Wanna see something mind-blowing? ... guess how many satellites are up in the sky?

Console · 24-04-2011 03:27AM #1

how many you think? 100? .... 200? 500? .... 1000?

No... over 13,000 sats up there. No thats not the mind blowing thing, this is:

Sea Sharp · 24-04-2011 03:32AM

And that's excluding all the super secret military laser beam thingeys from James Bond.
Cool story bro, cool story indeed.

OPENROAD · 24-04-2011 03:37AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBS2itUB8ok

FrostyJack · 24-04-2011 04:05AM

It isn't 13,000 comms satellites, it is mostly junk.

cuppa · 24-04-2011 04:10AM

dang commie's

Console · 24-04-2011 04:32AM

FrostyJack wrote: »

It isn't 13,000 comms satellites, it is mostly junk.

Yes, be them active or non active. Be them communication sats or other purpose sats. But there are still 13,000 satellites in the sky. Moving and rotating along with the earth. Thats impressive

FrostyJack · 24-04-2011 04:52AM

Console wrote: »

Yes, be them active or non active. Be them communication sats or other purpose sats. But there are still 13,000 satellites in the sky. Moving and rotating along with the earth. Thats impressive

I meant junk as in panels etc from rockets.

Console · 24-04-2011 04:54AM

FrostyJack wrote: »

I meant junk as in panels etc from rockets.

well yeah, obviously there is junk up there too. but that doesnt take away there are still 13,000 active and non-active sats up

the groutch · 24-04-2011 07:18AM

IT'S OVER NINE THOU-SAND!!!

opinion guy · 24-04-2011 08:43AM

They look like a swarm of bees!!!

If aliens come they won't be able to get through the swarm of satellites and space junk!

24-04-2011 09:30AM

That's a bit mad alright... Would like to know why some are very low and some a very high but I'm too lazy to find out by myself.

crazygeryy · 24-04-2011 10:36AM

i wonder will there be a mr binman for space someday.

imitation · 24-04-2011 10:38AM

There is a theory that the amount of space junk will reach such a level that when one piece collides with another the resulting fragments will then hit other satellites until they are all blown to bits in a chain reaction. Add the fact this stuff is travelling at really high speeds means anybody going into space in the future is going to have some fun dodging it.

MagicMarker · 24-04-2011 10:39AM

This really isn't mind blowing.

Logical Fallacy · 24-04-2011 10:41AM

Console wrote: »

well yeah, obviously there is junk up there too. but that doesnt take away there are still 13,000 active and non-active sats up

If you add in the space junk there are a lot more things orbiting around the place up there.

Xivilai · 24-04-2011 10:44AM

30% of space junk up there belongs to China

Steoob · 24-04-2011 10:48AM

This video always kindof annoys me. It doesnt show the true size of the satellites, just a marker where they are and it seems as if theyre forming some impossible to navigate net around the globe. A modern satellite would only be the size of an average bus. But think of how many sports grounds there are on earth. Probably exceeds 13000 but it doesnt cover any significant portion of the earths surface. And an orbital area would be even larger than the area of earth.

tfitzgerald · 24-04-2011 10:51AM

Xivilai wrote: »

30% of space junk up there belongs to China

And the rest was probably made in china:D

Logical Fallacy · 24-04-2011 10:54AM

Steoob wrote: »

This video always kindof annoys me. It doesnt show the true size of the satellites, just a marker where they are and it seems as if theyre forming some impossible to navigate net around the globe. A modern satellite would only be the size of an average bus. But think of how many sports grounds there are on earth. Probably exceeds 13000 but it doesnt cover any significant portion of the earths surface. And an orbital area would be even larger than the area of earth.

We know where functional satellites are all the time anyway, so it's a non issue. It's the **** we don't know about that is the problem. (discarded rocket parts, old ****ed up sats etc )

newmug · 24-04-2011 11:06AM

Which one is hubble?

Irish Fire · 24-04-2011 11:11AM

Wonder if Masfield will look to sell them for scrap....... Bulid up his empire again.....

Neodymium · 24-04-2011 12:08PM

That's a bit mad alright... Would like to know why some are very low and some a very high but I'm too lazy to find out by myself.

The reason why the satellites are different distances from the earth is because some satellites are positioned above the earth so that the earth's gravitational force causes the satellites to rotate at the same rate as the earth (ie. it takes the satellite 24 hours to orbit the earth the same time it takes the earth to rotate, 1 day.) so that they are on the same position above earth at all times. These are called geostationary satellites and are used for satellite tv and gps. Geostationary satellites are about 35'000 km from earth.

Satellites which are closer or further away than 35'000 km, orbit the earth at different speeds so don't stay in the same position above earth and are constantly moving faster or slower relative to the earth. For more information on this google "Kepler's third law" and "geostationary satellites"

i wonder will there be a mr binman for space someday.

There could be take a look at the popsci link here

CrazyRabbit · 24-04-2011 02:11PM

13,001. They forgot to include the Moon.

Hookah · 24-04-2011 02:26PM

I remember hearing somewhere where they're waiting for one little accident to happen, maybe a little meteorite to knock a bit of space debris off course, which hits a satellite, which explodes and fragments, hitting other satellites, which explode and fragment, and so on, like a massive game of space pinball, until all the satellites are destroyed, and we can't watch re-runs on Sky anymore.

2012 maybe?

Kevin Duffy · 24-04-2011 02:28PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

13,001. They forgot to include the Moon.

He said over 13,000

Anyway, they also forgot Button Moon and the Death Star.

Dwellingdweller · 24-04-2011 02:39PM

MagicMarker wrote: »

This really isn't mind blowing.

Neither was yore ma last night!

Dwellingdweller · 24-04-2011 02:44PM

Kevin Duffy wrote: »

He said over 13,000

Anyway, they also forgot Button Moon and the Death Star.

And Major Tom.

theteal · 24-04-2011 02:49PM

That's like space litter. . .no wonder the aliens are coming to clean up the kip!

How does nasa get shuttles up there without a collision?

Kevin Duffy · 24-04-2011 02:51PM

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

And Major Tom.

That's 'cos his spaceship knew which way to go, so Google Earth didn't have to keep track of him.

No sign Battlestar Gallactica in that vid either.

Kevin Duffy · 24-04-2011 02:54PM

theteal wrote: »

How does nasa get shuttles up there without a collision?

You mean how does NASA fake all those launches and moon landings without the truth getting out?

(For a real answer, see earlier in the thread about the size of the objects versus that size of the zone they're all in, with a good comparison to sports fields versus the land area of Earth)

FortuneChip · 24-04-2011 03:02PM

Is Roberto Baggio's 1994 WC Final penalty miss still floating about up there?

Wanna see something mind-blowing? ... guess how many satellites are up in the sky?

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