A few decades ago, there were only a few thousand spacecraft orbiting Earth. Now, with more man-made objects in space, it has the potential to cause a lot of problems due to light pollution.
Call it the Starlink internet constellation that SpaceX built. The plan is to build up to 12,000 satellites, and SpaceX launches more Falcon 9 rockets almost every month.
A recent FCC report even mentioned that SpaceX applied for authorization for more than 30,000 internet satellites. The Starlink satellite network known as the mega-constellation, currently dominates the satellite internet industry. But other players like Amazon and OneWeb also have plans to launch thousands of their own satellites.
Imagine, when there are more objects in orbit, that means there will be more space junk which creates more opportunities for collisions.
In addition, astronomers and environmentalists have raised concerns that Starlink will light up the night sky, as it reflects sunlight from its satellites.
For telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and nearing completion in Chile, astronomers are trying to develop software to reduce the effect of a sky filled with more satellites. However, the light pollution caused by the constellation of the internet will leave scratches on the results of their observations.
"In recent years, astronomers have discovered a lot of Starlink satellites in the night sky. As I looked at the sky I would see bright satellites crossing the sky. It was a very strange sensation, all the stars then seemed to move, like an optical illusion," said Aaron Boley, planetary astronomer at University of British Columbia and codirector of the Outer Space Institute.
To draw attention to the problem of light pollution and its solutions, the American Astronomical Society is holding a virtual workshop on a constellation of satellites known as SatCon2.
They plan to issue reports and recommendations soon, coinciding with the meeting starting on Sunday this week. In addition to light pollution, all of these space technology companies face another challenge, namely space debris.
To note, satellite debris and other objects sent by humans into space pose no less serious problems because of the risk of colliding with other objects in Earth's orbit.
