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#satellites

19 posts16 participants2 posts today

"[University of Southampton professor Hugh] Lewis doesn’t fault operators like #SpaceX, which he says goes above and beyond by choosing orbits where #spacecraft are quickly pulled back into the atmosphere, maneuvering to avoid collisions with other #satellites, and deconflicting with astronomers. The fundamental issue, Lewis says, is that each new object in orbit increases risk.”

payloadspace.com/there-are-too

Payload · There Are Too Many Spacecraft in LEO"That is us academics waving a big, big red flag, to say we can't just keep doing this."

Video of nightfall taken by Christoph Malin toward the end of June near the Austrian-Swiss border. The evening twilight and early evening sky is filled with #satellites. There are fewer as night progresses though still some at this high latitude near the northern summer solstice. (Tip: view this full-screen.)

vimeo.com/1099470156/9d1c80142

Comment from Andy Lawrence (University of Edinburgh) in Science: "Astronomical interference is not as important a problem as climate change, or plastic in the sea, or the loss of biodiversity, but the root cause is the same—uncontrolled growth and displacement of the true costs. Why do we need twice as many satellites every year and a half? It's asking for trouble in so many ways."

science.org/doi/full/10.1126/s

Because the answer is never 'consume less': "Astronomical interference is not as important a problem as climate change, or plastic in the sea, or the loss of biodiversity, but the root cause is the same—uncontrolled growth and displacement of the true costs. Why do we need twice as many #satellites every year and a half? It's asking for trouble in so many ways."

science.org/doi/full/10.1126/s

My involvement in the satellite industry goes back to the early 1980s, mostly with comms satellites put into geostationary orbit. If you asked me a few years back how many satellites are in Earth orbit, I would have said about 1100. Now there are about 11000. I do worry about the number being put into huge constellations in Low Earth Orbit, with increasing opportunities for them to crash into each other—Murphy’s Law works in space, too.

wired.com/story/europe-prepare

WIRED · The EU Proposes New Rules to Govern the European Space RaceBy Fernanda González

In November 2026, A Human-Made Object Will Reach A Light-Day From Earth For First Time In History

Voyager 1 launched in 1977. When it does reach 25.9 billion kilometers (16 billion miles) from Earth, a journey which took nearly 50 years, it will finally be the distance that light can travel in a day.

#satellite #satellites #space #astronomy #Voyager1 #science #innovation

iflscience.com/in-november-202

In November 2026, A Human-Made Object Will Reach A Light-Day From Earth For First Time In History
IFLScience · In November 2026, A Human-Made Object Will Reach A Light-Day From Earth For First Time In HistoryIt took the spacecraft nearly five decades to get there. It takes light a day.

#Rocket #Scientists Hooked Up ChatGPT to the Controls of a #Spaceship, and the Results Were Not What You Might Expect

> To test how autonomous #agents could be used to maneuver #satellites and other #space-based assets, researchers created a #software design challenge called the #KerbalSpaceProgram Differential Game Challenge.

> They found that #ChatGPT, in particular, performed surprisingly well, coming in second place in the Game Challenge.

futurism.com/scientists-chatgp

Futurism · Rocket Scientists Hooked Up ChatGPT to the Controls of a Spaceship, and the Results Were Not What You Might ExpectBy Victor Tangermann
#ai#llm#llms

"''The message that I keep trying to deliver to anybody who will listen is: We need to have fewer satellites with longer operational lifetimes. Anything that you can do to make your satellites last longer and to use fewer of them—that is the engineering challenge that we are now facing, and I don’t see anyone really taking that up.'"

Featuring quotes from our members @sundogplanets and @planet4589.

smithsonianmag.com/science-nat

@JohnBarentine

One more thing the capitalists have stolen from us - the night sky:

"Brightness statistics for #satellites of the #Starlink, #BlueBird, #Qianfan, #Guowang and #OneWeb constellations are reported. Nearly all these #spacecraft exceed the magnitude 7+ brightness limit pertaining to interference with professional #research. Most also exceed the magnitude 6 reference where they distract from aesthetic appreciation of the night sky."