Stats that are based only on the number of satellites can be very misleading as they don't differentiate between a 5 ton comm sat and an 1 kg cubesat.
Stats that are based only on the number of satellites can be very misleading as they don't differentiate between a 5 ton comm sat and an 1 kg cubesat.
How relevant is that for orbit occupancy?
A 1 unit CubeSat is 10cm³ and max 2kg / unit, occupying a particular location in an LEO orbit at 28,000 km/h / 17,000 mph doesn’t want to be bumping in to anything either.
Weight is irrelevant. They will all tear through anything like butter and break apart into thousands of pieces in a conjunction.
The amount of aluminum in a satellite matters because of the effect it has on the atmosphere when it burns up during reentry.
Just to point that we don't actually know how important it is.
It can be completely irrelevant, or it can be something that must be regulated ASAP. Nobody has any idea.
(Well, we have an upper bond in that current numbers are still not an immediate problem.)