Global push for cooperation as space traffic crowds Earth orbit

Reuters 02.12.24

The lack of regulations have ensured that essential satellites can no longer safely operate in space. This had been predicted here over four years ago and alarm bells have been rung:

‘The rapid increase in satellites and space junk will make low Earth orbit unusable unless companies and countries cooperate and share the data needed to manage that most accessible region of space, experts and industry insiders said… More than 14,000 satellites including some 3,500 inactive surround the globe in low Earth orbit, showed data from U.S.-based Slingshot Aerospace. Alongside those are about 120 million pieces of debris from launches, collisions and wear-and-tear of which only a few thousand are large enough to track. "There's no time to lose on space traffic coordination. With so many objects being launched into space, we have to do everything we can to ensure space safety, and that means facilitating the sharing of information between operators, be they public or private, in order to avoid collisions," said panel co-chair Aarti Holla-Maini, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Low Earth orbit must remain safe to prevent costly disruption to the technology behind global communication, navigation and scientific exploration, she said. Yet there is no centralised system that all space-faring nations can leverage and even persuading them to use such a system has many obstacles. Whereas some countries are willing to share data, others fear compromising security, particularly as satellites are often dual-use and include defence purposes. Moreover, enterprises are keen to guard commercial secrets… Projections point to tens of thousands more satellites entering orbit in the coming years. The potential financial risk of collisions is likely to be $556 million over five years, based on a modelled scenario with a 3.13% annual collision probability and $111 million in yearly damages, said Montreal-based NorthStar Earth & Space.’

Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say

Reuters 16.04.24

If Musk hadn’t always been working closely with the defence industry, he would never have been allowed to have a fleet of satellites in space:

'SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company and national security agencies. The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said… "The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen," a spokesperson said. The satellites can track targets on the ground and share that data with U.S. intelligence and military officials, the sources said. In principle, that would enable the U.S. government to quickly capture continuous imagery of activities on the ground nearly anywhere on the globe, aiding intelligence and military operations, they added.'

Space: The New Frontier For The Central Control Grid

Corey’s Digs 06.10.23

An impressively detailed report on current global space activities:

‘Taking into account all of the information in this report, and much that didn’t even make it into the report, it is my opinion that they are building the main central operations for the control grid in Space, equipped with full blown surveillance, nodes throughout every city, data centers, the internet, solar systems to power satellites and data centers, a suite of weaponry, a blockchain-based financial infrastructure, and likely equipping cell phones with additional hardware and software that has biometrics and integrates better with their satellite surveillance system.’

US Space Force creates 1st unit dedicated to targeting adversary satellites

Space 17.08.23

Are there not enough wars on earth? Space is the new hotbed for global conflict:

‘The 75th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (ISRS) was activated on Aug. 11 at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. This unit is part of Space Delta 7, an element of the U.S. Space Force tasked with providing intelligence on adversary space capabilities. It'll do things like analyze the capabilities of potential targets, locate and track these targets as well as participate in "target engagement," which presumably refers to destroying or disrupting adversary satellites, the ground stations that support them and transmissions sent between the two.’

Scientists Call for a Global Treaty to Address Space Junk

Gizmodo 10.03.23

This idea has been floated before, yet thousands of satellites have sprung up since:

‘In a letter published in Science today, the team of researchers says that there are 9,000 satellites currently in orbit, but that that number is projected to rise to 60,000 by 2030. All of these satellites are sources of orbital debris, whether the spacecraft themselves become junk when they are decommissioned or whether they become involved in an in-orbit crash resulting in a cascade of debris that will circle the planet…  The European Space Agency estimated in December 2022 that there were 32,300 pieces of debris currently orbiting Earth. Of course, this is only the debris that has been identified and is being tracked by the Space Surveillance Network; ESA’s statistical models reveal a potential total of 132 million pieces of debris ranging in size from 1 millimeter to 10 centimeters (4 inches). According to NASA, pieces of space debris can reach speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kilometers per hour), spinning around the Earth once every 90 minutes.  As junk continues to accumulate in orbit, we may be facing a nasty case of Kessler Syndrome, which describes—as NASA scientist Donald Kessler warned in 1978—a growing number of artificial satellites in orbit that will lead to a growing number of collisions and therefore a growing amount of debris. This debris could, in turn, make swaths of Earth’s orbit uninhabitable, or even wipe out satellites we rely on for communication and GPS.  Until a global initiative to reign in the issue of space debris is achieved, some space agencies are taking steps to tackle the problem.’

Historic UK satellite launch may spur military appetite

Reuters 08.01.23

The greed attached to a never-ending war scenario will be propelling hundreds more satellites in our skies and creating a lot more space junk:

‘A mobile air-launched rocket system to be used in Britain's first domestic satellite launch could sow the seeds for a globally dispersed rapid-response capability to put extra eyes in space in times of war, executives and analysts said.  Virgin Orbit (VORB.O), part-owned by billionaire Richard Branson, plans to launch nine satellites from a LauncherOne rocket attached under the wing of a modified Boeing 747, to be flown from a new spaceport in Cornwall on Monday…  For now the focus is on commercial payloads from companies such as Space Forge, which is developing in-orbit manufacturing.  But the launch is also seen by many as a blueprint for quicker launches of limited satellite capacity for tactical military purposes, in what planners call "Responsive Launch”…  "It gives you greater resilience or redundancy or duality of systems, whether that's for position, navigation and timing or quicker access ... as we've seen in Ukraine," Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency, told Sunday's briefing.  "It's a natural transition that helps us develop security capabilities, but also, for government, keeps costs down whilst providing commercial opportunities as well.”…  "Everyone is playing up military space as the next big thing," said UK-based defence analyst Francis Tusa. "But ministries of defence have eyes larger than their stomachs.”'

After Unfurling Its Massive Array, Commercial Satellite Becomes as Bright as Orion's Stars

Gizmodo 15.11.22

The number of satellites keeps ballooning:

‘NSF’s NOIRLab and the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference have called on astronomers from around the world to observe the satellite and note its brightness magnitude as it orbits Earth. “[Low Earth orbit satellites] disproportionately affect science programs that require twilight observations, such as searches for Earth-threatening asteroids and comets, outer Solar System objects, and visible-light counterparts of fleeting gravitational-wave sources,” NSF wrote in a report.  On its own, BlueWalker 3 is large enough to mess with observations of the cosmos. However, the prototype satellite is just a test to build an entire constellation of more than 100 satellites. AST SpaceMobile wants to create the first and only space-based cellular broadband network directly accessible by cell phones, sending more of its satellites to orbit by the end of 2024.  Low Earth orbit is already filling up with commercial satellites. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is building an internet constellation in low Earth orbit with plans to deploy upwards of 42,000 satellites. Amazon is also planning to launch a fleet of 3,236 satellites for Project Kuiper, while OneWeb wants to launch 648 satellites.’

Indian rocket launches 36 OneWeb satellites

BBC 23.10.22

We are being saturated here on earth:

'Sunday's flight brings the number of satellites now in orbit above the Earth to 462.  This is more than 70% of the total OneWeb needs to achieve worldwide coverage with its first-generation constellation…  With only two-thirds of its satellites in orbit, OneWeb had to move quickly to secure rides on other carriers. Deals were struck with American rocket providers SpaceX and Relativity Space, and India's New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of India's space agency, Isro, which markets the GSLV.’

Amazon’s first internet satellites will launch on a rocket that’s never flown before

The Independent 15.10.22

How horrifically crowded space will be:

‘Amazon plans at least 92 launches over the next five years, using companies including Arianespace and ULA, but not SpaceX - the company’s main competitor in the satellite internet market.  Eventually Project Kuiper will have 3,236 satellites as part of its megaconstellation, while SpaceX wants to send upwards of 42,000 satellites to orbit for Starlink. This will “provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world,” Amazon said in a statement.  Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, has spent at least $1bn on Blue Origin, but missions have not always gone smoothly.  Last month, a Blue Origin rocket launch was aborted when the rocket booster exploded just more than a minute into the flight.'

U.S. approves SpaceX's Starlink internet for use with ships, boats, planes

Reuters 01.07.22

Not long after aviation authorities were complaining about the multitudinous of satellite interference with safety standards, they’re now allowing wifi into air cabins, presenting unsuspecting passengers with added health concerns (see 5G Report in research section):

‘The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday authorized Elon Musk's SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet network with moving vehicles, green-lighting the company's plan to expand broadband offerings to commercial airlines, shipping vessels and trucks.  Starlink, a fast-growing constellation of internet-beaming satellites in orbit, has long sought to grow its customer base from individual broadband users in rural, internet-poor locations to enterprise customers in the potentially lucrative automotive, shipping and airline sectors…  SpaceX has steadily launched some 2,700 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2019 and has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers, including many who pay $110 a month for broadband internet using $599 self-install terminal kits…  Competition in the low-Earth orbiting satellite internet sector is fierce between SpaceX, satellite operator OneWeb, and Jeff Bezos's Kuiper project, a unit of e-commerce giant Amazon.com (AMZN.O) which is planning to launch the first prototype satellites of its own broadband network later this year.’

Rocket Launches Could Be Polluting Our Atmosphere in New and Unexpected Ways 

Gizmodo 18.05.22

Am surprised that soot is not added to the harmful pollutive substances when a rocket launches, still the prognosis is bad:

‘Based on their models, the researchers estimated that the single Falcon 9 rocket produced around 116 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the first 165 seconds of its journey. “This amount is equivalent to that emitted by about 69 cars over an entire year [in the United Kingdom],” wrote Drikakis to Gizmodo. To repeat: 69 car years of driving versus 165 seconds of rocket flight.  Carbon dioxide accumulates in the lower atmosphere as we burn fossil fuels, and is the greenhouse gas largely responsible for human-caused climate change. But much of the emissions produced in the model study appeared in the higher altitude mesosphere, where the climate impacts of C02 are less well understood than they are closer to Earth. For each kilometer climbed by the rocket at the highest altitudes examined, the simulated Falcon 9 sent out a mass of carbon dioxide equal to 26 times the amount already present in one cubic kilometer of the mesosphere…  “CO2 and other greenhouse gas species [types] emitted in the mesosphere can affect the climate, if emitted in enough quantity,” said Erik Larson, a geoscientist at Harvard University who was not involved in the new research, in an email to Gizmodo. But he added that this paper doesn’t actually assess the climate impacts of the rocket launch.  Instead, Larson said the study’s value is in its estimates of emission quantities. The study “fills some gaps,” he explained. In particular, Larson thought the most “important contribution” from the new research had to do with nitrogen oxide production and the potential for ozone risk, as opposed to assessments of direct air-quality impacts. “It destroys the beneficial ozone layer,” he said. “I think the important global impacts of rocket NOx emissions are likely to be destruction of stratospheric ozone as opposed to air quality.”  The ozone layer protects our planet’s surface from the most damaging of the Sun’s rays. Without it, much of life on Earth would die. And we nearly lost it once before owing to chemical emissions. After the offending, damaging compounds were banned, the ozone layer recovered, but it has remained a constant concern ever since.’

