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WASHINGTON – Despite complaints by astronomers and astronomical organizations, legal experts have said they can not do anything under existing federal legislation and regulations to stop the deployment of SpaceX's Starlink satellites.
On May 23, SpaceX launched the first series of 60 Starlink satellites. The following evening, amateur astronomers noticed that they were passing in a very crowded train, bright enough to be easily seen at the naked eye. The satellites then extended into the sky and increased their altitude, becoming more difficult to see but sometimes reaching higher magnitudes.
The initial appearance alarmed many professional astronomers, who are worried that the entire Starlink – SpaceX constellation, which holds licenses from the Federal Communications Commission for about 12,000 satellites – could interfere with ground astronomy. In some scenarios, hundreds of satellites could be visible in the sky at any time, making it more likely to cross the field of view of a telescope and disrupt observation.
"The rapid increase in the number of satellite groups poses an emerging threat to the natural night-time environment and our dark skies legacy," said the International Dark-Sky Association, a group dedicated primarily to the fight against May 29
The statement also included an anecdote from James Lowenthal, a professor of astronomy at Smith College, who observed the first Starlink train during a student outing. Seeing the satellites, he said, was a "shocking and devastating spectacle".
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization better known for overseeing the nomenclature of celestial bodies, has also taken its place, underlining the risk that satellite constellations such as Starlink will interfere with optical and radio astronomy .
"Satellite constellations can pose a significant or disabling threat to important existing and future astronomical infrastructures, and we urge their designers and deployers, as well as policy makers, to work with the astronomer community in a concerted effort to analyze and understand the impact of satellite constellations. ", Said the IAU in a statement of 3 June. "We also urge the relevant agencies to develop a regulatory framework that will mitigate or eliminate the negative impacts on scientific exploration as soon as possible."
In the United States, there are currently no regulations regarding the appearance of satellites in the night sky, other than a federal law prohibiting "intrusive advertising in space", defined as "an advertisement in Outer space likely to be recognized by a human being on the surface of the Earth without the aid of a telescope or other technological device. "According to one legal expert, the simple fact of being able to see a satellite from the ground does not constitute an intrusive advertisement in space.
Starlink satellites are licensed by the FCC and their Falcon 9 rocket launches are licensed from the Federal Aviation Administration. None of these licensing processes explicitly take into account the impact of satellites on the night sky.
Michael Listner of Space Law and Policy Solutions said in an interview on June 3 that the only legal remedy for astronomers would be to file a complaint in federal court, including seeking a temporary injunction to block future launches. He was however skeptical about the success of such a case, because the damage done to astronomers by constellations such as Starlink are only "speculative" at the present time.
Others noted that astronomers had missed opportunities to comment earlier, such as when the FCC was considering SpaceX's original application for the Starlink constellation or its more recent amendment to obtain authorization to operate certain satellites at a higher rate. lower altitude. The public folder for this application, found on the FCC website, consists primarily of letters and petitions from other satellite operators who are concerned about radio interference.
The only comment from astronomers was made by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which filed a letter in February 2018 stating that the efforts of SpaceX and NRAO to coordinate the use of frequencies "remained without issue »mid-2017.
NRAO, in a May 31 statement, said that it and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia were working with SpaceX on radio frequency interference issues. "These discussions have been fruitful and provide valuable guidelines that could also be considered by other systems of this type," NRAO said. "To date, SpaceX has demonstrated its respect for our concerns and support for astronomy."
SpaceX officials said they were aware of astronomers' concerns about the effects that Starlink satellites could have on their observations. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of the company, said in a tweet of May 27 that he had asked engineers to study the "albedo reduction" of future Starlink satellites this would make them reflect less sun and thus look paler.
"If we have to change the orientation of the satellite to minimize solar reflection during critical astronomical experiments, it's easy," he said in another tweet. He did not define what would be considered a "critical" observation.
Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said at a symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that the company was still trying to understand what made satellites look brilliant while "seeking ways to reduce the severity", according to a participant.
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