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It’s not that hard to get in contact. If you cared you could LinkedIn message a SpaceX employee. Tweet at Elon Musk. Connected with nyt or other media who’d love to run such a story. ...etc
They also list contact info on their webpage. https://www.spacex.com/about
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Yes, I’m an astronomer and I can tell you this SpaceX statement is pure BS. The astronomy community absolutely thought of this before any of these satellites were launched. I’ve personally talked about it at public outreach events (and it was members of the public who brought it up) and topic has definitely come up at professional meetings...but there is just a general feeling of powerlessness, both from the point of…
It's very unlikely that SpaceX, who has to be concerned about space debris every time they launch, didn't think about the collision risk while they were designing their satellite system. In fact they petitioned the FCC(?) to lower the constellation's altitude for the very reason that, in the case of a malfunction, the satellite's would orbit would degrade more quickly. A carefully tracked constellation of satellites…
“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 timela…
Yeah even the wikipedia page mentions the astronomers' concerns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellat... btw the amount of satellites is staggering and this is just a tiny batch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRz3988El7Q&t=116s (Warning: hilarious commenter)
Note, this section was added June 03 2019.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Starlink_(satelli...
“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 timela…
Software should be able to account for this. If photoshop can remove people from photos, why can't astronomy software remove satellites? Orbit is already pretty cluttered and we can't remove much that gets stuck up there already.
> “No one thought of this,” she said. “We didn’t think of it. The astronomy community didn’t think of it.” This implies the community was asked or involved in such a discussion and no objections were raised, which is unlikely. Whenever some "armchair specialist" commented about Musk's plans to put people on Mars and the challenges with the radiation, the magnetic field, the etc. the answer was always "Do you think a…
Yeah, that's why Musk always asks people to come to him if they have a better idea. Even in large groups, or maybe especially in large groups, things can be overlooked. He recently said in a video that if anyone can convince him an aerospike is better than their solution, he wants to know.
I think that’s more just PR and he’s not honestly seeking feedback.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I’m an astronomer and I can tell you this SpaceX statement is pure BS. The astronomy community absolutely thought of this before any of these satellites were launched. I’ve personally talked about it at public outreach events (and it was members of the public who brought it up) and topic has definitely come up at professional meetings...but there is just a general feeling of powerlessness, both from the point of…
It's very unlikely that SpaceX, who has to be concerned about space debris every time they launch, didn't think about the collision risk while they were designing their satellite system. In fact they petitioned the FCC(?) to lower the constellation's altitude for the very reason that, in the case of a malfunction, the satellite's would orbit would degrade more quickly. A carefully tracked constellation of satellites…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah even the wikipedia page mentions the astronomers' concerns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellat... btw the amount of satellites is staggering and this is just a tiny batch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRz3988El7Q&t=116s (Warning: hilarious commenter)
> even the wikipedia page mentions the astronomers' concerns Note, this section was added June 03 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Starlink_(satelli...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very unlikely that SpaceX, who has to be concerned about space debris every time they launch, didn't think about the collision risk while they were designing their satellite system. In fact they petitioned the FCC(?) to lower the constellation's altitude for the very reason that, in the case of a malfunction, the satellite's would orbit would degrade more quickly. A carefully tracked constellation of satellites…
I think they lowered the orbit because Starlink latency was/is not competitive.
Also do not forget that SpaceX is not the only company that wants to launch low orbit satelites. I do not think it is possible to find any other real solution other then to move telescopes to space.
> I do not think it is possible to find any other real solution The solution is not to fill up our precious LEO with space trash. If you want faster Internet lay some fiber. It's probably even less expensive to lay some fiber across the whole jungle than Musks megalomaniac fantasies. As hobby radio astronomer this whole story fills me with rage.
Solutions like LEO satellites and 5G wireless internet allow broadband access to be more quickly expanded to places where it's not feasible or profitable for companies to lay hundreds of miles of cables to each individual home.
If you frame your comment as "My astronomy hobby is more important than internet access to all", it doesn't sound as great.