Jeff Bezos is worth $160bn – yet Congress might bail out his space company

The Guardian 22.04.22

A brilliant piece by Bernie Sanders on space profiteering:

‘Fifty-three years later, as a result of a huge effort to privatize space exploration, I am concerned that Nasa has become little more than an ATM machine to fuel a space race not between the US and other countries, but between the two wealthiest men in America – Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who are worth more than $450bn combined.  After many billions of dollars of taxpayer funding the American people are going to have to make a very fundamental decision. If we are going to send more human beings to the moon and eventually to Mars, who will control the enterprise and what will be the purpose of that exploration? Will the goal be to benefit the people of the United States and the entire world, or will it be a vast boondoggle to make billionaires even richer and open up outer space to corporate greed and exploitation?…  As it stands now, as a result of the 2015 Space Act that passed the Senate with virtually no floor debate, private corporations are able to own all of the resources that they discover in space. In other words, the taxpayers of this country who made it possible for these private enterprises to go into space will get a 0% return on their investment.  The time is now to have a serious debate in Congress and throughout our country as to how to develop a rational space policy that does not simply socialize all of the risks and privatize all of the profits. Whether it is expanding affordable high-speed internet and cellphone service in remote areas, tracking natural disasters and climate change, establishing colonies on the moon and Mars or mining asteroids, the scientific achievements we make should be shared by all of us, not just the wealthy few.  Space exploration is very exciting. Its potential to improve life here on planet Earth is limitless. But it also has the potential to make the richest people in the world incredibly richer and unimaginably more powerful. When we take that next giant leap into space let us do it to benefit all of humanity, not to turn a handful of billionaires into trillionaires.’

The First Fully Private ISS Launch Just Happened, But There's a Dark Side to It

Science Alert 11.04.22

A closer look at the pollutants that are created every single time a rocket is launched:

‘Rocket launches and returning reusable components release air pollutants and greenhouse gases into multiple atmospheric layers. In the middle and upper atmosphere, these can persist for years compared with equivalent pollutants released at or near the Earth's surface, which linger for weeks at most.  This is because there are fewer chemical reactions or weather events to flush pollutants out of middle and upper layers.  The kerosene fuel used by SpaceX Falcon rockets is a mix of hydrocarbons, composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms. These react with liquid oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O) and black carbon or soot particles that are released from the rocket exhaust.  CO2 and H2O are potent greenhouse gases, and black soot particles are very efficient at absorbing the sun's rays. That means all these chemicals contribute to warming the Earth's atmosphere.  Nitrogen oxides (NOx), reactive air pollutants, also form during launch due to very high temperatures causing a bonding reaction between usually stable nitrogen and oxygen molecules. NOx is also produced when the rocket's reusable components return to Earth, due to extreme temperatures produced by friction on its heat shields as they whizz through the mesosphere at 40km-70km.  

When these particles make contact with the ozone layer (in the stratosphere), they convert ozone to oxygen, depleting the fragile sheath that protects the planet from the sun's harmful UV radiation.  Although total CO2 emissions from this launch will be small in comparison to those from the global aircraft industry, emissions per passenger will be around 100 times those from a long-haul flight.  Soot emissions are also much less than those from the aircraft industry, but when released into the middle and upper atmosphere, soot has a warming effect 500 times greater than at levels closer to Earth. This is in part because there are typically no clouds and few to no aerosols competing with soot to absorb the sun's rays.  The potential opportunities of creating industry and trade networks within low-Earth orbit have been likened by an Axiom co-founder to the early days of developing the internet, now an almost universally accessible technology.  If we extend that analogy to imagine similarly high levels of access to the low-Earth orbit economy, rocket launches are likely to become far more common than just the 146 launches achieved in 2021.  Such a scenario would substantially alter Earth's climate and undermine our significant progress in repairing the ozone layer. At the very least, research is urgently needed to assess the consequences of a flourishing low-Earth orbit economy for our planet down below. ’

Astronomers Join Forces to Push Back Against Satellite 'Pollution' Ruining The Skies

Science Alert 08.02.22

I hope they make a strong case against this sky invasion:

‘The number of active satellites in the night sky has more than doubled since 2019 – from around 2,200 to 5,000. That is mostly due to Starlink, a SpaceX project aimed at providing internet anywhere in the world through 'mega-constellations' of satellites.  Since it began, Starlink has launched over 2,000 satellites. Unfortunately, the thousands of satellites needed to create such widespread internet coverage come with a tremendous downside: their reflective light streaks are literally obscuring ground-based astronomy.  Late last week, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the establishment of a brand new center to unify astronomers and push back against mega-constellations, called the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.  "I think it's really important, because it's projected that there are going to be 100,000 new satellites by the end of the decade," Flinders University space archaeologist Alice Gorman told ScienceAlert…  "We're basically looking at a battle royale between commercial satellite operators and astronomers," Gorman told ScienceAlert.  "We're being led to believe that without mega-constellations half the world won't have internet. Well, that is simply not true and people should be a lot more critical of the rhetoric around this.”'

20% of Twilight Observations Contain Satellite Passes

Universe Today 18.01.22

Bad news keep piling up regarding space commercialisation:

‘The authors point out that this number of streaks isn’t high enough to significantly affect the search for potential asteroid collisions. But as the number rises to 10,000 or 15,000, astronomers will start to miss some asteroids. Given current trends, that number will be reached within a year or so. There are ways to mitigate the effect of these streaks. Painting the satellites and adding reflective panels could reduce their brightness, particularly at infrared wavelengths that are important for near-Earth asteroid detection. But the study points out that the mitigation strategy currently proposed by Starlink won’t be sufficient to avoid an impact on astronomy.  It is clear we will soon need to make some difficult choices about satellite Internet. While it could broaden human connection to even the poorest and most remote regions of the world, it could also destroy our ability to view the heavens and more deeply understand the universe we call home. If we do not set our priorities and guidelines soon, SpaceX, Amazon, and other mega-companies will make the decision for us.’

High-Speed Space Junk Risk Forces NASA Astronauts to Abandon Spacewalk

Science Alert 30.11.21

Space is becoming a rubbish bin:

‘This is not the first time space junk has disrupted ISS operations. The amount of debris in Earth's orbit has been increasing for years, as old spacecrafts break apart, dead satellites crash into each other, and countries test anti-satellite missiles, causing individual satellites to explode into thousands of pieces.   According to the European Space Agency, an average of 12 events have occurred every year for the last two decades.  Space junk isn't just messing with NASA's schedule. It's dangerous.  Hundreds of thousands of broken-up bits of old satellites and rockets are careening around the planet at about 10 times the speed of a bullet. If space debris strikes the ISS, it could puncture holes in the orbiting laboratory – and it has, on several occasions.  If a piece of debris were to strike a spacewalking astronaut, the hit could be deadly.’

In-orbit demonstration of an iodine electric propulsion system

Nature 17.11.21

It is interesting that the use of radio frequency is being used to manipulate thrust:

'Diatomic iodine is stored as a solid and sublimated at low temperatures. A plasma is then produced with a radio-frequency inductive antenna, and we show that the ionization efficiency is enhanced compared with xenon. Both atomic and molecular iodine ions are accelerated by high-voltage grids to generate thrust, and a highly collimated beam can be produced with substantial iodine dissociation. The propulsion system has been successfully operated in space onboard a small satellite with manoeuvres confirmed using satellite tracking data. We anticipate that these results will accelerate the adoption of alternative propellants within the space industry and demonstrate the potential of iodine for a wide range of space missions. For example, iodine enables substantial system miniaturization and simplification, which provides small satellites and satellite constellations with new capabilities for deployment, collision avoidance, end-of-life disposal and space exploration.’

Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos unveils plans for 'space business park’

BBC 26.10.21

Space to be even more crowded with commercial plans starting to be unveiled:

‘Blue Origin said the 32,000 sq ft station would provide customers with an ideal location for "film-making in microgravity" or "conducting cutting-edge research" and said it would also include a "space hotel”… The announcement comes as Nasa searches for proposals to replace the 20-year-old International Space Station (ISS). While funding for the station has been guaranteed until at least 2030, the outpost is in desperate need of repairs. Russian officials have previously warned that its cosmonauts could leave the station by 2025 over fears outdated equipment could trigger a major incident. In response, Nasa announced plans earlier this year to award $400m in private contracts to space companies to help the agency replace the ageing outpost. However, there is likely to be stiff competition for the funding. Earlier this week, a partnership between Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin announced its own plans to launch a space station into low orbit by 2027.’

Satellite swarms are threatening the night sky. Is low-Earth orbit the next great crucible of environmental conflict?

Nature 07.10.21

Satellites have gotten out of hand, and before regulations step in, a lot more will be activated:

‘While astronomers worked to save their science, other factions began to voice a broader environmentalism: a sense of low-Earth orbit as a shared part of nature—and an unusually vulnerable one. There are no national or international laws to stop anyone from launching an even lower, undimmed Starlink-size constellation, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and space analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “My feeling now is a mix of relief that we were heard,” McDowell says, “and nervousness that we are depending on the kindness of corporations.”… The FCC has been successfully pressured to consider light pollution before, says Travis Longcore, an ecologist and light pollution researcher at UC Los Angeles—but it took a scrappy, grassroots campaign. In the early 2000s, conservation groups cited Longcore’s research and leveraged NEPA to push the FCC to change how it regulated the height and illumination of communication towers that birds collide with. “[The FCC] had to get dragged kicking and screaming,” he says.’

From spy satellites to mobile networks, S.Korea pins space hopes on new rocket

Reuters 15.10.21

If you go to LeoLabs.space and have a visual of the global satellites currently in orbit, the ones that have been deactivated but are still circling our planet, and the amount of debris that has resulted from all that junk, you may wonder how you could fit a pin in there:

‘South Korea’s push into space comes as it speeds ahead with its own military ballistic missile systems after agreeing with the United States this year to end all bilateral restrictions on them."There is no concern on military applications in NURI launch vehicle development," said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at the Korea Aerospace University. Unlike the liquid-fuelled NURI, South Korea’s military missiles use solid fuel, which is better for weapons, he added.  South Korea is not seen as a "threat" by either Russia or China, so it seems unlikely to affect their space programs, which are already highly militarized, Moltz said.  "Many space launch technologies are inherently dual-use," he said, but noted that he hopes NURI’s development will "not lead to an arms race in space, but instead a safer ‘information race’" where South Korea has better intelligence to head off any future crisis.’

