Comment Re:hmm. (Score 1) 224
4) pre-emptive removal of dead satalites (no, not shooting them down from earth - attaching small moters to send them into the atmosphere) - maybe steering them into a declining orbit as the last thing they do before swithing them off
This is second hand, but I had friends who worked on the Iridium project, and from what I understand all the Iridium satellites were equipped with a system to take them out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere at the end of life. In fact, I believe that the satellites will deorbit automatically if they loose contact with ground for a certain period of time. I recall this was a concern on a couple of occasions because right after launch they lost contact.
