If You Could See Every Satellite

[44'cruisingcat]

Pretty interesting:

https://youtu.be/dJNGi-bt9NM

[Dave_S]

No wonder the aliens don't stop by.

[john61ct]

very cool with a nice big tablet

[boatman61]

Ahh.. The famous Garbage Patch..

[GordMay]

Astronomers are warning that their view of the Universe could be under threat.
There are currently just 2,200 active satellites flying around the Earth.
But as of next week, the Starlink constellation (SpaceX) will start sending batches of 60 satellites into orbit every few weeks. This will mean about 1,500 satellites have been launched by the end of next year, and by the mid-2020s there could be a fleet of 12,000. (They'd like to have 30,000 to 40,000 eventually)
UK company OneWeb are aiming for about 650 satellites - but this could rise to 2,000 if there is enough customer demand.
While Amazon have a constellation of 3,200 spacecraft planned.
The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the night sky, released a statement: "The number of low Earth orbit satellites planned to launch in the next half-decade has the potential to fundamentally shift the nature of our experience of the night sky. IDA is concerned about the impacts of further development and regulatory launch approval of these satellites."
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and the National Radio Astronomy Association (NRAO), also weighed in with statements, of their own.

IDA ➥ https://www.darksky.org/starlink-response/
IAU ➥ https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann19035/
AAS ➥ https://aas.org/press/aas-issues-pos...constellations
NRAO ➥ https://public.nrao.edu/news/nrao-statement-commsats/

Live Map of Satellite Positions ➥ https://in-the-sky.org/satmap_worldmap.php

[Dave_S]

Who gives permission on our behalf to send up all these satellites and cars and cheese burgers ?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Who gives permission on our behalf to send up all these satellites and cars and cheese burgers ?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the U.S. government agency that regulates all satellite launches (& frequency allocations) by American companies, whether they occur on U.S. soil or elsewhere.

[jimbunyard]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Who gives permission on our behalf to send up all these satellites and cars and cheese burgers ?

The new god, money (to save the feelings of those worshippers of 'capitalism' [whether it be of the (un)democratic, communist or socialist variety]).

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Astronomers are warning that their view of the Universe could be under threat.
There are currently just 2,200 active satellites flying around the Earth.
But as of next week, the Starlink constellation (SpaceX) will start sending batches of 60 satellites into orbit every few weeks. This will mean about 1,500 satellites have been launched by the end of next year, and by the mid-2020s there could be a fleet of 12,000. (They'd like to have 30,000 to 40,000 eventually)
UK company OneWeb are aiming for about 650 satellites - but this could rise to 2,000 if there is enough customer demand.
While Amazon have a constellation of 3,200 spacecraft planned.
The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the night sky, released a statement: "The number of low Earth orbit satellites planned to launch in the next half-decade has the potential to fundamentally shift the nature of our experience of the night sky. IDA is concerned about the impacts of further development and regulatory launch approval of these satellites."
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and the National Radio Astronomy Association (NRAO), also weighed in with statements, of their own.

IDA ➥ https://www.darksky.org/starlink-response/
IAU ➥ https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann19035/
AAS ➥ https://aas.org/press/aas-issues-pos...constellations
NRAO ➥ https://public.nrao.edu/news/nrao-statement-commsats/

Live Map of Satellite Positions ➥ https://in-the-sky.org/satmap_worldmap.php

I was talking about this in the thread where everyone was so hyped about Starlink and nobody at all even cared.

Saddened and dismayed by humanity allowing the complete destruction of our night sky just to get online in the middle of nowhere.

This will set astronomy back. This will set space travel back (with a shell of junk between us and space) and this will set humanity's sense of its place in the universe back.

It's an utter travesty. We need a different wealthy person to gather these up and dispose of them with a space garbage truck.

[belizesailor]

Stellerium, an astronomy app, has an option to show sattelites. It shows the name of each satellite so you can ID what you see.

In addition to active sattelites there are millions of pieces of space junk which NASA and other agencies track.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/libr...s/space_debris

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

... In addition to active sattelites there are millions of pieces of space junk which NASA and other agencies track.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/libr...s/space_debris

In 2018 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied Swarm Technologies to launch their satellites, because they are too small to track.
In October, 2019, the FCC gave Swarm Technologies approval to launch 150 satellites.
The company’s SpaceBEE satellites are tiny things, that will provide a connection to devices that might otherwise be a pain to get online. Think soil monitors in the middle of corn fields, or buoys in the middle of the ocean. Their signals don’t need low latency or high bandwidth; so the requirements for a satellite that serves them are much lower than for consumer broadband.
Consequently, Swarm’s satellites are small. So small, in fact, that the FCC was worried that they would be difficult to track, and might be a danger to other satellites. Part of the company’s responsibility, in its application, was to show that isn’t the case.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the U.S. government agency that regulates all satellite launches (& frequency allocations) by American companies, whether they occur on U.S. soil or elsewhere.

It's interesting that any government department can be set up and feel they have those rights. Where's my say or in lieu of, where's my cut ?

[jimbunyard]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

It's interesting that any government department can be set up and feel they have those rights. Where's my say or in lieu of, where's my cut ?

Don't y'all have voting in Australia?

[Pegu Club]

We humans make a mess of everything when money power and greed runs rampant, it used to be called crapping in your own nest...

Fair winds,

[transmitterdan]

I believe SpaceX has done some things to limit the visual clutter of their satellite swarm. And don’t forget that space telescopes can see further without the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere. We will be able to see lots of new galaxies when the Webb telescope finally flies. And remember that the visual range of frequencies is tiny compare with the entire electromagnetic spectrum that telescopes like the VLA, Green Bank, Arecibo and ALMA can “see”. They are not impeded by satellites.

We recently “imaged” a black hole which is something previously though impossible.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/20...-a-black-hole/

The study of the universe is not going to decrease overall. So don’t despair at all the whining you hear. Yes, some things will be worse but many more things will be better.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Explorat...pace_Telescope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array