Look Before You Launch: What NEPA Requires of the FCC

NRDC 08.09.21

The FCC has a corrupt revolving door mentality.  Profits first and questions later:

‘The FCC, however, has chosen to brush aside its environmental review responsibilities.  NEPA requires federal agencies to include “a detailed statement” (an Environmental Impact Statement or EIS) regarding the environmental impact of any “major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.”  If the agency is uncertain about whether its action will significantly affect the environment, it can prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) to determine if a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is justified.  The FCC has done neither.  Instead, the Commission has categorically excluded all of its actions from NEPA review, identifying only a few limited exceptions in its regulations.  47 C.F.R. 1.1306.  Such widespread, indiscriminate use of categorical exclusions (CEs) belittles NEPA’s mandate.  Environmental harm from the proposed satellite mega-constellations is not mere speculation.  The increase in commercial satellites has already created significant light pollution.  Designed with a short useful life, the Starlink satellites will add significant debris and chemicals to the atmosphere.  In particular, combustion of satellites upon re-entry produces significant quantities of alumina.  Alumina can deplete the ozone layer we have worked so hard internationally to protect.  It can also increase global warming, whose catastrophic consequences we seem to be experiencing almost every day.  As two scientists recently warned in their peer-reviewed article, Starlink’s deployment “risks multiple tragedies of the commons, including tragedies to ground-based astronomy, Earth orbit, and Earth’s upper atmosphere.”..  

The FCC’s blind approach to satellite launch approval is yet the latest example of the Commission’s disregard for its environmental responsibilities.  In 2018, the FCC changed its rules to eliminate the application of NEPA (as well as the National Historic Preservation Act) to its authorization of small-cell networks increasingly relied upon to provide 5G services across the country.  NRDC, together with 16 Indian Nations, sued the FCC.  A federal court found the FCC’s action unlawful.  More recently, the FCC terminated its inquiry into the adequacy of its health standards for radio-frequency radiation without changing any of the limits – even though these limits are over 20 years old.  Again, the courts found the FCC’s action unlawful.'

Who is Starlink really for?

Technology Review 06.09.21

Never too late to conclude what’s been obvious from the start.  The space-chocking satellites meant for ALL to get internet has failed to deliver:

'But Starlink wasn’t designed just to hook up remote cybersecurity professors: SpaceX has made bigger claims than that. It hopes to bring high-speed satellite internet to many of the 3.7 billion people on this planet who currently have no internet connection at all. Many simply make do with mobile-phone connections—an expensive workaround in its own right. (One gigabit of data in sub-Saharan Africa costs 40% of the average monthly wage.)...  A Starlink subscription is $99. Speeds can vary greatly, but the average user should expect 50 to 150 megabits per second. You’d have to pay traditional satellite internet companies like Viasat (which operates geostationary satellites) double that amount to get the same speeds. Not bad.  It’s the upfront expense that will hit you hardest with Starlink, however. Costs for things like the satellite dish and router come out to a whopping $499—and that equipment is sold to customers at a loss. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has previously said he hopes these costs can come down closer to $250, but it’s unclear when or if that might happen. For much of the rural world, in America and elsewhere, the price is simply too high.'

Collins Aerospace to provide life support for privately run LEO outpost

Space News 23.08.21

Look out for the new Elysium-style space station.  Will they be the future bunkers of humanity?:

‘Collins Aerospace said Aug. 23 it had been awarded a $2.6 million contract by an undisclosed customer to provide life support systems for a planned “privately owned and operated low Earth orbit outpost.”  Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, said the contract is for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), a suite of technologies that enable livable conditions outside of Earth’s atmosphere…  Shawn Macleod, Collins Aerospace’s director of business development, told SpaceNews the contract is with “a long-duration stay, orbital customer.”  He said the mission’s timeline would be driven by this undisclosed customer, however, “typically hardware can be deployed within a few years.”’

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites near-misses with other spacecraft are getting ‘out of control’, experts say

The Independent 21.08.21

Could someone please force these stupidly polluting satellites out of space?:

‘Once Starlink launches its full 12,000-strong satellite network, it will be involved in 90 per cent of all close approaches, it is estimated. Currently there are only 1,700 in space. SpaceX did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment by time of publication.’

Eutelsat Quantum: breakthrough reprogrammable satellite launches

The Guardian 31.07.21

A versatile satellite for mutable geopolitics:

‘Because it can be reprogrammed while orbiting in a fixed position 35,000km (22,000 miles) above the Earth, the Quantum can respond to changing demands for data transmission and secure communications during its 15-year lifetime, according to the European Space Agency.  The 3.5 tonne Quantum model has eight communications beams, each of which can be modified to change its area of coverage and also the power of the signal it emits.  Using software made available to the customer, these changes can be made “in a matter of minutes”, according to Eutelsat.  This means the satellite can be used to provide mobile coverage for moving objects such as aircraft and oceangoing vessels, or coverage after a natural disaster or for one-off events.’

Branson aims to make space trip on July 11, ahead of Bezos

Reuters 02.07.21

It now looks like a contest for who’s got the biggest ‘rocket’:

‘Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson will travel to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's (SPCE.N) test flight on July 11, Branson's space tourism firm said on Thursday, beating out fellow aspiring billionaire astronaut Jeff Bezos.  A successful flight by Branson aboard Virgin's VSS Unity spaceplane would mark a key milestone in a race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.  It would also mean that Branson would travel beyond Earth's atmosphere ahead of Bezos, the founder of rival space tourism venture Blue Origin.  Bezos, who founded retail giant Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), is slated to fly to space on July 20 along with his brother, Mark, trailblazing female pilot Wally Funk and a so-far unidentified person who plunked down $28 million to join the suborbital joyride.’

Starlink snag forces users to build ‘idiotic contraptions’ to access Elon Musk’s space internet

The Independent 29.05.21

A very expensive and spatially-polluting experiment gone wrong. Will they be cutting trees to make it work?:

‘In order to set up a Starlink internet connection users require a £439 satellite dish and pay an £84 monthly fee, but also need a direct line of sight between the dish and the satellite, as well as a 100-degree cone with a 25 degree elevation minimum around the centre of the dish. This means that trees, neighbouring buildings, and other obstacles provide a severe challenge - with one user installing his dish nearly five meters above his chimney. “If you could see the connection between a Starlink satellite and your Starlink, it would look like a single beam between the two objects. As the satellite moves, the beam also moves. The area within which this beam moves is the ‘field of view’”, the Starlink website explains. “Some obstructions are worse than others. Obstructions low in the sky will cause more outages because satellites are in this area of the sky more frequently. The best guidance we can give is to install your Starlink at the highest elevation possible where it is safe to do so, with a clear view of the sky.” Starlink also notes that “a single tree” can interrupt users’ service.'

China completes historic Mars spacecraft landing

REUTERS 15.05.21

Space exploration evolves into serious competition:

‘An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, "leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time," Xinhua said… Tianwen-1 was one of three that reached Mars in February, with U.S. rover Perseverance successfully touching down on Feb. 18 in a huge depression called Jezero Crater, more than 2,000 km away from Utopia Planitia. Hope - the third spacecraft that arrived at Mars in February this year - is not designed to make a landing. Launched by the United Arab Emirates, it is currently orbiting above Mars gathering data on its weather and atmosphere. The first successful landing ever was made by NASA's Viking 1 in July 1976 and then by Viking 2 in September that year. A Mars probe launched by the former Soviet Union landed in December 1971, but communication was lost seconds after landing.’

China launches key module of space station planned for 2022

REUTERS 29.04.21

Another space station is being established to rival the ISS:

‘China launched an unmanned module on Thursday containing living quarters for three crew on a permanent space station that it plans to complete by the end of 2022, state media reported. The module, named "Tianhe", or "Harmony of the Heavens", was launched on the Long March 5B, China's largest carrier rocket, at 11:23 a.m. (0323 GMT) from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan… China has prioritised space exploration in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major space power by 2030. By 2045, it hopes to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers.’

Musk-Bezos Feud Intensifies: Blue Origin Protests NASA Choice of SpaceX Lunar Lander

Gizmodo 27.04.21

No, me first! Lunar landing conflict erupts between Bezos and Musk:

‘Last week, NASA selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX over two other contenders to build the upcoming Artemis lunar lander. Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has now filed an official protest against the decision, in a development that’s bound to intensify this long-standing rivalry. Blue Origin filed its complaint yesterday to the federal Government Accountability Office, an agency that scrutinizes services for Congress. The 50-page protest shows that Jeff Bezos and his aerospace partners aren’t backing down from this decision without a fight… Blue Origin is essentially claiming that NASA’s decision will lead to a kind of monopoly as far as the development of lunar landers goes, despite the space agency’s claims that other vendors will be sourced further down the line as the Artemis project evolves.’

OneWeb, SpaceX satellites dodged a potential collision in orbit

The Verge 09.04.21

The potential for collisions is immense:

‘On March 30th, five days after OneWeb launched its latest batch of 36 satellites from Russia, the company received several “red alerts” from the US Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron warning of a possible collision with a Starlink satellite. Because OneWeb’s constellation operates in higher orbits around Earth, the company’s satellites must pass through SpaceX’s mesh of Starlink satellites, which orbit at an altitude of roughly 550 km.’

Space Regime in Deep Distress: Experts

The Diplomat 03.40.21

It’s a cowboy zone out there.  Geopolitical and economical advantages favour the greedy and the reckless:

‘Capabilities, intent, geopolitics, and national economic ambitions have all stymied efforts to buttress multilateral governance of outer space, a new DRI report finds…  In a new Diplomat Risk Intelligence, five prominent experts on space issues examined — among many other key issues related to Asia-Pacific’s outer space engagement — how the space security regime, and capabilities and intent, have not tracked each other, with geopolitics and national economic aspirations introducing further complications.’

Spacewatch: another failed test landing for SpaceX Starship

The Guardian 02.04.21

Musk’s satellites keep blowing up.  Who’s accountable for all this polluting rubbish?:

‘The first high-altitude test took place on 9 December 2020, the second on 2 February 2021. Both starships, SN8 and SN9, failed to touch down correctly and exploded on landing.  On 3 March 2021, SN10 appeared to land successfully but about eight minutes later exploded catastrophically. It appears as if this latest attempt exploded in midair. At 5 minutes and 49 seconds into the flight, shortly after the engines restarted for the landing manoeuvre, the rocket stopped communicating.’

Nasa is building a spacecraft to reach an asteroid worth $10 quintillion

The Independent 01.04.21

The age of space mining has officially begun:

‘The spacecraft will have to travel around 179.5 million kilometres to reach the asteroid, examining its magnetic field and the neutrons and gamma rays radiating from the surface.  If all goes well, the spacecraft will pass by Mars for a gravity assist in May 2023, and reach orbit by early 2026. It will spend 21 months there, gathering data on the valuable space rock, which was found in October 2020.  At approximately 140 miles in diameter – approximately one quarter the length of the entire United Kingdom – the asteroid is one of the largest objects in the belt.  It is likely composed totally of iron or nickel, as opposed to the ice and rock of most asteroids, and as such could shed light on the history of other planets due to its similarity to the Earth’s core – as well has having a value10,000 times more than the 2019 global economy.’

Coalition to Protest SpaceX Satellite Program, Citing Radiation Threat

CHD 08.03.21

Glad that one of the biggest creator of radiation will be getting a letter asking him to stop:

‘Safe technology advocates, environmentalists and astronomers from California and beyond will gather March 19, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. PT at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., to demand the company end its planned deployment of 42,000 low-orbit satellites… Safe technology advocates, environmentalists and astronomers from California and beyond will gather March 19, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. PT at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., to demand the company end its planned deployment of 42,000 low-orbit satellites.’

