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

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

#181

Post by toss1 »

ggreer wrote: post #92
upofadown wrote: post #55

>SpaceX plans to send one million more satellites into orbit, for space-based data centres, ... I think we should wait to see how the first satellite data centre works out. It seems fairly unlikely that it could be practical. It seems kind of nuts... >Reflect Orbital, a US start-up, aims to launch a constellation of very large mirror-like satellites to provide sunlight at night, with reflected beams that span at leas…

I can think of several practical uses. It would be very useful immediately after a disaster. Lighting up the night would make search & rescue much more effective. It would also allow for more solar power generation in an area, reducing pollution. Extra light at high latitudes in the winter would reduce seasonal depression. Are they worth the cost/tradeoffs? I don’t know. But there is practical value to lighting up th…

>>Are they worth the cost/tradeoffs?

Hell NO!!

Ubiquitous on-the-ground lighting is already disrupting plant, animal, and insect life cycles.

Adding a blanketing sun reflector illuminating five-plus square kilometers at a time will obliterate critical signals to everything living there, and won't do any good for the humans.

And nevrermind the astronomy.

It is an abomination and nothing but a scheme by amoral people to separate other fools from their money.

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

#182

Post by roughly »

ben_w wrote: post #174
roughly wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pre-Green revolution humanity probably couldn’t make a utopia. Post-Green revolution humanity hasn’t pulled it off either.

Not entirely, but we have entirely eliminated at least one disease that was once so common there was a specific goddess to whom you prayed if you wanted to be cured of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitala

What is your story for how smallpox was eliminated?

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

#183

Post by tomhow »

SidewaysView wrote: post #113
piloto_ciego wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a literal leftist by any reasonable metric, the recent trend towards “I wish it was 1995” and “AI is the worst” and “tech sucks now” from people I agree with on many other points frustrates me to no end. “You guys know we could basically live in a Star Trek style utopia if we get this right, right?” “The DATA cenTERS are STEALING the water and breaking Taleckshual ProPerty LERRS!” Like, I thought we were for pirac…

[flagged]

We've banned this account.

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

#184

Post by ben_w »

roughly wrote: post #182
ben_w wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not entirely, but we have entirely eliminated at least one disease that was once so common there was a specific goddess to whom you prayed if you wanted to be cured of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitala

What is your story for how smallpox was eliminated?

How, or when?

How is a lot of things, including the rich paying for it to be eliminated even in the poor nations who had no strong government to do this themselves.

When is where: https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/many-people-alive-t...

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

#185

Post by nyankosensei »

upofadown wrote: post #55

>SpaceX plans to send one million more satellites into orbit, for space-based data centres, ... I think we should wait to see how the first satellite data centre works out. It seems fairly unlikely that it could be practical. It seems kind of nuts... >Reflect Orbital, a US start-up, aims to launch a constellation of very large mirror-like satellites to provide sunlight at night, with reflected beams that span at leas…

There are many feasibility and safety issues associated with the Reflect Orbital plan. It doesn’t make as much sense as you might think. For instance, the satellites can only illuminate areas a relatively short time after local sunset. The Sun reflection could potentially damage an amateur astronomer’s eye if one of the satellites crosses their telescope’s field of view: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/true-cost-solar-powe...

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

#186

Post by croes »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #49
croes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> They hinder the view on asteroids coming our way Source?

> These proposals, combined with others considered in the study, would dramatically brighten the night sky, hindering humankind’s ability to observe faint cosmic targets, including far-away galaxies, some Earth-like planets around other stars, and even asteroids potentially dangerous to Earth.

The article

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

#187

Post by croes »

Legend2440 wrote: post #121
croes wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dinosaur killers? Yes. City killers? That size hits more often > Asteroids with a diameter more than 30–50 metres (100–150ft) are large enough to make it through our atmosphere intact, however, and the chance of this happening is estimated to be around once in every 100 years. > The damage from an impact of this size would be wide-ranging, and could wipe out an entire city if they were to impact a heavily populated a…

We lack the technology to detect this size of asteroid with enough time to do anything about it. Luckily, the majority of the earth's surface is unpopulated. Most of these rocks hit the ocean or Siberia and cause few or no casualties. The odds of it hitting a major city are quite low.

That’s why luck is a big factor and amateur astronomers are a great help in spotting them by chance

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

#188

Post by croes »

monocasa wrote: post #57
croes wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is we? Certainly not amateur astronomers who made important discoveries with their telescopes

If the cost to orbit does get low enough as is the assumption in this article, I would be shocked if we didn't start to see amateur space based telescopes.

With free access or only affordable for rich county citizens?

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

#189

Post by croes »

verdverm wrote: post #93
monocasa wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the cost to orbit does get low enough as is the assumption in this article, I would be shocked if we didn't start to see amateur space based telescopes.

Or services where you can buy some photos, like we have for the telescopes pointed at earth

Great, a fee to look at the sky

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

#190

Post by robocat »

ben_w wrote: post #174
roughly wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pre-Green revolution humanity probably couldn’t make a utopia. Post-Green revolution humanity hasn’t pulled it off either.

Not entirely, but we have entirely eliminated at least one disease that was once so common there was a specific goddess to whom you prayed if you wanted to be cured of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitala

We've also done pretty well at reducing deficiency diseases. How common in wealthy countries is it to know someone with scurvy, pellagra, rickets, goitre, or beriberi. Common words from the past.

First world problems (many of which were previously uncommon) are quite different.

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