I blew off a LOT of emails while at the Canadian Astronomical Society meeting last week! And I have almost dug myself out of that email pile (well, as good as that ever gets).
There was one email I almost blew off during the meeting because I assumed it was an astronomer asking for a visualization of future satellites. But it was actually someone from CNN(!!) asking! Oops.
After some back-and-forth trying to understand exactly what they were asking for NOW NOW NOW, @hannorein made exactly what they were looking for.
Please enjoy(?) this horrifying visualization of how many Starlink sats are in orbit right now, and how many SpaceX has asked for in the future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOgp9gp2hA
Alt-text for video in link: the Earth getting gradually surrounded by a grid of more and more orbiting satellites, until the million data centre plan completely hides Earth.
If you use Apple devices, @hannorein built a free app you can get to make visualizations like this yourself https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mega-constellations/id1598820453
Does anybody think this many satellites is a good idea? Besides That One Awful Billionaire?
Prof. Sam Lawler
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