US billionaires vie to make space the next business frontier

The Guardian 06.02.21

Space is the new capitalist investment sector:

‘Most of the industry is focused on IT, but experts believe the billionaires’ efforts are about to usher in a new era, with the start of space tourism, manufacturing and more. Google co-founder Larry Page has backed Planetary Resources, a startup hoping to mine asteroids…  Cheaper technology – such as “cubesats” the size of a loaf of bread – mean more players can turn their eyes skywards. A global wave of investors looking for returns has loosed a wave of easy money, much of it through special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) – “blank-cheque” vehicles that raise money on stock exchanges before boldly going to look for investments…  The total space industry could grow by $1tn in the next decade, according to Ron Epstein, aerospace analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He sees a turning point as technology improvements and capital combine, making space tourism and in-space manufacturing – of space stations, or even pharmaceuticals – increasingly viable. Deep-pocketed investors were playing a role similar to that of predecessors who had helped aerospace grow into a global industry, he said.’

Groundbreaking biofuel rocket could be 'Uber for space’

BBC 01.02.21

Whilst I applaud any development in biofuel development, I am apprehensive that the skies will be used as roads are with Uber:

'Sascha Deri, who invented the biofuel, is cagey about what it's made of, but says it can be sourced from farms around the world. The founder and chief executive of bluShift Aerospace, he and his team have spent more than six years refining the formula and designing a modular hybrid engine, which is also unique. "We want to prove that a bio-derived fuel can serve just as well, if not better in some cases, than traditional fuels to power rockets and payloads to space," he says.  "It actually costs less per kilogram than traditional rocket fuel and it's completely non-toxic. And it's a carbon-neutral fuel which is inherently better for our planet and more responsible.”'

Thousands more satellites will soon orbit Earth – we need better rules to prevent space crashes 

The Conversation 28.01.21

Of course there should be regulations, though by the time they happen, it might already be too late:

'There are almost 3,000 active satellites in orbit around Earth today, and this is set to sky rocket in the coming years. The European Commission, for example, recently announced plans to launch thousands of satellites into orbit around Earth, adding to a growing list of planned mega-constellation launches…  Exactly how many satellites make up a mega-constellation is unknown, and each country could consider the term to mean something different. Clarity at the international level could pave the way for creating guidelines specifically for mega-constellations, which could aid the safe and sustainable use of low Earth orbit…  Given the amount of future mega-constellations currently planned, the space around Earth termed low Earth orbit could easily become a limited resource…  To make sure we avoid problems arising, the rules and definitions surrounding mega-constellations should be made clear, on an international scale.’

Need a lift? SpaceX launches record spacecraft in cosmic rideshare program

REUTERS 24.01.21

Hundreds more satellites up in space under the guise of providing internet services worldwide.  That service is super expensive to consumers and is meant only to make the richest man richer and enable him to colonise Mars:

‘A veteran rocket from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company launched 143 spacecraft into space on Sunday, a new record for the most spaceships deployed on a single mission, according to the company…  SpaceX has previously launched to orbit more than 800 satellites of the several thousand needed to offer broadband internet globally, a $10 billion investment it estimates could generate $30 billion annually to help fund Musk’s interplanetary rocket program, called Starship.’

Japan developing wooden satellites to cut space junk

BBC 29.12.20

More developments along these lines would be appreciated:

‘Wooden satellites would burn up without releasing harmful substances into the atmosphere or raining debris on the ground when they plunge back to Earth…  "We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth's atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years," Takao Doi, a professor at Kyoto University and Japanese astronaut, told the BBC.   "Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth.”  "The next stage will be developing the engineering model of the satellite, then we will manufacture the flight model," Professor Doi added.’

Space tourism: Virgin space plane set for first crewed flight

BBC 12.12.20

Space regulations can’t come soon enough:

‘Saturday's flight will be the first of three final demonstration flights before that commercial service begins.  It is on the third of these that Sir Richard Branson himself will test the service he's been promising for 16 years. Before that can happen Virgin Galactic needs to go through some final preparatory steps…  "But when it comes to space, you're not in a race with anyone. You're in a race to be safe," said Mr Whitehorn.   The craft will also serve as an astronaut training facility.  "At the moment, we have to train them in simulated environments - swimming pools and so-called vomit comets, which are planes that dive out of the sky," he explained.  "So as well as space tourism and space science, that training will be a crucial component of the industrial revolution that is coming to space."’ 

SpaceX's Starship prototype explodes on landing after test launch 

REUTERS 10.12.20

Perhaps the residents should have sold to avoid all those contaminants spewing out after rocket explosion:

‘SpaceX’s Starship prototype exploded while attempting to land on Wednesday after an otherwise successful test launch from the company’s rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas, live video of the flight showed…  Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has been buying up residential properties in the Boca Chica village situated just north of the U.S.-Mexico border in southeastern Texas to make room for his expanding Starship facilities, which Musk envisions as a future “gateway to Mars.”  Musk has faced resistance from Boca Chica residents unwilling to sell their homes.’

Monetizing the Final Frontier

New Republic 03.12.20

An exhaustive piece on the colonisation of space, its implications and the scenarios that could emerge:

‘One particularly grim vision of the future that haunts astronomers is the “Kessler syndrome,” proposed by the astrophysicist Donald Kessler in 1978. Kessler hypothesized that space clutter could reach a tipping point: One really bad collision could produce so much junk that it would trigger a chain reaction of collisions. This disaster scenario would leave hundreds of satellites eventually destroyed, and create a ring of debris that would make launching any new satellites impossible, forever.  “Near space is finite—it’s a finite resource,” Jah said. “So now you have this growing trash problem that isn’t being remediated.... And if we exceed the capacity of the environment to carry all this traffic safely, then it becomes unusable.” That’s why a growing chorus of critics are already making the case that space is the next major environmental area to protect, after the oceans and land on Earth. “People seem to really treat resources in space as being infinite,” said Erika Nesvold, an astrophysicist who’s the cofounder of The JustSpace Alliance. “As we’ve seen, people don’t really intuitively understand exponential growth.”  That’s the dilemma in a nutshell: The available room in the sky is limited, but the plans for growth are exponential.’

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are about to ruin stargazing for everyone

The Conversation 17.11.20

Satellites launches are getting out of hand.  New regulations must be introduced before it is too late:

‘SpaceX is launching sets of 60 satellites every couple of weeks, and there will be a thousand Starlinks in orbit by Christmas 2020…  Simulations show that professional astronomy and amateur astrophotography will be severely affected by bright mega-constellations. Discoveries of hazardous near-Earth asteroids will be particularly devastated by the hundreds of Starlinks confusing their targets, leaving Earth more vulnerable to world-altering impacts.  The point of the Starlink mega-constellation is to provide global internet access. It is often stated by Starlink supporters that this will provide internet access to places on the globe not currently served by other communication technologies. But currently available information shows the cost of access will be too high in nearly every location that needs internet access. Thus, Starlink will likely only provide an alternate for residents of wealthy countries who already have other ways of accessing the internet.’

The World’s First 6G Test Satellite ‘Electronics University’ Successfully Launched

GizChina 06.11.20

100 times faster than 5G satellite launched from China:

'The ‘Electronic Science and Technology University’ satellite weighs 70 kilograms and carries a terahertz satellite communication payload. It will establish a transceiver link and carry out terahertz load tests on the satellite platform. This will also become a global platform for terahertz communications in space application scenarios…  Terahertz communication has the advantages of abundant spectrum resources, high transmission rate, and easy integration of communication perception. It has important application prospects in the field of terrestrial and space communication. It is one of the key technologies of the sixth generation of mobile communication (6G) in the world.’

NASA objects to new mega-constellation, citing risk of “catastrophic collision”

Ars Technica 02.11.20

NASA cannot criticise Starlink as it’s embedded with the Pentagon.  They will however note that satellites have become a free-for-all in a seriously congested sky.  Glad they noted that!:

‘NASA has formally commented (PDF) on a request by a US company to build a mega-constellation of satellites at an altitude of 720km above the Earth's surface, citing concerns about collisions. This appears to be the first time that NASA has publicly commented on such an application for market access, which is pending before the Federal Communications Commission…  At issue are plans put forth by AST & Science, which intends to build a constellation of more than 240 large satellites, essentially deploying "cell towers" in space to provide 4G and possibly 5G broadband connection directly to cell phones on Earth. The company, based in Midland, Texas, calls its constellation "SpaceMobile" and has raised an estimated $120 million.  The space agency felt compelled to comment on AST's proposal for several reasons. Most notably, the proposed altitude for the SpaceMobile constellation lies near the "A-Train," a group of 10 Earth-science monitoring satellites operated by NASA and the US Geological Survey, as well as partners in France and Japan. "Historical experience with the A-Train constellation has shown that this particular region of space tends to produce a large number of conjunctions between space objects," the NASA letter states.’

SpaceX Reveals Monthly Cost Of Starlink Internet In Its ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’

Forbes 27.10.20

‘Internet for all’ was the mantra behind the launch of the explosive number of satellites. With the high price tag, it means ‘internet for the wealthy’:

‘According to an email posted on Reddit, and confirmed by CNBC, Elon Musk's company will charge users $99 a month initially to use its Starlink service. They will also need to pay $499 for a small satellite dish, mounting tripod, and router from the company…  While cheap for some, the pricing revealed so far is likely to be too high for some of the three billion people around the world that lack a connection to the internet, a supposed target market for space internet services like Starlink.  “That pricing is not much different from what we already see with satellite internet,” says industry analyst Laura Forczyk, from U.S. space consulting firm Astralytical.  “If the goal is to bring internet to the masses, then this price is not going to achieve that.”  Starlink relies on thousands of satellites operating in Earth orbit to beam the internet to the ground, known as a mega constellation. The company has already launched nearly 900 satellites, with plans to operate up to 42,000 in the future.  This has raised large concerns about the impact these satellites could have on operations in Earth orbit. Prior to Starlink, only 2,000 active satellites orbited Earth, dramatically increasing concerns around collisions and space junk.  Astronomers have also raised concerns about the impact of Starlink satellites on the night sky, noting the satellites could hamper observations of the universe. SpaceX has belatedly attempted to address these concerns, with some success.'

A 4G network on the Moon is bad news for radio astronomy

The Conversation 23.10.20

First, satellites crowding astronomy observation and now this:

‘Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.”   The total energy now is probably a few snowflakes’ worth, but nevertheless it is still true that astronomical radio signals are typically magnitudes smaller than artificial ones. If Jodrell Bank could pick up interference from a phone signal on Mars, how would it fare with an entire 4G network on the Moon?  That is the issue that is worrying astronomers like me, now that Nokia of America has been awarded US$14.1m (£10.8m) for the development of the first ever cellular network on the Moon. The LTE/4G network will aim to facilitate long term lunar habitability, providing communications for key aspects such as lunar rovers and navigation.’

