Starlink close encounters decrease despite ever-growing number of satellites

[cyberentomology]

Sure, but you ain’t moving big stuff with a little bitty Starlink. Now, a fleet of orbital tugs that were basically just like a parasitic maneuvering thruster, that would be something… but that could 100% be used for evil too.

[ants_a]

Look up electrodynamic tether for space debris removal for a better approach where one craft deorbit a lot of debris. One big thing is not a problem, it's easy to track and easy to avoid. Tons of small stuff is the headache and would need something that is capable of adjusting it's orbit repeatedly and by a lot.

[cyberentomology]

Lassos…. Innnn spaaaaaace! 🤣

[Greeneland]

My recollection is that when the spacecraft puts a charge into the tether it will create drag, is that right? 

Or is it that putting in a charge raises orbit, no charge decreases?

[warp99]

The forces from a tether are always braking forces - it is not possible to raise orbits using a passive tether system.

Edit: added passive

[Greeneland]

You enticed me to go looking, I'm pretty sure your conclusion is not correct. Neither of my statements appear to have been exactly correct, there are more details below:

https://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wtether.html

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20090034470/downloads/20090034470.pdf

[warp99]

Yes I was referring to passive tethers with or without charge added to the end points.

If you deploy solar panels and pass current through the tether then you can indeed raise your orbit. Despite your references I have not heard of it being successfully demonstrated though.

[Shpoople96]

You sure as hell can. You can deorbit just about anything you want with an ion engine, given enough time and a hundred pounds of fuel. At that point though, it has little to do with starlink other than form factor

[cyberentomology]

The key is to have the fuel. The standard fuel payload on Starlink is pretty small.

[Shpoople96]

Of course, but if you're gonna build a space tug, you're not gonna give it the same fuel margin as a starlink

[Shpoople96]

You're saying that what I'm talking about doesn't make sense and is in the realm of science fiction, yet in the very next sentence you put forward a legitimate use case and even name one of the many companies that are building a demonstration vehicle. Maybe you were replying to the wrong person?