SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
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Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#2My first thought was that they should paint them with Vantablack, but then I wondered if that might be too dark?
Do they need to aim for a specific reflectivity or just aim for the lowest possible value?
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#3>“No one thought of this,” she said. “We didn’t think of it. The astronomy community didn’t think of it.”
That is absolutely ridiculous. The Iridium satellites were decommissioned recently and it was a big deal because, for the longest time, you had to check for "iridium flares" if you were using any type of sensitive equipment. Basically, the entire class of iridium satellites was highly reflective and they tended to create shooting star type phenomena, sometimes really really bright, bright enough to be seen during the daytime!
Maybe she didn't think of it, but to say the astronomy comunity didn't think of it is just blatantly absurd on its face.
On another note, I miss spotting iridium flares and I'm looking forward to a new class of satellites being added into my weekly observations.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#4Not a valid solution but I thought maybe SpaceX could launch a bunch of telescope satellites that could be used by hobbyists.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#5It will be interesting how they solve it without causing thermal issues. Just absorbing all light won't work, the energy has to go somewhere and the only viable way to loose it is through radiation (not much air around even in these low orbits). Maybe the satellites will be black on the earth-facing side and radiate heat on the other side?
My impression from the article is that they launch one coated satellite just to see if the coating helps at all, and how bad the thermal issues get, so SpaceX is still in the early stages of solving this. But if they keep up with launching 60 satellites every 2-3 weeks for the next months they have to make progress fast.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#6“No one thought of this,” she said. “We didn’t think of it. The astronomy community didn’t think of it.”
I really have trouble believing that nobody mentioned adding thousands of satellites would go unnoticed. It is damn near impossible to take any image of the night sky without having a satellite streak through the frame. I have plenty of images with multiple satellites visible at the same time. In wide angle timelapse sequences, they are just small dots that move against the natural movement of the stars. In longer lenses/telescopes, they appear as long straight lines totally ruining the image.
The first time I heard about thousands more of lower altitude satellites, my first thought was about this very thing. We had already had the discussions from the giant disco ball that was launched. It was planned to be short lived, but it caused quite the stir. Saying people at SpaceX didn't think about it is one thing, but to claim nobody in the astronomy community didn't is hard to take. Maybe they didn't have any way to voice those thoughts in a way that SpaceX could hear.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#7Not a valid solution but I thought maybe SpaceX could launch a bunch of telescope satellites that could be used by hobbyists.
SpaceX directly profits from space enthusiasm, and having their in-house satellite team design such satellites (during downtime, as practice or testbed, etc) and launch them using unused capacity on existing launches would be way cheaper than anything NASA could do. It's not as absurd as it seems at first glance. Not a good replacement for a proper solution, but a nice idea for something they could do in any case.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#8>“No one thought of this,” she said. “We didn’t think of it. The astronomy community didn’t think of it.” That is absolutely ridiculous. The Iridium satellites were decommissioned recently and it was a big deal because, for the longest time, you had to check for "iridium flares" if you were using any type of sensitive equipment. Basically, the entire class of iridium satellites was highly reflective and they tended t…
They announced their plans years ago. The astronomy community could have raised concerns then. The fact that they didn't would indicate nobody connected the dots.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#9My first thought was that they should paint them with Vantablack, but then I wondered if that might be too dark? Do they need to aim for a specific reflectivity or just aim for the lowest possible value?
I think the lowest possible reflectivity is desirable. Space isn't perfectly black but very close to it. Any reflectivity means you sometimes reflect something very bright like the sun and sometimes nothing, so you have the wrong brightness no matter what you do. Black dots are at least fairly unambiguous.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#10My first thought was that they should paint them with Vantablack, but then I wondered if that might be too dark? Do they need to aim for a specific reflectivity or just aim for the lowest possible value?
I was thinking about this also but wonder if it would collect too much heat while in direct sun light.