Mastodawn

Reflect Orbital and SpaceX have filed proposals with the US Federal Communications Commission that threaten ground-based astronomy. We submitted replies and collaborated with the UK Royal Astronomical Society & the International Astronomical Union for their responses. 1/

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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ESO

Space-X applied to launch one million satellites to act as data centres. Brightness estimates show that thousands would be visible to the naked eye, many more than visible stars. On average, each image with our Very Large Telescope would lose 10% of data due to satellite trails. 2/

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ESO 3d ago

Reflect Orbital plans to use a constellation of space mirrors to reflect sunlight to Earth at night. Each beam would be four times brighter than the full Moon and would also contaminate areas outside the beam. Their planned 50,000 mirrors would make the night sky three to four times brighter. 3/

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ESO 3d ago

Besides the obvious impact on astronomical observations, damaging the night sky threatens to collapse nocturnal ecosystems and will impact humans too. We support submissions to the FCC by other astronomical organisations, and we will follow up the eventual responses from SpaceX and Reflect Orbital. 4/4

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flo 3d ago

@esoastronomy
That's insane!
I hope that the application will be denied "for the good of all of humanity"!

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NicholasR😊3d ago

@fasnix @esoastronomy Very unlikely with the Trump FCC. The leader of which just threatened media broadcaster to take away their broadcast license unless they cover the Iran war in a more positive way.

#ReleaseALLTheEpsteinFilesNOW

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gunstick 3d ago

@esoastronomy I propose you start building interceptor satellites. Space tugs are anyway needed. But this time go tug away the new bullshit satellites.

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Dave Mc 3d ago

@esoastronomy has anyone done any serious calculations on the financial feasibility of this. I saw someone had done some quick maths, and they'd need to charge a few million dollars per minute, just to light up something like a sports stadium with the brightness of street lighting. I can't imagine they'd get many customers. Is it just an investor entrapment scheme?

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