Marslink

Futurism 22.10.20

First the moon to be connected and now Mars.  The Artemis accord needs to be globally reviewed asap:

'But in a recent interview with TIME magazine, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell laid out the company’s plans to bring its Starlink broadband satellite constellation technology to the Red Planet as well.  “Once we take people to Mars, they’re going to need a capability to communicate,” Shotwell said during a previously recorded interview with TIME. “In fact I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars.”  But a constellation around Mars won’t be enough, Shotwell said.  “And then of course you need to connect the two planets as well, so we make sure we have robust telecom between Mars and back on Earth,” she added.’

The UK’s post-Brexit space dream has turned into a nightmare

WIRED 21.10.20

After splurging £385m on rescuing OneWeb, no one is sure where the company would fit in the global scramble for space dominance:

‘Once a competitor to Elon Musk and SpaceX’s plan for internet-providing satellite constellations, OneWeb had become the centre of Brexit Britain’s new space ambitions.  That’s if the UK government can figure out what to do with it. Initially, the $500 million (£385m) investment, shared with Indian telecommunications company Bharti Global, was thought to be another step toward Britain building a home-grown alternative to Galileo, the European Union's global satellite system the country had recently rejected. There was a snag, however – OneWeb operated tiny satellites, measuring roughly one metre by one metre, that spun in constellations just 1,200 kilometres from Earth. The satellites used by major positioning systems – GPS, Russia's Glonass and Galileo – are all larger and orbit at altitudes of 20,000km. The UK, it seemed, had bought the wrong satellites.  After a storm of criticism, business secretary Alok Sharma responded that the investment – which had been on the cards since the summer – was “geopolitical”, and had nothing to do with building a rival system. “Acquiring OneWeb may have been to try to make sure that this constellation is not either bought by Amazon, for instance, or served to the Chinese on a silver platter, massively increasing their internet capabilities,” explains Serge Plattard, deputy director of Space Domain at University College London.’

Artemis Accords: why many countries are refusing to sign Moon exploration agreement

The Conversation 19.10.20

It looks like the old Space Treaty is being torn up for profits and colonial interests.  It’s highly disturbing as it will undoubtedly harm our most important satellite.  There are also current manoeuvres now to install 4G up there!:  

‘If the substance is reassuring, the US promotion of the accords outside of the “normal” channels of international space law – such as the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – will be a cause of consternation for some states. By requiring potential collaborators to sign bilateral agreements on behaviour instead, some nations will see the US as trying to impose their own quasi-legal rules. This could see the US leveraging partnership agreements and lucrative financial contracts to reinforce its own dominant leadership position…  While broader international acceptance may be desirable, the US believes that the lure of the opportunities afforded by the Artemis Program will bring other partners on board soon enough. Space-active states now face a stark choice: miss out on being the first to use the resources of the Moon, or accept the price of doing business and sign up to the Artemis Accords.’

Going Offline

Futurism 16.10.20

More rubbish to be a ‘natural’ occurrence in space:

'So far, about three percent of the satellites in the SpaceX Starlink network seem to have failed.  The satellites have thrusters that can steer them out of the way of hazards like incoming space debris, but they only seem to be working on 97 percent of the satellites, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell told Business Insider — leaving an appreciable number floating dead in space, where they could menace other satellites or astronauts in orbit.  SpaceX has launched about 775 Starlink satellites so far but plans to have 42,000 by the time the constellation is complete. At a three percent failure rate — assuming it stays consistent — that amounts to 1,260 immobilized satellites waiting to smash into other stuff in space.’

Musk's SpaceX wins Pentagon award for missile tracking satellites

REUTERS 06.10.20

Musk getting seriously entrenched with US military:

‘Under the SDA contract, SpaceX will use its Starlink assembly plant in Redmond, Washington, to build four satellites fitted with a wide-angle infrared missile-tracking sensor supplied by a subcontractor, an SDA official said…  The awards are part of the SDA’s first phase to procure satellites to detect and track missiles like intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which can travel long distances and are challenging to track and intercept.  SpaceX in 2019 received $28 million from the Air Force to use the fledgling Starlink satellite network to test encrypted internet services with a number of military planes, though the Air Force has not ordered any Starlink satellites of its own.’

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites could make US Army navigation hard to jam

Technology Review 28.0920

Without any endorsement from the US military, Musk’s satellites would  never have have been able to launch in the first place:

‘The US military relies heavily on GPS. Last year, the US Army Futures Command, a new unit dedicated to modernizing its forces, visited Humphreys’s lab to talk about a startup called Coherent Navigation he had cofounded in 2008. Coherent, which aimed to use signals from Iridium satellites as a rough alternative to GPS, was acquired by Apple in 2015.   “They told me the Army has a relationship with SpaceX [it signed an agreement to test Starlink to move data across military networks in May] and would I be interested in talking to SpaceX about using their Starlink satellites the same way that I used these old Iridium satellites?” Humphreys says. “That got us an audience with people at SpaceX, who liked it, and the Army gave us a year to look into the problem.” Futures Command also provided several million dollars in funding.' 

ISS forced to move to avoid space debris

The Guardian 23.09.20

Many more such manoeuvres to come with the multitude of satellites sprouting up:

‘Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were carrying out an “avoidance manoeuvre” on Tuesday to ensure the station would not be hit by a piece of debris, the US space agency Nasa announced.  The debris should pass within “several kilometres” of the International Space Station (ISS), but out of an abundance of caution, its trajectory was being changed to move it further away from the object.  The three crew members – two Russians and an American – relocated to their Soyuz spacecraft as the manoeuvre began so they could evacuate if necessary, Nasa said.’

Are Elon Musk's ‘megaconstellations’ a blight on the night sky?

The Guardian 12.09.20

Not just Musk’s, but all other private companies’.  Regulation is seriously needed:

‘From 1998 to 2012, more than 120 small satellites were launched. In the next two years, that number more than doubled. The tally now runs at around 500 small satellites a year, mostly made up of the Starlink units. Although they are not CubeSats, they apply the same principle of a small, simple satellite that can be mass produced to keep the cost down…  But for all the promise, there are some big problems with megaconstellations. One of the biggest is space debris. If satellites collide in orbit, they produce clouds of debris that can destroy other satellites, potentially starting a chain reaction known as the Kessler syndrome. And with megaconstellations exponentially increasing the number of satellites in orbit, the danger will increase…  

But then there are the astronomers. They perhaps stand to lose the most from the megaconstellations as the satellites will forever be crossing their fields of view, damaging their ability to collect data from the distant universe. Take, for example, the Vera C Rubin Observatory, an American-funded facility in Chile. This gigantic telescope has been in development for more than 20 years and costs millions of dollars. It is designed to begin the deepest survey of the night sky ever in 2022, but now it’s astronomers are wondering how to deal with the plethora of Starlink satellites that will streak across its images every night’.

Can the Moon be a person? As lunar mining looms, a change of perspective could protect Earth’s ancient companion

The Conversation 27.08.20

Brilliant initiative and great video about protecting our natural space:

‘As a thought experiment in how we might regulate lunar exploitation, some have asked whether the Moon should be granted legal personhood, which would give it the right to enter into contracts, own property, and sue other persons.  Legal personhood is already extended to many non-human entities: certain rivers, deities in some parts of India, and corporations worldwide. Environmental features can’t speak for themselves, so trustees are appointed to act on their behalf, as is the case for the Whanganui River in New Zealand. One proposal is to apply the New Zealand model to the Moon… We could abandon the idea that our moral obligations only cover living ecologies. We should consider the Moon as an entity beyond the resources it might hold for humans to use.  In practice, this might mean trustees would determine how much of the water ice deposits or other geological features can be used, or set conditions on activities which alter the qualities of the Moon irreversibly.’ 

Hundreds of astronomers warn Elon Musk's Starlink satellites could limit scientific discoveries

The Independent 25.08.20

Glad that the report condemns space saturation:

‘The research brought together more than 250 astronomers, satellite operators and dark-sky advocates to better understand the astronomical impact of large satellite constellations.  “We find that the worst-case constellation designs prove extremely impactful to the most severely affected science programs,” stated the report, which was published on Tuesday.  Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to launch more than 30,000 Starlink satellites in order to beam high-speed internet down to Earth. The report warned that “Starlink alone may roughly double the number of space-based moving objects detectable by the unaided eye around twilight.”  Options to reduce the impact include “darken them”, “keep them low”, “orient them to reflect less sunlight”, but number one on the list was “don’t launch them”.’

Amazon’s Constellation of 3,236 Satellites Has Astronomers Very, Very Freaked Out

Futurism 10.08.20

So Amazon gets a green light to add to the hundreds of satellites up in space.  When are regulations coming?:

‘Amazon was approved by the Federal Communications Commission to launch 3,326 satellites as part of its planned Kuiper constellation. That’s roughly 600 more satellites than the total number currently in orbit, as The New York Times reports. But who’s counting?  Astronomers are. And they’re worried. The news comes just a week after SpaceX launched its latest batch of 57 Starlink satellites, bringing the total number up to just shy of 600 already in orbit…  “We don’t have an industry body that’s producing good corporate citizenship on the part of all of these enthusiastic companies that want to launch, and we don’t have any regulatory setup in place that’s providing clear guidelines back to the industry,” Bannister added. “To me, honestly, it feels like putting a bunch of planes up and then not having air traffic control.”’

UK and US say Russia fired a satellite weapon in space

BBC 23.07.20

Space Force wars heat up:

‘This Russian test of what the Americans say is an anti-satellite weapon is part of a pattern of recent Russian space activity. In February, the US military said that two Russian satellites manoeuvred close to an American one, and in April Moscow test-fired a ground-based satellite interceptor.   Only four countries - Russia, the US, China and India - have demonstrated an anti-satellite capability over the past decades. Anti-satellite warheads have been carried aloft by aircraft or rockets, and satellites have also been illuminated by lasers.   But Moscow is also clearly looking at using one satellite to kill another. Interest in such weapons is growing given our reliance upon satellites for a variety of purposes such as intelligence gathering, communications, navigation and early-warning.   There is no treaty banning or limiting such weapons though a number of countries have argued for some kind of agreement to do just this.   But in military terms, space has already become the new frontier with several countries organising specific commands in their armed forces to deal with both the defensive and offensive aspects of protecting their essential space-based systems.’

China launches independent, unmanned Mars mission

REUTERS 23.07.20

Space has become a playground where “Mine is bigger” is heard constantly:

‘China successfully launched an unmanned probe to Mars on Thursday in its first independent mission to another planet, a bid for global leadership in space and a display of its technological prowess and ambition…  If successful, the Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, which is the name of a poem written two millennia ago, will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.’

Hope Probe: UAE spacecraft blasts off in first ever mission to Mars

The Independent 21.07.20

On the lookout for Martians:

‘The United Arab Emirates has launched its first mission to Mars, the first of three missions to the Red Planet to take place this month.  The Hope Probe launched from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center for seven-month voyage, facing off bad weather which caused the mission to be delayed twice.  The mission originally intended to leave Earth on 14 July.  China and the United States also plan to launch their own missions this month: China intends to send a Martian orbiter, lander, and rover on the 23 July.  Nasa, meanwhile, will launch the Perserverence Rover to look for signs of Martian life - but has already had its launch date delayed before.'

