This Is How Elon Musk Can Fix The Damage His Starlink Satellites Are Causing To Astronomy
Observations have been ruined; scientific satellites with the right-of-way have had to alter course. Here's a how-to guide to doing better.
www.forbes.com
In astronomy, the greatest resource of all is a dark, clear night sky: humanity's window to the Universe. Traditionally, its enemies have been turbulent air, cloud cover, and artificial light pollution. But very recently, a new type of pollutant has begun to pose an existential threat to astronomy itself: mega-constellations of satellites. If Elon Musk's Starlink project continues as it has begun, it will likely end ground-based astronomy as we know it.
Launching satellites to provide services to those of us living on the ground is an essential part of modern-day living. GPS and telecommunications satellites enable our cellular signals and support our mobile internet today. With the coming upgrade to 5G services, a new set of infrastructure will be required, and that necessarily means an upgraded set of satellites equipped to provide that service must be launched.
One of the first companies to attempt to serve this market is SpaceX, under the guidance of Elon Musk, which plans to initially deploy 12,000 satellites in a mega-constellation known as Starlink. Ultimately, the constellation hopes to extend to a total of 42,000 satellites. As of November 20, 2019, only 122 of these satellites have been deployed, and they've already had a detrimental impact on astronomy on a global scale.