SpaceX's 5K Satellites: A Risk of Man-Made Meteors?

[swampwiz]

I was reading about SpaceX wanting to put up 5K satellites, with these put in a low enough orbit that they would need to be periodically boosted to stay up, and simply falling out of the sky within a few months if they malfunction or run out of fuel. This makes me wonder about how small a satellite would need to be to be assured of burning up completely - lest we get man-made "meteors".

 

[phinds]

Size alone is a meaningless criterion. You need to know the density and general shape. For example, a HUGE array of solar panels would burn up on reentry but the same mass as a solid dense sphere might not.

 

[Nik_2213]

IIRC, Skylab showered parts of Australia with its components. Low density stuff just fluttered down, titanium pressure tanks played 'drop bear'...