Star link and the damage to the night sky?

[hawksquawks]

Looking to get opinions on Star Link and the damage it's doing.  

[knobby]

Disgrace, absolute disgrace. Can't believe he's been allowed to do it 😣

[tingting44]

its a strange thing space, no one own it, no one owns earth so its hard to police matters like this, i guess who ever has the money can do what they like up there, i heard isis are trying to be the 1st to land on mars?

[Tomjo59]

Looks like SpaceX might have got the message:

 

https://astronomynow.com/2020/05/05/spacex-to-debut-satellite-dimming-sunshade-on-next-starlink-launch/

 

Not much they can do about those already launched, of course...

[lukebl]

Something which baffles me is that Starlink received 'permission' to launch all these things from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

What on earth gives them the right to grant such permissions which have a global impact, what are the criteria and how accountable are they? Seems a bit like me asking my District Council for permission to search for oil in the Antarctic.

Edited May 14, 2020 by lukebl

[MarkAR]

So now we get thousands of black blobs floating across our images.

 

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, lukebl said:

Something which baffles me is that Starlink received 'permission' to launch all these things from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

What on earth gives them the right to grant such permissions which have a global impact, what are the criteria and how accountable are they? Seems a bit like me asking my District Council for permission to search for oil in the Antarctic.

Sadly I imagine that in the end it comes down to "Who can stop them?"  It's "America First" now, as we all know...

Personally I think the visual "damage" to the night sky is a valid argument to make, but not one that sells well to the average person on the street.  However there also appears to be little concern for other aspects of the whole Starlink issue.  For example, tracking of NEOs, tracking of "space junk", what happens if they lose control of one (especially if there are knock-on effects that impact on other services such as GPS and telecomms), how is the limited communications bandwidth between all satellites to be managed and how much worse does it get when a dozen companies want to stick 40,000 satellites up there?  I don't get the impression that Elon Musk is the kind of person who really gives a monkeys about many of these questions as long as he benefits.

James

[MarkAR]

Apparently there is a knock down process when they become defunct. They drop out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. All except the solid housing of the communications lasers (4 of them I believe) which will land with a thump. How much can Musk be sued for if someone gets killed by one?

[Skywatcher130]

I was aligning my telescope on Arcturus last night around 10 p.m. and saw about ten of them whizzing past in the FOV. It reminded me somehow of that old 'Space invaders' game. I'm visual only but can only imagine the frustration if you were trying to image. There's enough of them about as it is now, only going to increase, sadly. That said, I admire Spacex and the whole Mars thing but as for the satellites, when I'm out in the garden looking up, just kinda feels like we're surrounded 😐 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

1 hour ago, Tomjo59 said:

Looks like SpaceX might have got the message:

 

https://astronomynow.com/2020/05/05/spacex-to-debut-satellite-dimming-sunshade-on-next-starlink-launch/

 

Not much they can do about those already launched, of course...

Fingers crossed, that's a promising development but we'll see. The initial spin coming out of Space X was disappointing but perhaps they are taking it seriously now.

[Alma]

On 12/05/2020 at 12:35, tingting44 said:

its a strange thing space, no one own it, no one owns earth so its hard to police matters like this, i guess who ever has the money can do what they like up there, i heard isis are trying to be the 1st to land on mars?

Yes they can and with the formal creation of the “Space Force“ this year as a new branch of the U.S. military, they can do so with the full protection, commercial and military, of the U.S. Government.