How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
leonarddavid.com
How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
1–10 of 197 posts
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#2I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things?
How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town?
To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought.
Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest billions in a satellite program?
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#3On the one hand the constellations are doing considerable damage to surface based astronomy. On the other hand they are funding an enormously lower cost of access to orbit and beyond for astronomy up in the sky.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#4I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
> How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town?
Very hard, especially when the towns are much more dispersed than a km apart.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#5[flagged]
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#6I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
> How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town?
If it's not hard, why hasn't it happened already?
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#7From the paper:
>> Astronomy is also engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, a classic example of a program that might proceed for many years with little or nothing of interest to report, but that might someday provide one of the most profound discoveries in human history
That is all well and good. Most HN readers are probably well aware of that project. But if you want to alter policy at a national or international level, don't talk about extraterrestrial intelligence. It stirs the hornets next of faith, politics and cultural conflict. It opens the door to ridicule. Talk about the search for life, the search for a second life-supporting world. And maybe some of that life runs a radio station. Just avoid mentioning ET by name.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#8[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#9Is this a bit of a temporary problem, in the the very technology causing the issue - substantially cheaper access to space - will presumable ultimately put a frikkin massive telescope, or many massive telescopes into orbit where they’ll also not have to deal with the many other issues ground telescopes have to deal with.
I get that this still sucks for any individual with a Telescope though.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#10On the one hand the constellations are doing considerable damage to surface based astronomy. On the other hand they are funding an enormously lower cost of access to orbit and beyond for astronomy up in the sky.
Yes, the future of astronomy is in space.
If the satellites don't disrupt it, light pollution will anyway, or best case, it will be disrupted by atmospheric pollution.
There's no lack of clear skies in space.