Yes and to be clear on what "practical" means here. If there's a mountain between origin-destination for a road trip it's relevant to highlight it. In the case of orbits the objects may be small but they're very fast and very dangerous.
I think calling them dangerous is even a bit misleading as they're well tracked. Some of them even autonomously precisely position themselves rather than be on ballistic trajectory.
Only the largest objects are trackable. Objects in the 1-10 cm range are large enough to destroy satellites instantly but too small to track. Obviously any visualization will only show known objects.
This explains both why "dangerous" is accurate, and why autonomous avoidance based on tracked objects (ala Starlink) is 'necessary but not sufficient.'
mlindner|5 months ago
schiffern|5 months ago
This explains both why "dangerous" is accurate, and why autonomous avoidance based on tracked objects (ala Starlink) is 'necessary but not sufficient.'