• AA5B@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Pieces don’t gain kinetic energy in a collision. Even if they collide and get sent off in an “upwards” direction, it’s not up very far relative to the orbit, and that’s just a less circular orbit at lower speed that will burn up even faster

    For you scenario to work, there would have to be a chain reaction

    • collision, sending a few pieces upwards
    • during that small number of orbits they survive, collision, sending a few pieces upward
    • repeat many times

    Each chance is remote enough, and ricocheting pieces only go so far, and any higher satellites they could reach are also low orbit, that I can’t imagine how remote the chances of this happening are

    Kessler syndrome is a real worry, but not in this low orbit