Kuromantis

joined 3 years ago
MODERATOR OF
 

On redistricting, the court ultimately selected a congressional map drawn by Evers. But it was one that leaned Republican anyway, after the court called for a new map that hewed as closely as possible to the old one. A similar and more protracted fight also broke out over legislative lines — and more challenges to the maps could arise in future years, especially if the balance of the court flips.

I think this is the most important part, at least within the context of electoral politics. Wisconsin's mighty gerrymanders have been credited with effectively ending Democracy in the state as Democrats need to get over 60% of the vote to win, a score they've failed to get from much more favorable states like Connecticut, California and New York in 2022, alongside regularly verging on being a 2/1 superminority in both chambers. A new court could force the WI legislature to draw a fair map or do it themselves, so Evers isn't sitting alone in his desk, veto-ing every terrible thing the WIGOP comes up with.

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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Kuromantis@beehaw.org to c/space@beehaw.org
 

A neat (and presumably pretty old by the site design) article about how long satellites will last in Low Earth Orbits with varying eccentricity and perigees alongside satellites with different amounts of drag, alongside explaining the various forces that cause this orbital decay. It also highlights how setting the lower boundary of space at ~100 kms is, while not an entirely arbitrary decision with stuff like the Karman Line, where a plane would need to travel at orbital speed to achieve lift, is fairly deceptive for actual satellites, which according to the article won't last more than a few weeks below 250 kms. Wikipedia cites an estimate that Sputnik which orbited Earth at an orbit with a 215 km perigee and a 939 km apogee lasted 2 months in orbit. There are also charts of orbital decay for the ISS (Graph 1, Graph 2) and of Tiangong-1 (Graph 1, specific dates, Graph 2, Apogee and Perigee)

The following table provides a very rough guide to the lifetime of an object in a circular or near circular orbit at various altitudes.

Satellite Altitude Lifetime
200 km 1 day
300 km 1 month
400 km 1 year
500 km 10 years
700 km 100 years
900 km 1000 years