Thomas ConnorToday's #CenterForAstro colloquium is by @planet4589 on the looming danger of a Sky Full of Satellites. #Astrodon #Astronomy #LightPollution #SkyPollution
@planet4589 I'm not planning on live-tooting the entire talk, but this slide is terrifying. The Tragedy of the Commons, so we can play Fortnite while camping.
Karen Strickholm@ThomasConnor @planet4589 Wait, what the hell?
Knud JahnkeJust read their webpage: E-Space sounds like a really really sketchy outfit. Lots of blah, 100% marketing.
@knud @planet4589 Yeah, I'm worried about them while also not worried about them, which seems to be the path Jonathan was taking, as well. They'll be absolutely terrible if they launch, but things are bad even if they don't.
planet4589 (Jonathan McDowell)@ThomasConnor @knud The thing about E-space is that Greg Wyler has been behind a bunch of telecom ventures including O3b and OneWeb, so some of his projects do come to fruition.
Was that OneWeb before or after insolvency?
@knud @ThomasConnor Before, he was the original founder
Then let's hope this one takes the same first step... :-/
Indeed. "Just" 50.000 are terrible in themselves.
Melissa W
AlisonW ♿🏳️🌈♾️@ThomasConnor @planet4589
At some point they'll start bumping into each other leading to a chain reaction, dropping them back to earth or elsewhere and clearing the skies again for clear vision.
Maybe...
@AlisonW Were that it so simple -- rather, bumping into each other only makes things worse. Much worse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
@ThomasConnor
Oh hell. Meep.
Oh hell. Meep.
DannaLinnBarnett@ThomasConnor @planet4589 During the Israeli space week I have talked to a Rowanda Space agency official who claimed that they will scale down the constellation to about 70000 . He also told me that they will employ collision avoidance "so I have nothing to be concerned about"
@GolansMom @planet4589 Oh, well then, if they say that then I'm sure we're good! 😂 😭 😢
Evan Ó Catháin@ThomasConnor @planet4589 I think "tragedy of the commons" is a Capitalist propaganda term that doesn't apply here. The problem is in fact Capitalism, right?
@evanocathain @ThomasConnor The misuse of the concept for capitalist propaganda doesn't obviate the fact that it's a real thing. The problem is that unregulated capitalism and an unregulated commons is a disastrous combinaiton.
@planet4589 @ThomasConnor I think I am in complete agreement with that summary!