Steve Wozniak's Startup Privateer Plans To Launch Hundreds of Satellites To Study Space Debris (space.com) 42
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's startup Privateer aims to help humanity get the goods on space junk before it's too late. Space.com reports: The Hawaii-based company, whose existence Wozniak and co-founder Alex Fielding announced in September, wants to characterize the ever-expanding space debris population like never before. Privateer will do this by incorporating a variety of data, including crowdsourced information and observations made by its own sizable satellite fleet. "I think we're looking at several hundred satellites," Privateer Chief Scientific Adviser Moriba Jah told Space.com. "We won't launch all several hundred at once; we'll just slowly build it up."
Orbital debris is already tracked by a number of organizations, including the U.S. military and private companies such as LeoLabs. Privateer wants to contribute to these efforts and help ramp them up, eventually creating the "Google Maps of space," as Fielding told TechCrunch last month. To make this happen, Privateer, which is still in "stealth mode" at the moment, plans to build and analyze a huge debris dataset that incorporates information from a variety of sources. "We want to basically be a company that's focused on decision intelligence by aggregating massive quantities of disparate and heterogeneous information, because there's something to be gained in the numbers," said Jah, a space debris expert who's also an associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Privateer will purchase some of this information, crowdsource some of it and gather still more using its own satellites, Jah said. The first of those satellites is on track to launch this coming February, he added. This information will lead to much more than a census of space junk, if all goes according to plan. The company intends also to characterize debris objects, nailing down their size, shape and spin rate, among other features. "The catalogs of objects out there all treat things like they're spheres," Jah said. "We're going to take it beyond the sphere, to what the thing more realistically looks like and is." Such information will allow satellite operators and others in the space community to better gauge the threat posed by debris objects and improve their predictions about how long pieces of junk will stay aloft, he added. Privateer will make some of its analyses and data freely available for the public good and sell others to customers.
Orbital debris is already tracked by a number of organizations, including the U.S. military and private companies such as LeoLabs. Privateer wants to contribute to these efforts and help ramp them up, eventually creating the "Google Maps of space," as Fielding told TechCrunch last month. To make this happen, Privateer, which is still in "stealth mode" at the moment, plans to build and analyze a huge debris dataset that incorporates information from a variety of sources. "We want to basically be a company that's focused on decision intelligence by aggregating massive quantities of disparate and heterogeneous information, because there's something to be gained in the numbers," said Jah, a space debris expert who's also an associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Privateer will purchase some of this information, crowdsource some of it and gather still more using its own satellites, Jah said. The first of those satellites is on track to launch this coming February, he added. This information will lead to much more than a census of space junk, if all goes according to plan. The company intends also to characterize debris objects, nailing down their size, shape and spin rate, among other features. "The catalogs of objects out there all treat things like they're spheres," Jah said. "We're going to take it beyond the sphere, to what the thing more realistically looks like and is." Such information will allow satellite operators and others in the space community to better gauge the threat posed by debris objects and improve their predictions about how long pieces of junk will stay aloft, he added. Privateer will make some of its analyses and data freely available for the public good and sell others to customers.
So who is issuing him his letters of Marque? (Score:1)
Re:So who is issuing him his letters? The Maquis. (Score:2)
Who are they authorizing him to attack?
The Cardassians.
It seems a bit ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It seems a bit ironic (Score:5, Funny)
"Global disaster occurred at 12:34 eastern when a satellite meant to track space junk was hit by space junk that wasnt being tracked - the expanding debris field has so far taken out hundreds of communication satellites and the global positioning system is down for good. Wozniak plans to launch more tracking satellites to track newly identified space junk."
Order of magnitude error [Re:It seems a bit ironic (Score:2)
... to launch hundreds of satellites in pursuit of learning what hundreds of other satellites left in orbit as junk.
Orders of magnitude. A mere "hundreds" of satellites (that are large enough to see with radar, and with active transponders as well) is not the problem. There's estimated to be 36500 objects greater than 10 cm in orbit (of which only 27,000 are currently being tracked), and 1,000,000 objects 1 to 10 cm in size (and yes, a 1 cm chunk of metal traveling ten times as fast as a high-powered rifle bullet will ruin your day; do remember that energy goes as velocity squared).
Too many people think of space debris
Yes Indeed (Score:1)
When I first read the headline I had to double-check to make sure it was November, not April!
Re: It seems a bit ironic (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It would be better if they were looking at ways to actually clean up. There are multiple problems that need to be solved.
For defunct satellites one option is to de-orbit them, but then stuff gets released into the upper atmosphere and we really don't know what the effect of de-orbiting thousands of satellites a year will be. Starlink is expecting that number from their constellation alone, and they won't be the only ones putting huge numbers up there.
Other options are not great either. Moving them up into a
Add a few percent to the meteoritic total (Score:2)
It would be better if they were looking at ways to actually clean up. There are multiple problems that need to be solved. For defunct satellites one option is to de-orbit them, but then stuff gets released into the upper atmosphere and we really don't know what the effect of de-orbiting thousands of satellites a year will be.
Yes we do: nothing. 48 tons of meteoritic material vaporizes in the atmosphere every day. The contribution from de-orbited satellites will be trivial compared to this.
...
Then you have all the debris, bits of satellites that got hit already and broke up, discarded parts of rockets and so forth. Some of it is relatively large, but uncontrolled and often tumbling which makes de-orbiting hard. Some of it is tiny, specs of paint, making it hard to track and hard to catch.
