Jul 17, 2021 04:35 AM
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01954-4
EXCERPTS: Many astronomers were caught by surprise in 2019, when the first batch of Starlink Internet satellites launched by SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, turned out to be brighter than expected in astronomical images. [...] Astronomers and representatives of several companies, including SpaceX, have settled on a brightness threshold for satellites that is slightly fainter than the human eye can see in a dark sky. Starlinks are close to that brightness threshold but do not currently meet it, says Meredith Rawls, an astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The threshold is a goal and not a requirement. Even if companies adhere to it, the satellites will be visible in telescopes. They are particularly disruptive to telescopes that survey large swathes of the sky. [...] There are no laws governing the impact of satellites on the night sky...
[...] In April, Piero Benvenuti and other astronomers were able to get the issue of satellite constellations raised during a COPUOS subcommittee meeting, when delegations from five nations signed up to an IAU-led white paper saying that the megaconstellations are a concern for astronomers and others...
[...] Delegations from the United States, Canada and Japan proposed that the subcommittee continue to discuss the topic of satellite constellations as a regular item on its meeting agenda. But those from China and Russia objected, saying they needed more time to study the issue. (China, like several other nations, is developing plans for a satellite megaconstellation to provide broadband Internet around the globe.)
Now, Benvenuti and his colleagues are working to see whether the entire COPUOS might take up the topic at its next meeting, which begins on 25 August. That kind of grassroots pressure from astronomers is the main pathway for nations to begin discussing the topic. “The debate will have to take place at international fora,” says Tanja Masson-Zwaan, a space-law researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
In the meantime, astronomers are working on other solutions to the problem of interference from satellite constellations. [...] Others are working to incorporate more voices into the debate over megaconstellations so that it is not dominated by Western astronomers. Many Indigenous communities have deep cultural histories entwined with the stars...
But time is tight. SpaceX is launching fresh batches of Starlinks — around 60 satellites per batch, sometimes several times a month. “People are spending years establishing relationships, but in the meantime the satellites are launching continuously...” (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: Many astronomers were caught by surprise in 2019, when the first batch of Starlink Internet satellites launched by SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, turned out to be brighter than expected in astronomical images. [...] Astronomers and representatives of several companies, including SpaceX, have settled on a brightness threshold for satellites that is slightly fainter than the human eye can see in a dark sky. Starlinks are close to that brightness threshold but do not currently meet it, says Meredith Rawls, an astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The threshold is a goal and not a requirement. Even if companies adhere to it, the satellites will be visible in telescopes. They are particularly disruptive to telescopes that survey large swathes of the sky. [...] There are no laws governing the impact of satellites on the night sky...
[...] In April, Piero Benvenuti and other astronomers were able to get the issue of satellite constellations raised during a COPUOS subcommittee meeting, when delegations from five nations signed up to an IAU-led white paper saying that the megaconstellations are a concern for astronomers and others...
[...] Delegations from the United States, Canada and Japan proposed that the subcommittee continue to discuss the topic of satellite constellations as a regular item on its meeting agenda. But those from China and Russia objected, saying they needed more time to study the issue. (China, like several other nations, is developing plans for a satellite megaconstellation to provide broadband Internet around the globe.)
Now, Benvenuti and his colleagues are working to see whether the entire COPUOS might take up the topic at its next meeting, which begins on 25 August. That kind of grassroots pressure from astronomers is the main pathway for nations to begin discussing the topic. “The debate will have to take place at international fora,” says Tanja Masson-Zwaan, a space-law researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
In the meantime, astronomers are working on other solutions to the problem of interference from satellite constellations. [...] Others are working to incorporate more voices into the debate over megaconstellations so that it is not dominated by Western astronomers. Many Indigenous communities have deep cultural histories entwined with the stars...
But time is tight. SpaceX is launching fresh batches of Starlinks — around 60 satellites per batch, sometimes several times a month. “People are spending years establishing relationships, but in the meantime the satellites are launching continuously...” (MORE - details)