SpaceX Is Launching a Fleet of Pirate-Hunting Satellites

Futurism 17.07.20

Good-old spying is cloaked under ‘good deeds’:

‘A satellite intelligence company called HawkEye 360 says it’s booked a ticket on a SpaceX rideshare mission to launch a cluster of three satellites that will sail around the globe, tracking down pirates, poachers, and smugglers… With each new launch — Serafini wants to bring the total satellite count to 21 in the coming years — the amount of time it takes to revisit each location will drop. The ultimate goal is to get it down to 45 minutes, Serafini says. That would make it harder for, say, poachers to sneak into the Garamba National Park or any other preserve, kill a protected animal, and make off with the trophy.  “With our current cluster, we can already collect data anywhere in the world multiple times per day,” Serafini said. “But we need faster revisits in order to enable dark ship tracking or increase data density to conduct richer analysis.”’

A space odyssey: Britain rockets into unknown with OneWeb

REUTERS 09.07.20

A lot of uncertainties and financial unknowns in return for a bit of misplaced British pride:

‘Britain is betting that satellite operator OneWeb will help it boldly go into a post-Brexit era. But it faces formidable challenges to complete a working constellation and rebuild a collapsed venture that has proved a money pit for investors.  OneWeb, which began as WorldVu in 2012, has 74 satellites already in orbit, as it ramped up launches immediately before collapsing in late March.  Britain is looking at adding positioning technology to new satellites to complement and add resilience to the American GPS system, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, after the country exited the EU’s Galileo network as a result of Brexit.’

BeiDou: China launches final satellite in challenge to GPS

BBC 23.06.20

China wants independence to find its own way:

‘The third version of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) offers an alternative to Russia's GLONASS and the European Galileo systems, as well as America's GPS.  Future plans promise to support a more accessible and integrated system scheduled to come online by 2035 with BDS at its core…  China's space programme has developed rapidly over the last 20 years as Beijing has provided significant funding to develop the country's own high-tech systems.  In 2003, China became only the third country to launch its own crewed space mission. Since then it has built an experimental space station and sent two rovers to the moon.’

SpaceX Starlink internet prepares for beta users

ZDNet 15.06.20

Hope all the tests tank.  We can do without the extra electromagnetic pollution down here on earth:

‘According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX needs about 400 Starlink satellites to provide "minor" coverage and 800 for "moderate" coverage. The initial Starlink mega-constellation will have 12,000 satellites. But that's far from the end. In late May, SpaceX applied to the FCC to launch as many as 30,000 Starlink satellites.  

Still, with 540 satellites is enough for SpaceX to be inviting users to apply to become beta testers. The website now invites you to  "Get updates on Starlink news and service availability in your area," by filling out a form for an email address and zip code. The form allows prospective customers to apply for updates and access to a public beta test of the Starlink service.’ 

Planet’s view from above just got clearer

Quartz 09.06.20

It’s a very congested place up in the sky with loads of snooping tech getting cheaper to set up:

‘Planet was founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists who wanted to leverage new advances in satellite technology and expand access to space data. Its customers include US intelligence agencies, the NGOs that second-guess them, agricultural conglomerates, and firms that use machine learning to gain insight from remote-sensing data.  Planet operates more than 150 satellites, most of which are Doves, toaster-oven sized craft that collectively “scan” the earth each day, producing imagery with a resolution about three meters per pixel. You may have seen the company’s widely-shared image of a new mural in Washington, D.C…  

It also operates 15 SkySats, which were built and launched by a company, originally called SkyBox Imaging, that Planet acquired from Google in 2017. These are the spacecraft which had their orbits lowered from 500 km to 450 km in order to begin collecting sharper data. The acquisition also came with six more spacecraft, more or less boxed up  at the factory. This summer, they will reach orbit by tagging along with rockets carrying satellites for the internet constellation called Starlink being built by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Two launches, expected in June and later this summer, will each carry three SkySats.’

'It is about our survival': UAE's Mars mission prepares for launch

The Guardian 09.06.20

UAE joins the fray in exploring space:

‘The “Hope Mars mission”, due to be launched on 15 July, has been in preparation by the United Arab Emirates since 2014, and according to the project manager, Omran Sharaf, is seen as integral to the country’s long-term economic development. “It is about the future of the UAE and our survival,” Sharaf said…  All in all it will be a busy summer for Mars space missions. Both China and the US have missions due to launch in July, but none will be more intriguing than the UAE’s.’

Technological leaps, more risk or dawn of private space exploration? How SpaceX’s 1st manned mission could change things FOREVER

RT 27.05.20

It would also mean that the Space Treaty which was enacted a few decades ago would be left in the dustbin:

‘A private company’s technical ability to launch its own space missions without government involvement could provide completely new opportunities for various companies whose access to space was previously severely limited by state bureaucracy, Kotov believes.’… Elon Musk’s SpaceX inks deal with US military to test out sky-crowding Starlink satellites for Army communications https://www.rt.com/news/489842-spacex-starlink-us-military-deal/RT 26.05.20The Pentagon will be the biggest XSpace customer - no wonder its ridiculously high amounts of satellites have been allowed to launch.  42,000 within the decade:‘The military has signed a deal with the billionaire’s spaceflight company to test out the Starlink network over the next three years, evaluating its suitability for their data-transfer needs, an inside source told SpaceNews on Tuesday. Signed last week, the agreement, known as a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), is typically used by the military to test-drive private-sector technologies before buying them.’

U.S. agencies ask FCC to rescind Ligado spectrum decision

REUTERS 22.05.20

Let’s hope they succeed:

‘The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration filed a request on behalf of executive branch agencies, including the Defense and Transportation departments, saying the approval will cause “irreparable harms to federal government users” of GPS.   It asked the FCC to “prevent Ligado from deploying its network until this petition is addressed and harmful interference concerns are resolved.”   The Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, International Air Transport Association and Airlines for America, Iridium Communications and Lockheed Martin this week also filed petitions asking the FCC to reconsider…  

Ligado, which has been working for years to deploy a network for next-generation 5G wireless networks, says the spectrum is crucial for wide-scale 5G deployment because it can be used for in-building penetration and greater coverage at lower costs.   Ligado said it will “repair or replace at Ligado’s cost any government and device shown to be susceptible to harmful interference.”’

Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

BBC 17.05.20

More on the beam-testing space rockets:

‘The US Air Force has successfully launched its Atlas V rocket, carrying a X-37B space plane for a secretive mission.  The rocket launched on Sunday from Cape Canaveral, a day after bad weather halted plans for a Saturday launch.   The aircraft, also known as an Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), will deploy a satellite into orbit and also test power-beaming technology.  It is the plane's sixth mission in space.’

An out-of-control Chinese rocket may have dumped debris in Africa after falling from space 

The Verge 13.05.20

The sky is falling :-) :

‘Of course, it’s still very early, and it’s unclear exactly what can be done about this if the pieces are, indeed, from the Long March 5B. The United Nations has a treaty known as the Space Liability Convention, an agreement about who is held internationally liable if a falling space object injures someone or harms a place on Earth. The UN came up with the treaty in 1972 after a Soviet satellite crashed into Canada. China acceded to the treaty in 1988, but Côte d’Ivoire isn’t part of it. So even if the pieces are from the rocket, it’s unclear if China will have to pay up in some way.  Either way, space trackers aren’t pleased, and McDowell worries about what this means for the future. “They’re planning a lot of launches of this thing to assemble their new space station, and so that’s going to be a lot of these objects reentering a few days after launch,” says McDowell. “And that’s not good.”’

Space junk: Astronomers worry as private companies push ahead with satellite launches

The Conversation 13.05.20

Space junk, an old problem, can only be exacerbated with the profusion of satellite launches:

‘Crowding in low Earth orbit has inevitable consequences for ground-based astronomers. Bright surfaces on satellites can reflect rays from the sun – giving rise to a burst of sunlight directed towards the surface of the Earth. Such intense bursts of light are much stronger than the weak light sources typically being observed by astronomers and will impede observations of distant objects in space.   Billions have already been spent on existing optical telescopes, and many more billions will be poured into new platforms in the next decade, such as the European Extremely Large Telescope being built on the Atacama plateau in Chile. There is intense competition for observing time on such resources, so any potential threat from satellite reflections must be taken seriously as they may make some of the observations driving our understanding of the evolution of the universe impossible.’

DARPA set to launch first Blackjack satellite later this year

V4ISRNet 12.05.20

The sky’s obviously not the limit.  More satellites to go up using meshed networks, coordinated by Lockheed Martin:

‘The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will launch its first Blackjack satellite into orbit later this year, with more to follow in 2021.  With Blackjack, DARPA seeks to demonstrate the value of low earth orbit satellites for the Department of Defense. The small satellites will carry advanced technologies that will demonstrate space-based mesh networks and constellation autonomy.  “Blackjack seeks to develop and validate critical elements of global high-speed autonomous networks in LEO, proving a capability that could provide the Department of Defense with highly connected, resilient, and persistent overhead coverage,” the agency said in a May 11 statement.'

A Massive Chinese Rocket Is Plummeting Out of the Sky Right Now

Futurism 11.05.20

What goes up must go down, right?:

‘Rockets usually tend to break up into smaller pieces as they fall. Some can carry themselves to safer reentry locations such as the Pacific Ocean, according to Forbes, but that doesn’t seem to apply to China’s Long March rocket.  Most pieces of debris will likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere and not make it onto the ground.’

Next X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Scheduled to Launch

Space Force 06.05.20

What are they trying to do?

‘The mission will deploy the FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory to conduct several experiments on orbit. The FalconSat-8 is an educational platform that will carry five experimental payloads for USAFA to operate. In addition, two National Aeronautics and Space Administration experiments will be included to study the results of radiation and other space effects on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food. Finally, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, will transform solar power into radio frequency microwave energy which could then be transmitted to the ground.’

Exclusive: Trump administration drafting 'Artemis Accords' pact for moon mining - sources

REUTERS 05.05.20

And just like that, the US believes it has the right to carve out our moon:

‘The Trump administration is drafting a legal blueprint for mining on the moon under a new U.S.-sponsored international agreement called the Artemis Accords, people familiar with the proposed pact told Reuters… In the coming weeks, U.S. officials plan to formally negotiate the accords with space partners such as Canada, Japan, and European countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates, opening talks with countries the Trump administration sees as having “like-minded” interests in lunar mining… As countries increasingly treat space as a new military domain, the U.S.-led agreement is also emblematic of NASA’s growing role as a tool of American diplomacy and is expected to stoke controversy among Washington’s space rivals such as China… 

The United States enacted a law in 2015 granting companies the property rights to resources they mine in outer space, but no such laws exist in the international community.  Joanne Gabrynowicz, editor-in-chief emerita of the Journal of Space Law, said an international agreement must come before staking out “some kind of exclusive area for science or for whatever reason.”  “It is not anything any nation can do unilaterally and still have it be legal,” she said.’