Yes, this is the hard part.
Re: It seems a bit ironic (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The Onion? (Score:2)
Genius: use more debris to counter existing debris (Score:2)
I'm sure there is logic to this, I just need time to understand more fully. I wonder if it could be approved before, or after, the inevitable 'hoover bots' that will scour the orbital heavens and suck up all unclaimed particles (and some claimed by untrusted nations).
"The company intends also to characterize debris objects, nailing down their size, shape and spin rate, among other features."
If you don't mind, my wife wants to know the colors too. She believes that the first discovered colors will fit nicely
...the best inspiration to all the geeks among us. (Score:1)
Junk to some treasure to others (Score:3)
What great idea! (Score:2)
I still think Elon Musk and Starlink are some of the worst offenders, but then i consider any small "throwaway" satellites like cubesats to be equally as bad. Fact is, space is getting cluttered, and a lot of these satellites have very short lifetimes. Most have a 20 year lifetime, tops, whereas really, with the technology available today, we should be ensuring satellites have a 50 year lifespan at least.
Re:What great idea! (Score:5, Informative)
I still think Elon Musk and Starlink are some of the worst offenders
They aren't. StarLink satellites orbit in the upper fringes of the atmosphere. They experience some drag as a result, requiring a small amount of fuel to maintain orbit, but there are two advantages:
1. If a StarLink satellite malfunctions, the drag will cause it to automatically deorbit within a year or two, so it doesn't add to space junk.
2. Because of the slight atmospheric drag, these low orbits are relatively free of debris. Small particles, like paint chips or metal shavings, deorbit in a few weeks. This makes collisions less likely and minimizes the lasting debris if a collision does happen.
StarLink is a responsible space citizen.
Re: (Score:1)
I still think Elon Musk and Starlink are some of the worst offenders
They aren't. StarLink satellites orbit in the upper fringes of the atmosphere. They experience some drag as a result, requiring a small amount of fuel to maintain orbit, but there are two advantages:
1. If a StarLink satellite malfunctions, the drag will cause it to automatically deorbit within a year or two, so it doesn't add to space junk.
2. Because of the slight atmospheric drag, these low orbits are relatively free of debris. Small particles, like paint chips or metal shavings, deorbit in a few weeks. This makes collisions less likely and minimizes the lasting debris if a collision does happen.
StarLink is a responsible space citizen.
There you go again, ruining somebody's conspiracy theory with 'facts'.
Re: (Score:3)
There is a big unknown though. What will de-orbiting thousands of satellites a year do to the environment?
When it was only small numbers we just ignored the effects of small amounts of material burning up in the upper atmosphere. Now significant amounts of material are being dumped up there and nobody has really looked at what the implications of that are.
Re: (Score:2)
I did a bit of searching and this exact issue was studied back in 1994: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/... [dtic.mil]
Space.com has a very nice alarmist article [space.com] that conveniently omits a conclusion using the information they found. However, the most complete answer came from a stack exchange answer. [stackexchange.com]
It appears that deorbiting space debris does not appear to have any notable impact on stratospheric ozone (which is the big concern). However, the event we find ourselves in trouble we can always switch to using wooden sate [bbc.com]
Re: (Score:2)
As the SE answer notes, it very much depends on what the satellite is made of. It might be fine, but we should probably figure that out before just doing it.
We haven't had much luck in the past by not looking into these things.
Re: (Score:2)
Satellites are almost exclusively constructed of aluminum. It's not even a question really.
Re: What great idea! (Score:1)
As the SE answer notes, it very much depends on what the satellite is made of.
No doubt lots of toxic metals just like a meteor - or your brain tissue.
Re: (Score:2)
There is a big unknown though. What will de-orbiting thousands of satellites a year do to the environment?
About 50 tonnes of meteoroids enter the atmosphere every day.
That is about 18,000 tonnes annually.
StartLink satellites are 260 kg. So if a thousand of them deorbit annually they will be 5% the level of the meteoroids.
Re: (Score:2)
The issue is the stuff in the satellites. There will be some left over fuel, presumably some kind of cooling system with coolant in it, the various stuff that makes up the PCBs and components, solar panels etc.
Re: (Score:2)
There will be some left over fuel
StarLink uses hall-effect ion thrusters with krypton as a propellant.
Krypton is a normal component of the atmosphere at about 1 ppm.
Still time to name this mission? (Score:2)
Satellite names revealed (Score:3)
Kessler I, Kessler II, Kessler III, etc..
Er, what? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, since ten thousand foam cups in the ocean would be trivial compared to the five trillion [nationalgeographic.org] pieces of plastic estimated to be in the ocean, I suppose you could make that comparison: yes, the number of satellites proposed here is trivial compared to the amount of debris already there.
But, no, assuming that the new satellites are deliberately put into low orbit designed to decay at the end of satellite operational lifetime, it would be more like putting ten thousand ice cubes into the ocean to track cur
In 12 Parsecs... (Score:2)
Soon, getting to LEO will be likened to The Kessel Run.
You need one to know one (Score:2)
Space-junk I mean.
passive radar (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
More debris (Score:2)
This will be his net results. Nice.
extremely disappointing (Score:2)
I would be more impressed if Woz was sponsoring a company that was CLEANING UP space junk by pushing it towards the sun.
We heard you like space debris (Score:2)
Stealth mode? (Score:2)