There is one thing that looks highly suspicious - only Musk satellites was pushed from orbit. Very strange and very selective magnetic storm.
Magnetic storms are usual and normal phenomena, they are regular and interfere with satellites transmissions since the very beginning. But they can't change satellite orbit and force them to fall. That tale about "making upper atmosphere more dense" looks too weird. Hardly magnetic storm nobody really noticed could change atmosphere so tremendously, that it dragged satellite duiring few passes enough to deorbit them. Especially if they was full of fuel for future orbit maneuveres and could easily mitigate any drag.
So, this is Mask fuckup with satellite control communication, say, they fucked up with transmission error handling and redundance and satellites received and executed wrong interfered command and derailed from orbit, or they just lost satellites in some accident or mistake and covering it with magnetic storm to calm investors or whatever.
And one more thing - February 3,4 and 5 I had no any problems in receiving weather satellite images at my ground station. So, do we really had any significant magnetic storm?
Magnetic storm is not some sensible wind or whatever that could physically blow out some objects, it is very rarefied stream of charged particles from solar flare that can't damage even a piece of cigarette paper along with noticeable magnetosphere disturbance, i.e. rapid changes in Earth magnetic field and radiation belts currents, that could induce unexpected currents in electronic devices or long wires. That is the real manifestation of magnetic storm.
Musk satellites could have simplified and weak protection circuits in electronics, or unsufficient shielding, f.e. to cut the price, and that really could be the reason of failure from magnetic storm. But that will make them too unreliable for regular work at orbit, magnetic storms are not the rare thing at all.
One more interesting thing I recall - before the accident, there was few articles in MSM that here comes huge solar flare and there will be auroras visible even at latitudes as low as Canada/US border, Nothern Europe and Middle Russia, but there was no any noticeable phenomenas at all. Even aurora at October 13 2021 was much more powerful with entertaining show in the skies over Nothern Russia cities.
But that will make them too unreliable for regular work at orbit, magnetic storms are not the rare thing at all.
The idea with Starlink sats being cheap is that he's just going to keep launching new sats constantly to replace the broken ones, forever. It keeps SpaceX funded and launch "cadence" high.
But yeah if we start seeing more downtime due to "magnetic storms", they'll have to rethink their redundancy model.
There is one thing that looks highly suspicious - only Musk satellites was pushed from orbit. Very strange and very selective magnetic storm.
Magnetic storms are usual and normal phenomena, they are regular and interfere with satellites transmissions since the very beginning. But they can't change satellite orbit and force them to fall. That tale about "making upper atmosphere more dense" looks too weird. Hardly magnetic storm nobody really noticed could change atmosphere so tremendously, that it dragged satellite duiring few passes enough to deorbit them. Especially if they was full of fuel for future orbit maneuveres and could easily mitigate any drag.
So, this is Mask fuckup with satellite control communication, say, they fucked up with transmission error handling and redundance and satellites received and executed wrong interfered command and derailed from orbit, or they just lost satellites in some accident or mistake and covering it with magnetic storm to calm investors or whatever.
And one more thing - February 3,4 and 5 I had no any problems in receiving weather satellite images at my ground station. So, do we really had any significant magnetic storm?
LOL, username checks out. ;)
But it could just be that Starlink sats are super fragile. Not like normal satellites.
Oops, fixed, sorry, :)
Magnetic storm is not some sensible wind or whatever that could physically blow out some objects, it is very rarefied stream of charged particles from solar flare that can't damage even a piece of cigarette paper along with noticeable magnetosphere disturbance, i.e. rapid changes in Earth magnetic field and radiation belts currents, that could induce unexpected currents in electronic devices or long wires. That is the real manifestation of magnetic storm.
Musk satellites could have simplified and weak protection circuits in electronics, or unsufficient shielding, f.e. to cut the price, and that really could be the reason of failure from magnetic storm. But that will make them too unreliable for regular work at orbit, magnetic storms are not the rare thing at all.
One more interesting thing I recall - before the accident, there was few articles in MSM that here comes huge solar flare and there will be auroras visible even at latitudes as low as Canada/US border, Nothern Europe and Middle Russia, but there was no any noticeable phenomenas at all. Even aurora at October 13 2021 was much more powerful with entertaining show in the skies over Nothern Russia cities.
The idea with Starlink sats being cheap is that he's just going to keep launching new sats constantly to replace the broken ones, forever. It keeps SpaceX funded and launch "cadence" high.
But yeah if we start seeing more downtime due to "magnetic storms", they'll have to rethink their redundancy model.