alternatives. Some are unique like the ISS and Hubble.

Remarkably GNSS is one of the largest components of the space industry. Near everything has gps or timing requirements now. https://brycetech.com/reports/report-documents/Bryce_2019_Global_Space_Economy.png

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Gawkhimm t1_j6mgudo wrote

I would guess a lot more.. But I dont know the specifics. But the debris would keep all other orbital launches grounded

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