"Starlink" Elon Musk in the crossfire

Despite the noble goal of the Starlink project, launched by billionaire Elon Musk through his SpaceX company, to put between 12,000 and 42,000 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide broadband Internet access to the entire planet; Angry in the global scientific community.

Strips of light
SpaceX satellites, launched in batches of 60 satellites, have left luminous paths that made astronomical observations by telescopes impossible, raising the fear of the scientific community for the future of astronomy, according to a report by the French newspaper Liberation.

Astronomer Clara Martínez Vázquez put it in a cynical phrase that said, “Wow! After I programmed one of the telescopes to shoot two galaxies near the Milky Way, the Great Clouds and the small cloud of Magellan.

As the paper notes, there is a problem felt by the astronomical community, as each of the Starlink satellites in the days following its launch appears clearly in the sky as a bright spot advancing in a straight line; if it were one moon it would have been easy, but SpaceX launches it. In groups of sixty satellites at once, "Hi Damage!"

After the launch of the first batch of 60 missiles, "slanted lines of light left by 25 Starlink satellites in the field of the telescope appeared," after the telescope was supposed to show a small group of galaxies, which appeared in the background, the newspaper reported.

After the launch of the second batch of 60 satellites on November 11, the satellites remained a week later without reaching a sufficient height to make them hidden and away from the field of telescopes.

"Our images were badly affected by the passage of 19 satellites," says Clara. "The Starlink space train lasted more than five minutes! It's frustrating ... not great." Stars that astronomers study can be hidden by light paths. Restored by Photoshop, as the newspaper commented.

Black plated
SpaceX responded to the concern of astronomers lightly, according to the newspaper - explaining that the future satellites Starlink will paint the corresponding off the ground in black to be less light.

But that would not work, according to Tony Tyson, a science official at Chile's large telescope, because giant telescopes are sensitive enough to see satellites, and the paint will not prevent satellite radio waves from disturbing radio telescopes.

With the number of Starlink satellites rising to 1,500 by the end of 2020, Clara Johnson's colleague Cliff Johnson says in a Forbes article that "losing five minutes of observation if not serious, losing thirty or sixty minutes in one night in the future." Every minute is precious. "

The University of Ohio astronomers are among the most angry of the Starlink project, defying Mask on Twitter, saying, "Stop destroying our skies." Your photos".

Some astronomers, who are closely monitoring Starlink's army to assess its damage, say that these satellites become as bright as Jupiter or Venus in the sky, because they regularly emit flashes of light when their solar panels turn at a favorable angle that reflects sunlight toward the Earth.

Overcrowding of space
"Practicing astronomy from the surface of the Earth will at some point become impossible," US astronomer James Lowenthal, who participates in SpaceX and the American Astronomical Society's think tanks, told The New York Times.

"I'm not saying we are going to get to this moment because of Starlink, but if more satellites continue to be dumped for another 10 years, we will definitely reach a point where you can't do astronomy missions."

In addition to the impact of Starlink on astronomical observation and imaging, the risks of overcrowding, collisions and light pollution in the sky are among the risks of the project.

As the paper pointed out, the European Space Agency was forced in early September to avoid collision between one of its satellites and one of the Starlink satellites. Will become impossible, "which means automated risk management work.