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WholemealBred t1_jd9tjpc wrote

Reply to comment by timberwolf0122 in Student built satellite launched by SpaceX and powered by 48 AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor shows a low-cost way to reduce space junk by DukeOfGeek

But that’s not happened yet. It’s just more junk at this stage.

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timberwolf0122 t1_jda2tee wrote

Not if they are continuing to monitor it, which I imagine they will to see how long the deorbit takes, it’ll become junk once it begins to burn up

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WholemealBred t1_jda3vlp wrote

Just because it will head towards reentry with 5 years instead of 25 years doesn’t mean it’s not space junk. it’s still space junk….

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timberwolf0122 t1_jda49ab wrote

Right…. And they will likely monitor its trajectory over the next 5 years to see how the cube and tiny drag chute behave, this would make it an active experiment.

If something happens and that cube starts gaining altitude because of an unforeseen interaction, we’ll that’s something you want to know about before you put it on something big and have it go sailing off somewhere

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WholemealBred t1_jda58eg wrote

You realise it’s based of projections and not monitored for 5 years? RemindMe! 5 years

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