Notices by Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social), page 3

Updating my astro 101 lecture on satellites and holy crap... there are 1738 more active satellites in orbit today than 1 year ago, and 1690 of those are Starlinks.

62% of all active satellites are now Starlinks, up from 55% 1 year ago.

As long as Starlink doesn't make a single mistake in orbit, it's all fine, I guess. Which is cool, because SpaceX never makes engineering mistakes, like dumping hundreds of pounds of "fully demisable" space debris on other countries... whoopsie.

I have to turn in my talk slides for this UN workshop on Sunday (even though the workshop itself isn't for 5 weeks!!) And I am feeling extremely grumpy about editing slides on a Friday night, also depressed about the fact that there will probably be like 200 more disposable satellites in orbit in 5 weeks.

A reporter just sent me a link to this: https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LmD-lumen-orbit-data-centers-in-space

He wants to interview me about some fucking start-up company's planned 16 km^2 solar panels and fucking *AI data centers in orbit*

I think maybe I'll just walk into the middle of my hayfield and scream for a while instead. Anyone want to join? Screaming begins in 5... 4... 3...

Good morning

My llama is too chill to be stressed out about 30 emails from students that came in overnight even though I haven't even taught the first lecture yet. I need to be more like my llama.

Ok, it's official now: I'm going to give a talk about satellite pollution at a UN (!!) workshop.

I have very mixed feelings about this! It's 100% in person, which is SO much stupid travel pollution (in order to try to stop so much stupid satellite pollution, ugh). But it's in Milan!! I've never even thought about going to Milan, it's just so fancy and out of reach. So... wow.

Welp. I just figured out that I have 2 fewer teaching days than I expected for one of my classes (because every semester I get assigned different days of the week to teach on). So...what part of the solar system do I leave out? SIGH.

Tired of hearing me complain about Starlink? I've got a new megaconstellation to complain about. Oh joy.

The new Chinese Qianfan satellites are naked-eye visible, even though they're in higher orbits than Starlink. Because, of course they are.

https://skyandtelescope.org/uncategorized/observers-report-first-views-of-the-chinese-thousand-sails-satellites/

Today I learned a new rebuttal to the constant response from tech bros to me complaining about satellite pollution: WeLL JuSt PuT ALL yOuR tEleScOpEs iNtO SpAcE! While astronomers have way more ground-based research telescopes, greenhouse gas emissions from astronomy are dominated by the few space missions. I had no idea there was such a big discrepancy.

Thanks for the great/depressing/important paper @jknodlseder

https://astrodon.social/@jknodlseder/113028380162373253

Why do they have to be in such a dense orbit? Why do they need 42,000 of them?! They are launching more into this same super dense orbit and we're supposed to just trust that their "autonomous collision avoidance system" will be good enough to keep going at higher and higher densities?

There's an opportunity for error about every 30 seconds. One small mistake and we're in Kessler Syndrome, no more LEO satellites for decades.

I did a calculation yesterday that made me want to scream. If you look at the *current* density of satellites in 1km altitude bins in Low Earth Orbit, and assume they are travelling at circular velocities (generally true), then Starlink satellites pass within <1km of each other EVERY 30 SECONDS.

At Starlink altitudes, everything is travelling at 7 km/second, so <1 km close approaches are terrifyingly close. Every 30 seconds. WHY.

The Weather Canada radar page is very fancy and nice and all, but my old computer and semi-shitty rural internet often have a hard time loading it. Is there a lower bandwidth website with good radar info?

...I ask as I hope for thunderstorms to appear on the radar page that won't load...

Launching stuff into orbit (especially humans) is really really hard. And it's getting harder and harder to do safely as the amount of space junk and satellites in orbit increase.

So many aspects of satellite pollution: space junk falls on us, space junk crashes into astronauts. The part that makes me angriest is all the light pollution from satellites and space junk.

And the part that worries me the most is all the atmospheric pollution. But there's a petition for this!

I was listening to my local CBC station while milking goats this morning, and they had an interview about how the astronauts are sort of stranded on the ISS because Starliner kind of sucks, but don't worry, SpaceX will save them with a Crew Dragon!

As soon as I finished milking, I emailed to remind them of the giant pieces of space junk that fell on us in Saskatchewan months ago: that was from a SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk! SpaceX is *far* from perfect, please don't heroize them.

Sign here: https://pirg.org/edfund/take-action/tell-the-fcc-satellite-mega-constellations-need-environmental-review/

Full report on why you should sign is here: https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/wastex-environmental-harms-of-satellite-internet-mega-constellations/

You can also write to the FAA and tell them how you feel about SpaceX's horrifying levels of pollution and environmental destruction at their Boca Chica testing/launch facility. Instructions here: https://www.kesslerrebellion.com/take-action-2024-08-faa-2024-2006

Note that SpaceX has screwed this up so massively that the FAA actually delayed their public hearings on it and there's now not a fixed end date for accepting comments, so that's exciting: https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/spacex-denies-violating-environmental-regulations-at-starbase/

Whoa, I have almost 10,000 followers.

Hi everyone! Enjoy this goat on a tire, as a little treat.

One of my colleagues wrote me an email to the effect of "Your satellite regulation advocacy is really having an impact! ...ok maybe that was a poor choice of words given your most recent news interviews..."

And there's even a petition you can sign to support these recommendations! Want the US government to actually look at the environmental consequences of SpaceX and other megaconstellation launches? Sign here!

https://pirg.org/edfund/take-action/tell-the-fcc-satellite-mega-constellations-need-environmental-review/

If you're an astronomer (amateur or professional), I have a different petition letter link to send you, DM me and I'll send it do you (...eventually)

This is written up in a Wired article too: "As Skies Fill With Space Junk, Nonprofit Urges US to Pause StarLink Launches" https://www.wired.com/story/pirg-starlink-environmental-review-space-garbage/

Excellent new report by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG): WasteX: Environmental harms of satellite internet mega-constellations https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/wastex-environmental-harms-of-satellite-internet-mega-constellations/

The report has great info on why 10s of thousands of throwaway satellites are terrible, and 2 powerful recommendations:

1. Pause launches until environmental reviews are done
2. Stop the categorical exclusion of satellites from environmental review