[undersuit]

The solar panels on the newest satellites can deliver 6kW but the power that satellite actually uses is less. The satellite is only using 300W[1] during the dark phase of it's orbit when it can use it's entire mass to cool down. Is that limit because of the battery or is it because the satellite needs to radiate all the heat it acquired from the other half of the time in the sun?

[1] https://lilibots.blogspot.com/2020/04/starlink-satellite-dim...

[Ajedi32]

Looks like that's a purely speculative assumption the blog author made, not a fact. I'm not sure why he made that assumption given that Starlink doesn't actually stop working at night.

Fair point that in SSO you'd need 2-3x the radiator area (and half the solar panels, and minimal/no batteries). I don't think that invalidates my point though.

[undersuit]

Article doesn't say the satellites stop working in their dark phase, it says they consume 300W in the dark phase based on some battery math.