ESOMar 16

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

Show threadESOMar 16
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/
Show threadESOMar 16
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/
Show threadDave Mc
@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?
Mar 16 at 3:05pmWeb
Show threadJulesceltMar 16
@guigsy @esoastronomy This company is literally calling it "Sunshine as a service".
Show threadDave McMar 16
@julescelt01 @esoastronomy technically the moon is a "sunshine service" as it also reflects sunlight.
Show threadSzescstopniMar 16
@guigsy It is. @esoastronomy
Show threadMichael McWilliamsMar 16
@guigsy @esoastronomy It's definitely a scam. They are just looking to suck some venture capitalists dry.