#Tag
"The question is not whether the night sky will change – it’s already changing. Now is the time for governments and international institutions to design fair processes before those changes become permanent."
"The question is not whether the night sky will change – it’s already changing. Now is the time for governments and international institutions to design fair processes before those changes become permanent."
"For two decades, spacefaring nations have operated under a simple rule: any satellite sent into orbit must have a less than one in 10,000 chance of injuring someone on the ground. The rule was written when a few dozen objects reentered the atmosphere each year. By early 2026, with more than 9,000 #Starlink satellites in orbit and filings for constellations totaling over 70,000 spacecraft, that arithmetic no longer holds."
https://indiandefencereview.com/starlink-satellites-falling-nonstop-to-earth-risk/
SpaceX filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission for a megaconstellation of up to one million #satellites to power data centres in #space.
The proposal envisions satellites operating between 500 and 2,000 kilometres in low Earth #orbit. Some of the orbits are designed for near-constant exposure to sunlight.
The approval process for these satellites focuses almost entirely on the limited technical info companies have to submit to regulators.
Cultural, spiritual, and most #environmental impacts aren’t taken into account – but they should be.
At this scale of growth, the night #sky will change permanently and globally for generations to come.
In 2021, astronomers estimated that in less than a decade, 1 in every 15 points of light in the night sky would be a moving satellite. That estimate only included the 65 000 #megaconstellation satellites proposed at the time.
Once deployed at a scale of millions, the impacts on the night sky may not be easily reversed.
#astronomy
https://theconversation.com/too-many-satellites-earths-orbit-is-on-track-for-a-catastrophe-but-we-can-stop-it-275430