U.S. Space Force's First Offensive Weapon Is a Satellite Jammer

Interesting Engineering 22.04.20

The prime lubricant of the US economy, war, now gets another realm to exploit:

‘The United States Space force now has offensive power, though it might not be the massive orbiting weapons system that you're envisioning.   The new weapons system delivered to the space force is a jammer type array that can prevent military or intelligence combatants from accessing their military satellites. This functionality allows the space force to neutralize orbiting satellites in a matter of minutes… One of the biggest potential benefits of having the CCS as an offensive weapons system is that it now gives the US the ability to block enemies' abilities to get warnings about incoming missile strikes.’

Musk says SpaceX is 'fixing' brightness from satellites

BBC 23.04.20

He’s been saying that for a long time now.  No stopping satellite launches in this pandemic:

‘SpaceX has been launching large batches of satellites as part of its Starlink project to improve global internet coverage.  The most recent launch took place on Wednesday.  Responding to a question about the brightness of the Starlink satellites on Twitter, Mr Musk said it was due to the angle of the satellites solar panels and the company was "fixing it now”… 

According to astronomers, the visibility of the satellites now is less of a problem for them than it will be as the constellation grows and becomes operational.  Currently, the spacecraft are in a parked orbit, but over the next few months, the craft will use on-board engines to move slighter further from the Earth and rotate their solar panels towards the Sun. That will make them less visible to the naked eye but could mean they cause light pollution for astronomers trying to take pictures of the farther reaches of space.   "Astronomers' cameras are designed to take pictures of really faint thing and bright light could ruin data," explained Dr Jonathan McDowell an astronomer at the Centre for Astrophysics, a research centre at Harvard University.’

FCC to approve 5G network despite military saying it will harm GPS

Ars Technica 16.04.20

Weather forecasts are threatened, now GPS:

‘The FCC said its draft order would "ensure that adjacent band operations, including GPS, are protected from harmful interference." Pai said the FCC has "compiled an extensive record, which confirms that it is in the public interest to grant Ligado's application while imposing stringent conditions to prevent harmful interference.”…

Ligado plans to use a mix of satellite and terrestrial communications for its network. Instead of competing directly against Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile for smartphone customers, Ligado plans to deliver custom private networks for industrial firms, service for Internet of Things devices and unmanned systems, and connectivity for other business and government use cases. Ligado could also supply capacity to the major wireless carriers… 

In a November 2019 letter to Pai, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said: "there are too many unknowns and the risks are far too great to federal operations to allow Ligado's proposed system to proceed. All independent and scientifically valid testing and technical data shows the potential for widespread disruption and degradation of GPS services from the proposed Ligado system. This could have a significant negative impact on military operations, both in peacetime and war.”'

The U.S. Space Force has now actually gone to space [Updated]

Ars Technica 26.03.20

Nothing deters the first US Space Force from launching:

‘For this mission, the Atlas V rocket will boost the sixth and final satellite in a constellation of military communications satellites in geostationary orbit. The "Advanced Extremely High Frequency" (AEHF) satellites are replacing the older Milstar communications system. The individual satellites cost $850 million each, and this AEHF-6 satellite to be launched Thursday was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The previous five AEHF satellites launched on Atlas V rockets from 2010 to 2019.’

OneWeb increases mega-constellation to 74 satellites

BBC 22.03.20

Despite the pandemic, satellite companies suddenly become altruistic heroes, connecting people all over the world.  No health papers have been submitted to determine whether beaming such technology would be good for either humans or planet:

‘After Saturday's launch, OneWeb accentuated the positives. In a statement issued by the start-up, CEO Adrian Steckel said: "In these unprecedented times following the global outbreak of Covid-19, people around the world find themselves trying to continue their lives and work online. We see the need for OneWeb, greater now more than ever before.

"High-quality connectivity is the lifeline to enabling people to work, continue their education, stay up to date on important healthcare information and stay meaningfully connected to one another. The crisis has demonstrated the imperative need for connectivity everywhere and has exposed urgent shortcomings in many organizations' connectivity capabilities. Our satellite network is poised to fill in many of these critical gaps in the global communications infrastructure.”'

Space startup Lynk uses satellite to send text message to unmodified Android phone

The Verge 18.03.20

All cell towers to eventually connect with satellites.  Again, has anyone done any health risks for this?:

‘“No one ever in human history has used a satellite to send a message directly to an unmodified mobile phone on the ground,” Charles Miller, co-founder and CEO of Lynk, tells The Verge. In order to get service from a satellite now, people have to either buy a specialized satellite phone or purchase an accessory that allows a typical smartphone to connect to a vehicle in orbit. The Lynk team say they have developed software for their satellites that “tricks” the average cellphone into connecting with the vehicles orbiting overhead whenever the phone is out of range of a regular cell tower.’

SpaceX plans Sunday launch from Florida to boost Starlink satellite count

UPI 13.03.20

Where will the money come from?  Would the military be the biggest customer?

‘If all continues on track for Starlink, 100 or more such Starlink launches could occur in the next few years. SpaceX intends ultimately to launch thousands of satellites to beam broadband around the globe to provide high-speed Internet everywhere, even in extreme weather or aboard high-speed jets.

Despite the fast pace of launches, little is known about Starlink's eventual business strategy, said Shagun Sachdeva, a satellite analyst with Northern Sky Research. "Starlink is a bit of a black hole right now. They are not sharing much information," Sachdeva said. "We do know there is interest from the U.S. military, and we believe most of their revenue will come from there rather than commercial customers.”

Sachdeva noted recent reports saying SpaceX is valued at $36 billion. "Most of the company's value is because of Elon Musk, not Starlink or their products. He is a good brand now," she said. "No investors are directly funding Starlink. Company leadership has said it is funding the constellation itself." ‘

ELON MUSK SAYS HIS INTERNET SATELLITES WON'T STOP US SEEING INTO SPACE, PUTTING HIM ON COLLISION COURSE WITH ASTRONOMERS

The Independent 10.03.20

Elon Musk plays down disruptive role his hundreds of satellites are causing astronomers:

‘The full extent of any impact on space observations remains unclear, though astrophysicist Dave Clements said last year that the constellation would be a "tragedy" and could potentially block the view of Earth-bound asteroids.  “They present a foreground between what we’re observing from the Earth and the rest of the universe, so they get in the way of everything,” he said. “And you’ll miss whatever is behind them, whether that’s a nearby potentially hazardous asteroid or the most distant Quasar in the universe.”  

SpaceX is one of several firms working to deliver internet connectivity through satellite constellations, with others including US giant Amazon and UK startup OneWeb. Other companies to have tried and failed include Orbcomm and Irdium.  Mr Musk said he hoped SpaceX's Starlink will be the first successful effort and said it should go live in northern US and Canada later this year. A global roll out will then follow in 2021.’

Hackers Could Shut Down Satellites—or Turn Them into Weapons

Scientific American 22.02.20

‘If hackers were to take control of these satellites, the consequences could be dire. On the mundane end of scale, hackers could simply shut satellites down, denying access to their services. Hackers could also jam or spoof the signals from satellites, creating havoc for critical infrastructure. This includes electric grids, water networks and transportation systems…. Although the U.S. Department of Defense and National Security Agency have made some efforts to address space cybersecurity, the pace has been slow. There are currently no cybersecurity standards for satellites and no governing body to regulate and ensure their cybersecurity. Even if common standards could be developed, there are no mechanisms in place to enforce them. This means responsibility for satellite cybersecurity falls to the individual companies that build and operate them.’

Japan Successfully Launches Latest IGS Reconnaissance Satellite

SpaceWatch 09.10.20

SARs are the new reconnaissance drones:

‘Japan currently operates five high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and now three electro-optical IGS satellites that monitor military activities by North Korea and China, to include ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, naval activities in the South China Sea, East China Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Western Pacific Ocean…

The Japanese government intends to put ten IGS satellites in orbit at any one time, consisting of a mix of electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar sensors to assure day and night, all-weather, coverage of targets of interest with regular revisit rates. IGS imagery is supplemented by Japanese civil Earth observation satellites such as the ASNARO system, as well as commercial and allied imagery.’

OneWeb plans April launch break to tweak satellite design

Space News 06.02.20

Some to go up this Thursday and a hell of a lot more to follow

‘Steckel said OneWeb still hasn’t decided if it will build 900 first-generation satellites, as planned in 2016, or if it will halt at 648 before starting a second generation.  The company is ultimately planning a constellation of 1,980 satellites, having recently asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to grant market access for that number of satellites.’

OneWeb Launches 34 Satellites as Astronomers Fear Radio Chatter

New York Times 06.02.20

The skies are getting crowded both visually and acoustically:

’While federal regulations protect certain radio frequencies for such research, OneWeb and SpaceX both plan to transmit signals near one of those protected bands. For astronomers, that’s a little too close for comfort. “It’s very similar to when you have two apartments next to each other,” said Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “To some extent, the sound in one unit is confined, but if it gets too loud, it bleeds over.”’

Legal action could be used to stop Starlink affecting telescope images

New Scientist 03.02.20

Finally, astronomers are doing more than just complaining:

‘The group says that to halt mega constellations, a case could be brought to the International Court of Justice to argue that the night sky is a shared human right under the World Heritage Convention. “The harm here is damage to our cultural heritage, the night sky, and monetary damages due to the loss of radio and other types of astronomy,” the astronomers write. Or a case could be filed against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US for licensing Starlink, which the group says may have been in breach of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)...

Chris Johnson, a space law advisor at the Colorado-based pressure group the Secure World Foundation, says that the chances of legal action being successful are slim, but there is an argument that could be made. “It’s time for the larger space community to think what means more: ground-based astronomy and traditional views of the night sky, or cheaper internet from space,” he says. The FCC said in a statement it “strongly reject[ed]” any claims it has violated NEPA and its approval of Starlink was “entirely lawful”.’

Space companies are scrambling to solve the problem of defunct satellites

QUARTZ 31.01.20

Catastrophic and highly polluting times ahead for a growing fleet of satellites:

‘Two long-defunct US satellites came within 155 feet of colliding at nearly 33,000 miles per hour on Jan. 29, about 560 miles (900 km) above the Earth. While they passed each other safely, a crash would have generated a cloud of debris that could have threatened any spacecraft in orbit… Today, satellite operators must obey a set of broad safety standards set by international law and their own domestic regulators; in the US, that’s the Federal Communications Commission. When most satellites were operated by the government or large companies closely tied to it, managing spacecraft was fairly easy.  But now private companies believe they can make big profits by flying satellites, creating a bloom of space traffic: From 2009 to 2018, 230 satellites launched every year. SpaceX added another 60 satellites to its Starlink constellation earlier this week. And market researchers at Euroconsult believe that 990 satellites will be launched annually in the next decade. That has regulators and companies alike scrambling to come up with new standards to ensure a safe operating environment, including even faster de-orbit schedules…

DirecTV reported last week that one of its satellites, called Spaceway-1, suffered significant damage to its batteries that could cause the vehicle to explode if they are used. For now, Spaceway-1 is powered directly off its solar panels, but the company fears that when the satellite enters Earth’s shadow and must draw on battery power, it could be destroyed—and potentially endanger other satellites. DirecTV is seeking permission to fly the satellite to a graveyard orbit without removing all its propellant, as the best alternative to risking an explosion.’

