We want to make sure we do the right thing to make sure little kids can look through their telescope
Before the end of next year, there is going to be 12,000 of these units above our Earth. One must certainly hope.
SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
121–130 of 276 posts
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is often considered, but the light is absorbed and turns into heat. Where does that heat go? It would fry the electronics with no way to get rid of it.
You could use some mechanisms to convert and dissipate the heat, though that doesn't come for free. Though the atmospheric pressure at that altitude is pretty low, you might be able to rig up some sort of peltier cooler setup to dissipate heat. Alternately if you can convert enough of the heat to electricity some other way, you could convert the heat back to light using LEDs or something and only turn on the ones fac…
Peltier coolers won't do anything but draw power and create more heat you have to dissipate, they're not magic you have to remove the heat from the hot side too which means you need radiators for them too plus more than you'd need originally because peltier coolers are quite inefficient.
Same thing with the LED idea converting that heat into electricity requires some heat differential which requires... a radiator.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#123Earlier 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…
>charlatan like Musk I'm not a fanboy by any means but the guy built two companies and launched a car from his factory into space from a rocket his other business built. He's personally spearheading the early stages of commercial space exploration. I don't know that I'd describe him as a charlatan.
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Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#124Isn't it obvious that this will happen? It's like taking a picture of nature and having airplane evidence in it, or take a picture of a city or even countryside and there are cars in it. I'm sure the same was said about cars and planes. It will be weird and things will drastically change - but so have things the last 2000+ years.
You can easily get yourself between cars and whatever natural thing you're trying to observe on the rare cases that what you're trying to study is anywhere near cars. The only way to do the same for Starlink is to launch multi-million dollar+ space telescope.
But in that case you have to travel to a remote location (most likely using a car or plane ironically).
Hence, is it so far fetched that if you want to explore space in future you will do it from a different vantage point? Like via a satellite, or maybe in 50 years you go to a space station or the moon directly to do so.
With tech it has always been this way- it's nothing new.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't just about astrophotography, this has to do with real science too. Remember, most science work is already on a tight budget and now they will have to waste some of that budget sorting through the added visual clutter.
It's like with nature on earth, tech pollutes things. It's not really anything new.
its literally a new additional problem which is why its being discussed
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
First it doesn't depend on Musk's good will at all. It depends on companies making profit by selling space launches. Second "the near-entire future of astronomical observation" is a gross exaggeration, the satellites only add a bit of inconvenience, which is a much smaller issue, than existing issues like light pollution from the cities. The benefits of starlink, and the slight inconvenience for astronomers are simpl…
There are a tiny handful of space based satellites, its far more than only a "bit" of inconvenience.
I mean it is a small inconvenience for telescopes on earth, and not that "it is a small inconvenience in general because there are space telescopes".
Genuine question: is your opinion about these satellites based on working in some related field, or simply on dislike of greedy capitalists? I have a phd in physics and have friends who work as astronomers, with whom i've talked about this. Of course there is always a chance that we misunderstand everything, but i have never seen any plausible arguments for why are some people considering starlink to be the end of world for astronomy, and i don't understand why are there so many people on hn defending "poor astronomers" from "The Evil Corporation".
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
You broke the site guidelines badly with this flamebait and generic tangent, which predictably started a wretched flamewar. Then you perpetuated it. You do a lot of good for HN with your interesting submissions, but you've also been vandalizing HN with destructive comments for years. We've asked you not to do this many times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18887148…
How is this comment flamebait? First time that I have really thought you missed the boat. Please don't censor people just because they criticize HN or the community.
"The idea that private companies can just do whatever" distorted the other comment into something ideologically inflammatory (which the site guidelines explicitly ask not to do), and took the thread on a generic ideological tangent. Those routinely turn into flamewars. Posting something that predictably induces a flamewar is flamebait.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is often considered, but the light is absorbed and turns into heat. Where does that heat go? It would fry the electronics with no way to get rid of it.
You could use some mechanisms to convert and dissipate the heat, though that doesn't come for free. Though the atmospheric pressure at that altitude is pretty low, you might be able to rig up some sort of peltier cooler setup to dissipate heat. Alternately if you can convert enough of the heat to electricity some other way, you could convert the heat back to light using LEDs or something and only turn on the ones fac…
> Alternately if you can convert enough of the heat to electricity some other way
Thermodynamics says "lolnope", I'm afraid. You need a temperature differential to convert heat to power.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#129My 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?
reflectivity/aborbtion is more than a percentage value. it's also a hemispherical distribution. if you glued retroreflectors to the surface most of the light would go back in the direction of the sun and thus never hit the surface. Those are probably too costly or bulk for satellites. If specular reflections are the problem they might just apply a more diffuse coating.
Re: SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
I would expect this to work as well as contacting Google when you have a problem with their service.