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- SpaceX became astronomers’ biggest enemy when it began launching Starlink internet satellites.
- However, SpaceX worked with scientists to try to reduce the satellite’s brightness in telescope images.
- Some of SpaceX’s solutions work to some extent. Other giant satellite ventures like Amazon are also taking notice.
NEW ORLEANS — When SpaceX launched its first Starlink satellite, astronomers around the world were outraged and the company quickly became the villain of the sky.
“It felt like life as an astronomer and lover of the night sky would never be the same,” said astronomer James Lowenthal. new york times In 2019.
In May 2019, as bright trails of satellites raced through space and ascended to their target orbits, people standing outside could watch them whizzing overhead as they orbited the Earth, almost as if it were daylight. I could see it so clearly.
To some, it seemed to signal the end of astronomy. “When you have a lot of bright, moving objects in the sky, our job becomes very complicated,” Lowenthal told the Times.
But as SpaceX aims to blanket the Earth with high-speed broadband internet thanks to its more than 10,000 satellites, Starlink could be a game-changer for people in rural areas, including those in developing countries, who lack reliable internet. may bring.
Nevertheless, Starlink satellites (currently more than 5,000 powerful satellites) are crossing astronomers’ views of the universe and messing with their data. Even some telescopes in space are not safe. Just last year, a study found that about a third of Hubble Space Telescope images could be destroyed by satellites by 2030.
SpaceX leads the way to change
SpaceX is not alone in this endeavor. The company was just the first to launch a large number of bright spacecraft to Earth. At least a dozen companies, as well as the Chinese government, are planning to launch their own giant constellations of satellites.
Many astronomers see the budding business of Internet satellite constellations as an existential threat. But of all the companies competing to claim this new frontier, SpaceX is listening to its critics, collaborating and trying to darken some of its satellites. It calmed me down.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who has been one of Starlink’s most outspoken critics, told Business Insider at the American Astronomical Society conference in New Orleans.
McDowell and other astronomers were meeting with representatives of the satellite industry to discuss efforts to darken the skies and keep radio waves quiet.
Current SpaceX officials did not participate in the session. Still, Starlink’s experimental solution dominated the conversation. That’s probably because Starlink is the only company attempting the fix suggested by astronomers.
“For me, the focus is not just on calling for alarm, but on the path to coexistence,” said Patricia Cooper, former SpaceX vice president of satellite government and satellite industry consultant, at Gathered Astronomy. I told the people. “Unsurprisingly, after four and a half years, the problem has not been resolved.”
SpaceX tried black paint, sun visors, and now a ‘mirror film’
SpaceX threw handfuls of spaghetti at the wall to dim the satellite’s glow, but some of the objects got stuck.
In 2020, about six months after the first bright Starlink trail glided across the sky, SpaceX tackled the problem in earnest for the first time by effectively painting a number of its satellites black.
That was helpful. The satellite’s brightness was reduced, but it was still too bright.
Later that year, SpaceX experimented with using sun visors to prevent sunlight from hitting the underside of the satellite, allowing it to reflect back to Earth and make it appear brighter.
It worked. The brightness of the satellite with a visor was about one-third that of a satellite launched without a visor. But they were still bright enough to confuse astronomers’ data. Visors were standard equipment on many Starlink satellites until SpaceX added laser communications. The visor blocked the laser, so they had to go.
SpaceX is currently considering a “mirror film” that could further reduce the brightness of the next Starlink. generation. But these satellites are much larger than older satellites, “so that kind of offsets them,” McDowell said.
“I don’t think there are all villains here, and I don’t think there are all heroes here,” he added.
SpaceX developed the solution through meetings with astronomers, including a world-first meeting on satellite brightness. In 2022, the International Astronomical Union officially formalized this ongoing collaboration as the Center for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS for short).
SpaceX has even adopted an operational tweak suggested by astronomers, directing its solar panels away from the sun as the satellite crosses the line between day and night. At that time, they appear on the horizon and are most harmful to telescopes on Earth. Reducing the amount of sunlight the solar panels receive at the moment is beneficial for astronomers, but it also means less energy for the satellite.
“This is a substantial mitigation measure that they have taken,” McDowell said. “They’re actually taking a financial hit from that, so we appreciate that.”
“Whether other companies will do that remains to be seen,” he added.
Amazon and other companies could follow SpaceX
Amazon and a small Earth imaging company called Planet Labs are both following SpaceX’s lead.
Chris Hofer, international team leader for Amazon’s Internet Satellite Project Kuiper, told astronomers in New Orleans that improvements to SpaceX’s Starlink are helping.
Since joining CPS, Hofer said Amazon has improved its solar panels and started looking into sunshades.
Hofer and Christina Barkme of Earth imaging satellite company Planet said they will be watching SpaceX’s new mirror film tests with interest.
“These innovations are going to help us,” Barkume told Business Insider.
A few companies seem to be paying lip service and spending money to the bright satellite problem, but the problem is unlikely to go away.
In the coming years, we may see tens of thousands of satellites swarming into Earth’s orbit. Regardless of how bright or not, it will almost certainly interfere with astronomy. Scientists will have to find a way to peek through the cracks between the satellites, no matter how small or fleeting the window to the universe.
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