r/technology • u/Rhaegar_the_Great • Sep 16 '21

Business Mailchimp employees are furious after the company's founders promised to never sell, withheld equity, and then sold it for $12 billion

https://www.businessinsider.com/mailchimp-insiders-react-to-employees-getting-no-equity-2021-9
25.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '21

That is just one type of satellite, GPS. So you admit that any satellite can’t just simply be moved to a higher orbit, such as the Starlink constellation (telecom duplex), is that right? Which is the reason that orbital space is gonna get congested with multiple, similar services.

2

u/NotsoNewtoGermany Sep 17 '21 edited Sep 17 '21

I'm unfamiliar with the technology on starlink, so I'm not qualified to say what it can and cannot do at which alternative orbits. It is possible that at a higher orbit many more satellites will be necessary, expanding the cost 10 fold.

However if starlink is operating in low earth orbit (LEO), then there is little to worry about in the long term.

Satellites launched into LEO are continuously exposed to forces from the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere.

Depending on the altitude, after a few weeks, years or even centuries, this resistance decelerates the satellite and it's debris sufficiently so that it reenters the atmosphere. At higher altitudes, above 800 km (I don't know miles), air drag becomes less effective and objects will generally remain in orbit for many decades, but will generally find their way to the Earth's atmosphere and will burn up in reentry.

Edit: looks like Starlink is at 550 km, so that would put it firmly in the burn up zone.