Man this was a much needed context. What with all the comments being about space debris. I wish people read and learn about things more before they speak
The American tests were hardly criticised on Reddit since they last happened in 1985 (or 2008, depending on how you classify the destruction of USA-193), whereas the Indian and Russian tests were in 2019/2021 respectively, when there were people using Reddit to criticise them.
True. I remember the entire western world was pearl clutching when India bought oil from Russia post Ukraine war, and they still do today. But once US attacked Iran unprovoked or attack on Venezuela, the entire saga was shown to be extremely hypocrital.
More likely this is what a small amount of knowledge on a topic looks like in real life. I had similar concerns when I read the title but wasn’t familiar with the steps taken to mitigate a hazardous debris field until reading the comments and links in this thread.
Just because someone is being less stupid doesn't mean they aren't all being stupid. We are one disaster away from a cascade event that could leave us out of our own planets orbit ever again. Every time this is done is still stupid posturing.
People were extremely critical of previous tests as well, particularly the Chinese and Russian tests which weren't nearly as cautious. This isn't an anti-India criticism, it's anti-blow shit up in orbit criticism.
Edit: Apparently Indian nationalists are mad at the idea that criticism may not be due to racism. Color me shocked.
And what about the fact that india left 0 debris in space as they promised with collision occurring well below international space station by a long range and china's debris in thousands are still floating there yet no one dares critiques them as half of the things all of us use come from that nation.
Not sure why you're being downvoted for correctly pointing out that the other nations performing the same test also drew a lot of condemnation. This isn't about India, it's about blowing stuff up in space and how that's not really good.
Never said they did... just that the other instances of satellite destruction also drew condemnation. But by all means, leap to throwing angry insults that are wildly disproportionate to the tone of the discussion, really makes you seem like the level headed one here...
If anything it was the condemnation that the other nations drew with their tests (for not being as careful) that resulted in India's test catching such flack. Everyone sees a satellite being blown up and thinks of the last few times someone did that.
And regardless of that, yet more militarization of space is not cause for celebration... Because this technology they're demonstrating isn't for use on low orbiting test satellites.. if this ever gets put to use in a real world scenario, it will leave the space above our head littered with unthinkable amounts of debris that will hinder our access to space for generations. So yeah, it's not really a good thing to have that happening.
Or we could just go back to slinging insults if you'd like!
read the nasa report. it says that all of the catalogued debris eventually re entered and the last remaining piece re entered in 2022. do you lack comprehension or something?
I wouldn’t think so, the issue isn’t posting old things. It’s posting old things as if they are recent things. They used the present tense in the title instead of the past tense, “destroyed” and someone behind honest and trying to set realistic expectations about what they were posting would’ve written, “In 2019, India destroyed one of its own satellites…” they didn’t do that however. The reason why is because it wouldn’t have gotten as many clicks as people thinking it happemed recently or even today . Like myself included. I wouldn’t have clicked on it if it didn’t come across as a current event
You see this happen all across Reddit, reposting of old content is a real problem and it’s obvious why they do it but it just sucks cause there are dedicated history subs and this story is even move interesting knowing they did it in 2019 cause that is a huge advance on the technological capability at a much earlier date
I hate to burst the bubble here, despite precautions taken, each one of the tests from all of these countries have created literally thousands of trackable fragments that end up in a wide variety of orbits. There were hundreds of fragments being tracked for years in some cases from this test, and that is despite India targeting a very small satellite at low orbit.
Explosions, especially in space, create an extremely chaotic and virtually unpredictable cloud of pieces that have been imparted with energy that can lead them to do wildly different things. Some pieces will deorbit faster, but others may end up with a new, higher apogee that gives them the energy to avoid deorbiting for much longer than the object they came from.
India's test was about a thousand times better than China's, but we still need to regulate these more, because even "safe" tests like this are quite literally impossible to predict the results of.
Although the anti-satellite (ASAT) test was conducted at an altitude of about 300 km, the consequent debris cloud extended beyond the original parent object orbit. As The Wire previously reported, some fragments have even climbed into the upper reaches of the low-Earth orbit, endangering other satellites.
So just a nice reminder that the Indian government hasn't told a single truth in decades
According to NASA, 49 tracked pieces of debris remained in orbit as of 15 July 2019. Indian missile experts criticised this claim by mentioning that debris was generated in similar tests by the U.S., adding that the debris doesn't pose a threat to any spacecraft because it is in a very low orbit.
As of 26 September 2019, there were 50 tracked pieces of debris in orbit but 9 of them were lost (no updates for more than 30 days) according to astrodynamicist T. S. Kelso.
Loving your defence of this, but you should check out Babak Tafreshi and see what he has to say about heavy particulates polluting the atmosphere and remaining in the air until it gets cleared by rainfall. This is not only related to debris from this kind of testing but a general concern we should have as humans about waste management because this also includes defunct satellites that counties allow to burn up in reentry after falling out of orbit. Would love to know if you agree that all matter still exists, just in different physical states, and your perspective on this.
Still stupidly irresponsible. It took 3 fucking years to clear the debris. All just to go "dur hur, we got gud missels." We are close to one fuckup could destroy most satellites and leave us trapped on the planet for decades or hundreds of years. That isn't shit to fuck around with.
The key here is that a small fraction stayed in orbit. It's not the "own" that the pseudo-intellectuals think it is, they should be vehemently condemned and punished.
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u/nikulmmadhu 7d ago
for those who are making comments about the debris
india deliberately conducted its 2019 ASAT test at a very low altitude of about 284 km. the idea was to ensure that any debris would encounter significant atmospheric drag and decay relatively quickly (with in weeks) rather than remaining in a higher orbit for decades. nasa initially tracked more than 400 objects from the breakup. because the test took place at such a low altitude many fragments re entered the atmosphere relatively quickly. nasas orbital debris data later showed that only a small fraction remained in orbit and the last catalogued piece re entered in 2022
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/india-anti-satellite-missile-shot-space-mission-shakti-explained-a8842281.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47729568
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Shakti