[Text/Observer Network Zhou Yibo]
Since China announced that the space station two emergency collisions with the "Starlink" satellite, many foreign media have paid attention to Musk's scolding in China, and the controversy over the "Starlink" satellite project "over-occupation of space space" has been put on the table again. Now, Musk himself has finally come forward to speak out.
According to the Financial Times on December 29 local time, Musk denied this statement in an interview, insisting that he did not prevent other competitors from entering the satellite industry because in low-Earth orbit is enough to operate "ten billions of satellites" and "thousands of satellites are nothing. Just like... hey, there are thousands of cars on Earth, what is that."
Experts from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States pointed out that high-speed flight spacecraft requires larger intervals than cars, so as to leave time to adjust orbits when a collision occurs. If a 3-second orbital adjustment interval is guaranteed, only about 1,000 satellites can be left in each orbit "shell".
SpaceX Founder Eron Musk Source: Visual China
The Financial Times pointed out that just in December this year, European Space Agency Director Joseph Aschbach warned that Musk is "making rules" for the emerging commercial aerospace industry, and that thousands of satellites launched by "Starlink " will lead to a decrease in radio frequency and orbital space available for others.
However, Musk insists that there is enough space in low-Earth orbit to accommodate satellites, and that his own Starlink program cannot hinder other spacecraft.
"This is not a situation where we stop others in any way. We have not stopped anyone from doing anything, and we do not want to do it."
Musk also said in the interview that the "shell" of every orbit around the earth is larger than the surface of the earth. Every time we extend 10 meters into space, there will be an extra "shell".
"This means (low Earth orbit) has enough space to accommodate tens of billions of satellites." Musk said, "Thousands of satellites are nothing. It's like, hey... there are thousands of cars on Earth, what's that."
It is worth noting that although the Financial Times mentioned in the report that China Space Station two emergency collisions with the "Starlink" satellite, it did not clearly indicate whether Musk was responding to this incident.
It is reported that Musk's statement that "using cars to compare satellites" has not been recognized by experts. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, pointed out that spacecraft flying at 17,000 mph (about 27,358.8 km/h) requires greater intervals than cars to allow time to adjust orbits when collisions may occur.
According to McDowell's calculation, at such a speed, if the orbital adjustment interval is guaranteed for 3 seconds, only about 1,000 satellites can be left in each orbit "shell".
McDowell said that since it is difficult to calculate the trajectories of many different satellites, which may be affected by the solar climate, potential collisions can only be identified when they are approaching the time they may occur.
"For many space users, it takes at least hours or even days to avoid maneuvers, so this shows that space is already too crowded."
Space analyst Laura Folchik of the US space consulting firm Astralytical said it was "reckless" to compare satellites to transportation on Earth, but "he (Musk) said it was a traffic management issue, which is basically correct."
Folchik said the competition to deploy new communication networks with thousands of satellites shows that countries clearly need to strengthen coordination to decide "how to allocate orbital space and manage space traffic."
Folchik also believes that Aschbach's criticism of Musk is "based on feelings rather than facts."
"I wonder if there are similar complaints when some airlines start adding flights to specific routes. No one has the sky, and everyone is free to use it.”
In May 2019, a Starlink satellite taken by an American astronomical enthusiast. Video screenshot
Public information shows that Musk proposed the Starlink program in 2014, trying to establish a global satellite Internet and send the first 60 satellites into space in 2019. The program will eventually launch 42,000 satellites into space, and 1,900 have been launched.
However, the Starlink program has caused concerns from many space experts since its inception - if all satellites are launched into low orbit, it may greatly increase the risk of satellite collisions. It may have a negative impact on astronomical observations.
In 2019, the "Wind God" Earth Observation Satellite of the European Space Agency urgently changed its orbit to avoid the Starlink-44 satellite. At that time, the "Starlink" satellite dropped to an altitude of 320 kilometers, testing its automatic de-orbiting technology, but it approached the "Wind God" satellite that is operating at this altitude, resulting in a collision risk.
In the report at the time, Forbes News of the United States said that SpaceX's "Starlink" satellite The satellite is equipped with an automatic collision avoidance system, which can track in-orbit debris and spacecraft and automatically avoid it, but the system does not seem to have any effect in this incident.
December 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman spokesman Zhao Lijian confirmed at a regular press conference that day that day that "the Chinese space station urgently avoids the 'Starlink' satellite", and said that the United States has claimed that the so-called responsible concept of outer space behavior, but it ignores the obligations of the international treaty of outer space, posing a serious threat to the life safety of astronauts. This is a typical double Recent standards.
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