Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has denied that his Starlink satellites are squeezing out his competitors in space. Musk was replying to European Space Agency (ESA) Chief Josef Aschbacher's allegation earlier this month that he was being permitted to set the rules for the space sector.
Musk's SpaceX is without a doubt the most popular carrier for space missions, with other private businesses trailing far behind in the space race. However, because it has no competition, SpaceX's supremacy in the area is being questioned. For example, it has about 2,000 satellites in orbit for its Starlink services, but aims to launch more than 30,000 in the future.
Musk explained that each orbital shell was larger than the Earth's surface, and that by installing one every ten meters (32 feet) or so, there would be enough room for tens of billions of spacecraft to orbit the planet. Experts, on the other hand, are skeptical of this analogy.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center, spacecraft travel at thousands of miles per hour, leaving them with very little time to adjust their trajectory if a collision appears possible. Instead, his calculations reveal that each shell can only hold 1,000 satellites.
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Source: INTERESTING ENGINEERING
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