SpaceX launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites, tweaks satellite design

Space News 29.01.20

‘SpaceX has now launched 242 Starlink broadband satellites, though not every satellite will be part of the constellation when it starts service, a milestone anticipated later this year in Canada and the United States.   Some 10 Starlink satellites have not raised their orbits, according to observations by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite movements.  SpaceX spokesman James Gleeson, when asked about the 10 satellites, said SpaceX is “performing a controlled de-orbit of several first iteration Starlink satellites,” using onboard propulsion.    “While these satellites are operable and capable of providing service, the second iteration of Starlink satellites that SpaceX has started to deploy provide better spectrum efficiency, more capacity and optimized service to the end user,” he said.’

5G: Could it reduce our ability to forecast hurricanes? (video)

BBC 25.11.19

5G BBC video on interference for predicting storms. 

SpaceX is now the world’s largest satellite operator [Updated]

Ars Technica 7.1.20

SpaceX becomes the largest private satellite company.:

‘The potential reward for the company, however, is sizable. With its burgeoning constellation, SpaceX has surged ahead of OneWeb and several other competitors seeking to develop low-latency Internet from space. With its highly reusable Falcon 9 rocket first stage, SpaceX also has a decided cost advantage in terms of getting its satellites into space. Capturing just 3 percent of the global Internet market could bring in about $30 billion in revenue’ 

SpaceX sends 60 more Starlink satellites into orbit

BBC 7.1.20

More SpaceX satellites go up:

‘It brings to 182 the number of spacecraft the firm has now put in the sky as part of its plan to provide a global broadband internet service.  The latest platforms went up on a Falcon-9 rocket, which left from Cape Canaveral in Florida.  The new additions mean SpaceX now operates more commercial satellites in orbit than any other company’. 

APPLE IS REPORTEDLY WORKING ON SECRET SATELLITE TECH

Futurism 20.12.19

‘Anonymous sources at the company told Bloomberg that about a dozen engineers are working on satellite and antenna designs to be first deployed in five years time — though, they emphasized, the project is still in early stages.’

SpaceX will test making Starlink satellites less shiny to appease angry astronomers

Technology Review 10.12.19

SpaceX making satellites non-reflective may not work at all:

‘“Optical astronomy will have a big problem, especially in trying to take images of the faintest and most distant objects,” says McDowell. “There will be some projects that are no longer doable and others that will take much longer, and therefore be more expensive.” He’s especially concerned about the decreased ability to spot potentially hazardous asteroids before they get close to Earth.’

Could your next cell phone wreck our weather forecasts?

National Geographic 26.11.19

National Geographic questions the validity of 5G satellites:

‘Over the past month delegates from countries and trade groups have gathered at the World Radiocommunications Conference to decide on international rules about how strictly to protect the “bands” of the electromagnetic spectrum crucial to weather forecasting—in other words, how much noise from the sports bar they’ll allow to be heard in the nap room.  In the end they came to a decision that some scientists—including Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA—say may degrade the forecasts in a dangerous way, perhaps irreparably.’ 

Understanding the Space Economy

Harvard Business Review 28.05.19

Space financials:

‘Once the domain of one-upmanship by national governments, the so-called “Final Frontier” is fast becoming the arena of private enterprise… SINÉAD O’SULLIVAN: Yeah, that – so I actually read that statistic myself recently and that number just seemed wildly huge to me. So at the minute, this space market is roughly $325 billion. Now, whether or not there’s an opportunity to 3x that in the next few years is something I’m a little bit skeptical about.’

OneWeb wants to blanket the planet in high-speed satellite broadband

Fast Company 07.11.19

OneWeb’s plans for space:

‘OneWeb plans to surpass existing satellite-broadband firms by flying below them and in vastly larger numbers. Instead of rocketing a few large satellites all the way to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO)—22,236 miles up, at which point the satellite’s orbital period keeps it locked above one point on the equator—the company will launch hundreds of satellites in much lower orbits.’

THE AIR FORCE IS TRYING TO BEAM SOLAR POWER DOWN TO EARTH

Futurism 5.11.19

US Air Force to beam down solar energy for its military down to earth:

‘A constellation of satellite-mounted solar panels, roughly the area of two football fields, would collect solar energy, convert it to radio frequency, and beam it down to Earth.’

SpaceX just filed a request to run 30,000 more Starlink satellites in orbit

Technology Review 15.10.19

42,000 more satellite by offing SpaceX:

‘SpaceX’s strategy has been lauded for its ambition, but it has also caused concerns. The company lost three satellites of the original batch that were launched—a 5% failure rate that could extend to the rest of its constellation. A recent near-miss between a Starlink satellite and an ESA weather satellite raised the specter of a collision that could make Earth’s orbit far more hazardous to spacecraft—or even unusable… On the other hand, flooding this region with a lot of new space traffic “will have an impact on future human spaceflight,” says Thompson. Coming within about 125 miles of the ISS has always been considered completely unacceptable, and SpaceX will have to figure out how to manage its satellites so there is little to no risk of damage to the ISS or any other human operations.’

The Pentagon wants to launch satellite constellations to track missiles

Technology Review 07.10.19

Paranoia drives US military to increase satellite launches:

‘The SDA believes a larger network situated in lower orbits will be more reliable at detecting missile threats and faster at beaming communications down to defense systems in the air, on the ground, and at sea. The agency is seeking to have 20 satellites operating by 2022, and a system backbone of 250 satellites operating by 2025. There are still questions as to how the agency intends to launch and install these constellation layers in orbit by 2025, however.’ 

Amazon’s Project Kuiper and OneWeb raise the curtain higher on their satellite plans

GeekWire 01.10.19

All internet terminals to be constructed for satellite internet connections:

‘OneWeb, for example, is seeking FCC approval for up to 1.5 million ground terminals that customers would use to receive and transmit satellite data.  Amazon, meanwhile, is answering questions from the FCC about how the satellites in its Project Kuiper constellation would be maneuvered and deorbited. The answers make clear that Project Kuiper’s satellite design is still very much in flux.’

This company wants to deal with space junk by… sending more stuff into space

Technology Review 16.09.19

‘Put more satellites up to prevent debris hitting satellites ‘The Canadian space company is developing a constellation of 40 satellites that will work to monitor and track space debris, with commercial service starting in 2021. NorthStar will track the debris with a combination of hyperspectral, infrared, and optical sensors. Its software analyzes that data they produce and creates forecasts to predict potential collisions.’

Everyone remembers their first time: ESA satellite dodges 'mega constellation'

The Register 02.09.19

Satellite moved to avoid SpaceX Satellites:

‘The European Space Agency (ESA) accomplished a first today: moving one of its satellites away from a potential collision with a "mega constellation”.’ 

IAU Statement on Satellite Constellations

IAU 03.06.19

The IAU (International Astronomical Union) has issued a statement on the 3rd of June 2019:  

‘The scientific concerns are twofold. Firstly, the surfaces of these satellites are often made of highly reflective metal, and reflections from the Sun in the hours after sunset and before sunrise make them appear as slow-moving dots in the night sky. Although most of these reflections may be so faint that they are hard to pick out with the naked eye, they can be detrimental to the sensitive capabilities of large ground-based astronomical telescopes, including the extreme wide-angle survey telescopes currently under construction. Secondly, despite notable efforts to avoid interfering with radio astronomy frequencies, aggregate radio signals emitted from the satellite constellations can still threaten astronomical observations at radio wavelengths. Recent advances in radio astronomy, such as producing the first image of a black hole or understanding more about the formation of planetary systems, were only possible through concerted efforts in safeguarding the radio sky from interference… We strongly recommend that all stakeholders in this new and largely unregulated frontier of space utilisation work collaboratively to their mutual advantage.’

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Deploys Dozens of Satellites to Orbit

NYT 25.06.19

Another horrid propellant which the space industry has been and is using, is Hydrazine, a highly toxic chemical that necessitates Hazmat suits for handling.  The Air Force uses it for its F-16s: 

‘… vapors can cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory tract. Short term exposure may cause tremors, while prolonged exposure may cause damage to the liver and kidneys, possibly convulsions or death.’  

How Much Air Pollution Is Produced by Rockets?

Scientific American 29.11.17

Scientific American cornered the subject in 2017.  Martin Ross who delivered the above paper on soot told the paper: 

“The climate impact of rockets has not really been seriously addressed as yet.  But with respect to ozone, we now understand that the climate and ozone impacts of rocket exhaust are completely intertwined.”  

Potential climate impact of black carbon emitted by rockets

Advancing Earth and Space Science 28.12.10

In 2010, a paper from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) called ‘Potential Climate Impact of Black Carbon Emitted by Rockets’ found that: 

‘… emissions from a fleet of 1000 launches per year of suborbital rockets would create a persistent layer of black carbon particles in the northern stratosphere that could cause potentially significant changes in the global atmospheric circulation and distributions of ozone and temperature. Tropical stratospheric ozone abundances are predicted to change as much as 1%, while polar ozone changes by up to 6%. Polar surface temperatures change as much as one degree K regionally with significant impacts on polar sea ice fractions. After one decade of continuous launches, globally averaged radiative forcing from the black carbon would exceed the forcing from the emitted CO2 by a factor of about 105 and would be comparable to the radiative forcing estimated from current subsonic aviation.’

SOOT FROM SPACE TOURISM ROCKETS COULD SPUR CLIMATE CHANGE

Advancing Earth and Space Science 22.10.10

In a press release by AGU (American Geophysical Union), it was stated that:

‘Rocket exhaust could become a significant contributor to global climate change in coming decades, according to a new study. The research finds that soot emitted by rockets — not their carbon dioxide emissions — has the greater potential to contribute to global climate change in coming decades’.  

Limits on the Space Launch Market Related to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

tandfonline 11.03.09

With each launch, ozone depletion takes place:   In a 2009 paper titled 'Limits on the Space Launch Market Related to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion’ we learn that:

‘Combustion emissions from rocket launches change the composition of the atmosphere. The changes can be divided into transient changes near the launch site that affect air quality in the lowermost troposphere and long-term global changes in the composition of the stratosphere… Rocket combustion products are the only human-produced source of ozone-destroying compounds injected directly into the middle and upper stratosphere. The stratosphere is relatively isolated from the troposphere so that emissions from individual launches accumulate in the stratosphere… Stratospheric ozone levels are controlled by catalytic chemical reactions driven by only trace amounts of reactive gases and particles.  Stratospheric concentrations of these reactive compounds are typically about one-thousandth that of ozone. Deposition of relatively small absolute amounts of these reactive compounds can significantly modify ozone levels… Rocket engines are known to emit many of the reactive gases and particles that drive ozone destroying catalytic reactions’.