On Wed 24th Sept, we’re joined by Dr Robert Massey, Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society for a talk entitled “A Cluttered and Noisy Sky? How satellite constellations threaten astronomy (and why you should care).“ Doors open at 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start. The talk will take place in Elwin room in the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on Queen Square in Bath.
Working with international partners and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies, Dr Massey is striving to get agreements to manage the adverse effects of bright man-made satellites on space science and discovery.
65 years ago, the Soviet Union placed the first satellite in space. There are now around 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO), the region up to 2,000 km above the ground, and their deployment is accelerating. 2019 saw the launch of Starlink, a satellite constellation built and launched by SpaceX, a system that on its own could soon have more than 30,000 spacecraft deployed. With other operators we could soon see up to 300,000 satellites in LEO by the end of this decade.
This is nothing less than a step change in our use of space. And like most paradigm shifts, it will have significant consequences. A key example is how it will affect the science of astronomy and our view of the sky. Some estimates suggest that as many as 1 in 10 ‘stars’ visible could be satellites, and professional and amateur astronomers alike now face significant challenges to our work. As a result, our community has mobilised, working at a national, international, and global level to tackle a complex problem, and to try to find a balance between the positive results of boosting communications and the impact on the space environment.
