“Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky • Hacker News Board

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#21

Post by isatty » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #13

These kinds of caps have for years been a dampener on human flourishing. My observation has been that those in stagnation or decline tend to attach themselves to these desires to hold the status quo. Anti-energy, anti-housing, anti-industry and so on because they've reached a local maxima in their ability to live and have chosen to spend their life in leisure. But there is the rest of the world, and if I'm told that…

Well, if you build too many satellites in the swarms, at some point you will lose the ability to see or go to the stars.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#22

Post by Legend2440 » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

edelbitter wrote: post #17

xadhominemx wrote: post #5

I am a science and astronomy fan, but I am sorry, in this case progress is more important. If we regret our decision, the LEOs will fall out of the sky by themselves in a few years and it will be ok.

Some scientific endeavors can be paused and maybe later relaunched, if funding has not dried up and temporarily-worthless machinery has not been left to rot. But stuff like mitigating the constant threat of big enough objects showing up on a collision course with earth should not be paused until those eye-catchers fall out of the sky. If there is something coming at us that can wipe out more than the stock price of o…

>the constant threat of big enough objects showing up on a collision course with earth

I don't really think this is a serious risk. This is a once-in-a-million-years kind of event.

Also, asteroid detection is not seriously affected by satellites. We can easily tell the difference between a moving satellite and a moving asteroid because of their speed.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#23

Post by gordonhart » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #13

These kinds of caps have for years been a dampener on human flourishing. My observation has been that those in stagnation or decline tend to attach themselves to these desires to hold the status quo. Anti-energy, anti-housing, anti-industry and so on because they've reached a local maxima in their ability to live and have chosen to spend their life in leisure. But there is the rest of the world, and if I'm told that…

In related news, earlier this year Chile cancelled plans for a gigawatt-scale solar/wind powered hydrogen production plant nearby the ESO facility in the Atacama desert after light pollution complaints from European scientists.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#24

Post by sylos » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

SubiculumCode wrote: post #9

michelb wrote: post #2

Worrying for sure. But I doubt the current USA, along with Israel and Russia are going to be bothered about this. Everyone is launching satellites and other gear into orbit for war.

Or defense.

Defense is just a polite term for war.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#25

Post by umpalumpaaa » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #13

These kinds of caps have for years been a dampener on human flourishing. My observation has been that those in stagnation or decline tend to attach themselves to these desires to hold the status quo. Anti-energy, anti-housing, anti-industry and so on because they've reached a local maxima in their ability to live and have chosen to spend their life in leisure. But there is the rest of the world, and if I'm told that…

And swarms

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#26

Post by SilverElfin » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

It’s a public space. No one should be able to just take it over for free. We aren’t being compensated for the pollution of our skies. And also, higher orbits require much longer for debris to fall back and burn up.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#27

Post by tiahura » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

99.99% of the world would rather watch a train of Starlink satellites than some star they couldn't see anyway. Not to mention the satellites' other benefits.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#28

Post by snovv_crash » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #13

These kinds of caps have for years been a dampener on human flourishing. My observation has been that those in stagnation or decline tend to attach themselves to these desires to hold the status quo. Anti-energy, anti-housing, anti-industry and so on because they've reached a local maxima in their ability to live and have chosen to spend their life in leisure. But there is the rest of the world, and if I'm told that…

Maybe a fair allocation of sattelites would be proportional to the number of citizens with voting rights in the country. Maybe with some modifier about how impactful that voting can actually be (eg. citizen initiatives vs. just electing representatives from a preselected pool).

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#29

Post by Legend2440 » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:39 PM UTC

croes wrote: post #20

Legend2440 wrote: post #8

This is a tradeoff we have to make with infrastructure and development in general. How do you balance human needs with pristine nature? Do we put up long-distance power lines and wind farms even though they ruin the views? Do you tear down a forest to put up farmlands and suburbs? Do you build a dam to provide water for irrigation, even though it kills the fish and floods a valley? Satellites are actually easier than…

They hinder the view on asteroids coming our way. The purpose of most of these satellites is internet access where we already have less limited possibilities with less maintenance costs like constant replacement

No they don't. It's more of an issue for long-exposure galaxies and nebula.

And asteroids are an extremely rare threat in the first place. It's literally a once-in-a-million-years kind of event.

Re: “Beyond the limit”: Satellites and mirrors in space pose threat to the night sky

#30

Post by gordonhart » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

michelb wrote: post #2

Worrying for sure. But I doubt the current USA, along with Israel and Russia are going to be bothered about this. Everyone is launching satellites and other gear into orbit for war.

Interesting that your list omits China considering they have firm plans to launch ~41k satellites for government/commercial constellations plus ITU filings for >200k proposed satellites.