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escapedfromthecrypt t1_j6b4c99 wrote

Reply to comment by BuckyDuster in Asteroid Mining: SpaceX Will Help A Startup Launch Operations by Mynameis__--__

You really don't understand what you're talking about on a fundamental level

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BuckyDuster t1_j6cl175 wrote

Oh really? Please explain how I am wrong then. Every time anything is sent into space there is a risk of something going wrong and causing explosive loss of mission equipment and personnel. Even when everything goes right there is often debris left in orbit.

It is getting very crowded up there. Just wait until some other country like China or Russia decides to shoot at the mining transfer equipment that will inevitably be placed in orbit out of jealousy over the value of the mining yield.

Go ahead and laugh but my points are true and correct. China and Russia have already tested their military ability to shoot and blow up satellites they don’t like. It wouldn’t take a lot of such actions to make a runaway cascade of collisions as described by the Kessler Syndrome a horrible reality.

If that happens, it puts at risk all communications satellites and GPS satellites as well. Yes, I know they are in different orbits but the offshoot debris from explosive collisions have uncontrolled trajectory and could very realistically involve everything up there.

Enjoy it while you have it, this plan is just as laden with hubris as the voyage of the Titanic.

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escapedfromthecrypt t1_j6ebqlo wrote

Mining operations in space are in the Sun's orbit. Not the Earth's

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BuckyDuster t1_j6eiia4 wrote

Thank you for pointing out the obvious. Consider fora moment how any ship can get from the surface of the earth to the mining location and how the mining material will get back to the earth. My point holds true

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Bensemus t1_j6p7lj4 wrote

Kessler Syndrome has no real bearing on stuff traveling through a orbit.

It's about a cascading series of crashes in an orbit that create a dangerous debris field. This cascade can take decades or centuries. It also doesn't make the orbit unusable, just a bit more dangerous.

Wall-E and Gravity are not real depictions of what it could be like.

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