Enjoy stargazing while you can, SpaceX Starlink is about to ruin it
Crowded orbits
If mega-constellations of satellites become reality, the night sky will become a mundane highway of moving lights, obscuring the stars. Now, every time I see the bright reflection of a satellite tracking across the stars, I am reminded of what has already been approved by theUnited States Federal Communications Commission— the agency that regulates frequencies broadcast by satellites over the U.S., effectively putting itself in charge of regulating every space launch on the planet.
SpaceX has already received approval for 12,000 Starlink satellites andis seeking approval for 30,000 more. Other companies arenot far behind.
The Starlink mega-constellation itself would increase the number of active satellites more than tenfold: there are around3,000 active satellites in orbit; current Starlinks arebrighter than 99% of thembecause they are in lower orbits, closer to the surface of Earth, and more reflective than Starlink engineers predicted.
SpaceX is launchingsets of 60 satellites every couple of weeks, and there will bea thousand Starlinksin orbit by Christmas 2020.
With the naked eye, stargazing from adark-sky locationallows you to seeabout 4,500 stars. From a typical suburban location, you can see about 400. Simulations show that from 52 degrees north (the latitude of both Saskatoon and London, U.K.)hundreds of Starlinks will be visible for a couple of hours after sunset and before sunrise(comparable to the number of visible stars) and dozens of these will be visible all night during the summer months.
Light pollutionhas long been a threat to stargazing, but at least that can beescaped by leaving urban centers.
But satellites will be a global star-obscuring phenomenon, particularly bad at the latitudes of northern U.S. states, Canada, and much of Europe.
Stellar sacrifices
To their credit, SpaceX and Amazon —which is also investing in satellite internet services— have voluntarily started participating in discussions with professional astronomers on possible ways to mitigate the effects of thousands of bright satellites on specific observations, like interstellar objects.
SpaceX did also try a “darksat” coating, thoughpreliminary measurements by astronomersshowed that it wasonly marginally fainterthan other Starlinks. Meanwhile, launches continue with unmitigated, bright Starlinks.
Simulations show thatprofessional astronomyandamateur astrophotographywill be severely affected by bright mega-constellations. Discoveries of hazardous near-Earth asteroids will beparticularly devastatedby the hundreds of Starlinks confusing their targets, leaving Earth morevulnerabletoworld-altering impacts.
The point of the Starlink mega-constellation is to provide global internet access. It is often stated by Starlink supporters that this will provide internet access to places on the globe not currently served by other communication technologies. But currently, availableinformationshows thecost of access will be too highinnearly every location that needs internet access. Thus, Starlink will likely only provide analternate for residents of wealthy countrieswho already have other ways of accessing the internet.
Crowding the night sky
Even if SpaceX changes its plans, other companies areactively developing separate megaconstellations, andthere are more in the works.
Currently, there are no rules about satellite orbits or right-of-way, and if a collision (or multiple collisions) should occur, it’s not clear who would be at fault and who would have to clean up the debris (if that is even possible to do). Theonly international law that applies to satellite debris, from 1972, basically says that the country who launched the satellite has to clean up any mess it leaves on the surface of the Earth after crashing.
Most satellites today are launched by private companies not governments, and most satellite debrisremains abandoned in orbit, because there are no rules aboutclean-up. There arethousands of pieces of this space junk, ranging in size from bolts to bus-sized dead satellites.
With tens of thousands of new satellites approved for launch, and no laws about orbit crowding, right-of-way or space cleanup, the stage is set for the disastrous possibility ofKessler Syndrome, arunaway cascadeof debris that coulddestroy most satellites in orbitandprevent launches for decades.
Losing our connections
As human beings, we have deep connections to the stars that extend back to the dawn of humanity, and, indeed, we aremade of material from ancient stars.
TheNative Skywatchersprogram celebrates humanity’s time-honored love of the night sky and sharesIndigenous knowledge of astronomy. A Dakota Elder recently sharedher traditional knowledge of the skies: the Blue Woman spiritTo Wiŋlives inWichakiyuhapi (the Big Dipper), where she guides new babies from the Star Nation into our world and waits to greet our spirits at the door as we leave our world.
Large corporations like SpaceX and Amazon will only respond to legislation — which is slow, especially for international legislation — and consumer pressure. Is having another source of internet worth losing access to unobstructed stargazing for yourself and nearly every other person on the planet? Our species has been stargazing for thousands of years, do we really want to lose access now for the profit of a few large corporations?
On your next clear night, go outside and look up. Enjoy the stars that you can see now, because withoutbigchangesin theplansof corporations that want to launch mega-constellations,your viewof the stars is about to change dramatically.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbySamantha Lawler, Assistant professor of astronomy,University of Reginaunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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