this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
245 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

34977 readers
119 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The US government has issued its first ever fine to a company for leaving space junk orbiting the Earth.

The Federal Communications Commission fined Dish Network $150,000 (£125,000) for failing to move an old satellite far enough away from others in use.

Space junk is made up bits of tech that are in orbit around the Earth but are no longer in use, and risk collisions.

Officially called space debris, it includes things like old satellites and parts of spacecraft.

"The more things we have in orbit, the more risk there is of collisions, causing high-speed debris," said Dr Megan Argo, senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire.

"Even a paint chip… coming in the wrong direction at orbital speed, which is 17,500 miles an hour [could] hit an astronaut doing a spacewalk.


The original article contains 402 words, the summary contains 136 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] venoft@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So they got fined 150k for not bringing enough fuel. How much would the extra fuel (and larger fuel tank) cost? Probably more than 150k..

[–] MeatballFlag@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As per usual, the fine becomes simply the cost of doing business

[–] neekz0r@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It's the equivalent of a $0.52 fine if you earn $60k a year.