This New Space Race is Staying Close to Home

By Raeana Kiss, '22

On November 11, 2019, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a rocket that deployed 60 satellites into low-Earth orbit. These, along with satellites launched in May and possibly tens of thousands in the future, will create a constellation of satellites to provide an Internet service called Starlink. Musk demonstrated the functionality of this service with the earlier satellites by sending a Tweet via Starlink on October 22. SpaceX has received approval from the FCC to launch 12,000 satellites to form the Starlink constellation, but the company is still seeking approval for an additional 30,000. Although this large constellation will improve Starlink’s service in the future, it may also create problems for astronomers. Any device launched into space carries a risk of creating debris. SpaceX claims that the low-orbit position of the Starlink satellites increases the speed with which old or broken satellites will reach the atmosphere and burn up, minimizing debris. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), there are about a million pieces of debris larger than one centimeter in orbit, and there have been approximately 500 events that created debris. One of these events was avoided in September, when an ESA satellite adjusted its course to avoid colliding with a Starlink satellite from the first launch. As demonstrated by this close call, adding more objects to Earth’s orbit will require increased vigilance by all companies or agencies that operate them. The number of companies with satellites is set to increase. Satellite Internet services already exist, such as those owned by Viasat and Hughes Network Systems, which use high-orbit satellites, and SES Networks, which use medium-orbit satellites. OneWeb is the only other low-orbit satellite Internet provider that has already launched multiple satellites, while Telesat has launched a prototype, and Amazon, Facebook, Boeing, and LeoSat plan to execute similar projects. The combination of these projects will increase the number of satellites in orbit substantially from the ESA’s January report of around 2,000 satellites in operation. Even the current population of satellites presents challenges for astronomers. Telescopes use long exposures to obtain images of faint and distant objects, and any reflective material that passes in front of a telescope during its long exposure will create a bright streak across the image (see photo). This can block the telescope’s view of important objects and foil astronomers’ projects. All satellites and debris in orbit reflect light, meaning that this will become a more common problem as the number and size of satellite constellations increase in the future. Some astronomers predict that the amount of reflective material will produce light pollution in the night sky, preventing any clear imaging of distant objects from telescopes on the Earth’s surface and rendering billions of dollars of equipment useless. The lack of regulations regarding satellites means that these constellations may continue to grow unchecked in the future and present a real danger to the science of astronomy. Even the general public may find stargazing less enjoyable, knowing that so much of night sky is artificial.Sources:https://www.npr.org/2019/11/11/778219787/as-spacex-launches-dozens-of-satellites-at-a-time-some-fear-an-orbital-traffic-jhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/science/spacex-starlink-satellites.html?searchResultPosition=1https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazon-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite/http://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbershttps://www.starlink.comhttps://oneweb.worldImage: https://twitter.com/Alex_Parker/status/956629225695514625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E956629225695514625&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2019%2F5%2F29%2F18642577%2Fspacex-starlink-satellite-constellation-astronomy-light-pollution