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The promise of today's new communication satellite constellations is real: connect everyone on the globe, without exception. But the dark, or rather bright, side of these satellites threatens to pollute the sky with innumerable moving light points. Astronomers warn that this can be a "debilitating threat" if regulators or the industry do not care.
The International Astronomical Union, a group of more than 10,000 astronomers and researchers from around the world, issued this week a statement politely but firmly emphasizing the risks of this "new frontier of space use" , largely unregulated ".
The problem is that we went from a period when we launched a satellite every month to another where dozens of satellites could be launched each week. Starlink, OneWeb and other competing communications networks will have tens of thousands of people once deployed, far surpassing any other satellite in the sky.
It may not be a small glimpse of the corner of the eye – there may be hundreds of these satellites visible at any time from almost anywhere on the planet.
In addition, these satellites are often in relatively low orbits, making them much more visible than remote geosynchronous satellites such as GPS satellites – not to mention their brilliance, writes the IAU:
The surfaces of these satellites are often made of highly reflective metal, and the reflections of the sun in the hours after sunset and before sunrise make them appear as slowly moving points in the night sky.
Are they visible to the naked eye? It depends on many circumstances – the time of day, the position of the machine, the light pollution in your area, etc. But it is certainly possible. And astrophotographers and observatories have already noted the problem. You can see the Starlink satellite tracks in the top image, and the Xplode photographer has captured similar traces on this photo – if you look closely, you can see that there are a lot of them.
High-powered telescopes and sensitive imaging devices are even more sensitive to the problem; The team of the Great Geopolitical Telescope said that Starlink was simply a "nuisance", but acknowledged that this could be a much bigger threat to others, and called the IAU statement more representative of the global community.
Of course, there are countermeasures – timing, post-processing and other tools for shooters and researchers who do not want satellites to interfere. But this will become progressively more difficult or impossible for some surveys and exhibitions as more satellites are deployed.
The founder and CEO of SpaceX (which manages Starlink), Elon Musk, has provisionally addressed the issue online, promising that the team will look at reducing the visibility of the satellites, but that might not represent anything. Any changes made by the company would be entirely voluntary.
In addition to the visual component, satellites will emit strong radio signals to Earth, which can interfere with radio telescopes if the spectrum is not carefully partitioned. It may be an easier problem to solve, but you have to take it into account.
This is another case where the industry has long passed the regulations that bind it. There is simply no law prohibiting the sending of thousands of satellites into space – no upper limit or visibility in the sky. IAU urges the authorities in place to consider:
Satellite constellations can pose a significant or debilitating threat to important existing and future astronomical infrastructures. We invite their designers and their deployers, as well as decision makers, to collaborate with the astronomer community to analyze and understand the impact of satellite constellations. We also urge the relevant agencies to develop a regulatory framework to mitigate or eliminate negative impacts on scientific exploration as soon as possible.
At the speed at which the new regulations are adopted, there will probably be hundreds of additional satellites in orbit before anything is done, but it is important to continue nonetheless. I have also asked the American Astronomical Society to give their opinion on the subject and will update it if I have heard it.
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