#lprisd — Public Fediverse posts

Venkatesan now wrapping with thanks to the audience and the #LPRISD Committee for a successful, first-ever hybrid splinter session. Notes that many of the concerns discussed today are expected to accelerate in 2023, and invites AAS members to join the group. #AAS241

Q: About diffuse brightness of the night sky due to satellites and space debris, has it been observed or are there efforts to detect it?

Green: It's "fiendishly difficult" to try to measure it because the light is distributed over the whole sky. It hasn't been measured to date.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Q: Any concerns about satellite direct-to-mobile communications?

C. Walker: The giant antenna sizes (e.g., #BlueWalker3) are concerning in terms of optical/IR brightness. Obvious radio interference concerns as well, but may possibly be mitigated.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Q: What about the potential connections to climate?

J. McDowell: Although traffic in space is going way up, it's very small compared to what we're putting in the oceans. But total mass of the upper atmosphere is tiny, so re-entries can have an outsized effect.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Heim: It's not just whether we can see the stars. There are other, tangible threats to humanity both in space and on Earth that result from the rapid commercialization of space with few meaningful rules for how that space is used. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Heim: Not only satellites, but also ground-based light pollution have a real affect on how people experience the night sky, threatening to cut humanity off from one of the oldest environmental influences in our long history. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Heim: While there's no doubt that access to broadband Internet has significant social benefits, the way it is delivered (especially from space) and how that impacts the environment consists of a series of unanswered questions. #AAS241 #LPRISD

The last speaker is Jessica Heim (University of Southern Queensland) and co-chair of the #LPRISD Community Engagement subcommittee talking about the cultural affects of satellite megaconstellations. #AAS241

Arion: Most of these environmental concerns aren't attributable to big, single problems. It's lots of smaller problems that add up in aggregate. We need to work more closely with enviro orgs that have "deep pockets" and care about the bigger picture. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Arion pivots to remind the audience that, meanwhile, we still haven't solved the problem of terrestrial light pollution. Many of the effects are "upstream" of the light sources, like carbon emissions from wasted light associated with electricity production. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Arion: We're also polluting the surfaces of other Solar System bodies that will persist in their environments for "a very, very long time". Launches from those places can contaminate their surfaces/atmospheres more broadly. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Arion: It's not just about what happens in space. There's a whole life cycle of space operations from launch to re-entry that can have harmful environmental effects. This impacts launch sites to the upper atmosphere. #AAS241 #LPRISD

The next presenter is Doug Arion (Carthage College, emeritus) on the associated environmental and ecological concerns relating to large satellite constellations. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Mudd: Recent litigation has addressed some of these issues. U.S. federal courts have consolidated some of the recent cases. "We need a lot more than these regulations." Stay tuned! #AAS241 #LPRISD

Mudd: the FCC takes the position that NEPA doesn't generally apply to satellite operations in space and claims a "categorical exclusion", arguing that the 'human environment' in the statute is limited to on/near the Earth's surface. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Mudd: Is space regulated as a part of the 'environment', in the sense that review is called for? Not exactly. There is existing U.S. law that mandates reviews but is unclear on its applicability to outer space. With the International Dark-Sky Association we argued in 2019 that it should be. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Green: It's not all doom-and-gloom. FCC recently required a coordination agreement with NSF for Starlink Gen2. SpaceX didn't oppose the requirement. Elsewhere, we're making progress with Dept. of Commerce and the FAA. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Green: There is growing awareness of the problem in the federal government. We also realize that we have to consider the global policy framework and what it needs to deal with these issues better, but the consensus-based int'l process is extremely slow. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Green: We're limited by shortcomings of current regulations. Mitigations aren't part of Congressional mandates in current agency authorizations.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Green: AAS approved a position on the subject that has helped focus our work. It argues that balancing the benefits of commercial space against impacts to facilities with significant U.S. federal investment is a true "whole of government" problem.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Next, Richard Green (Steward Observatory) and Charles Mudd (Mudd Law) present on the policy/regulatory issues relating to #satellite #megaconstellations. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Seitzer shows stacked plots of the number of objects in various altitude bins from 2000 to 2022. Suggests that operators will "have to have maneuverability above 400 km" because of orbital crowding. "It's like being on an interstate." #AAS241 #LPRISD

Seitzer further notes that both SpaceX Starlink satellites and the International Space Station have repeatedly dodged debris from the Russian ASAT test. There are also other objects that are known to have broken up or re-entered in 2022. #AAS241 #LPRISD

On to Pat Seitzer speaking about the space debris aspect of the topic. Begins by showing some statistics about the amount of debris being tracked now versus six months ago.

Seitzer reviews the effects of the November 2021 Russian anti-satellite test, many of which persist in Earth orbit more than a year later. Notes that many of these objects will still be up a year or more from now.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Q: What about #policy solutions?

A: Policy moves slowly, but we have made many contacts in government. That the actual policymaking process is slow doesn't indicate any lack of interest in the topic among U.S. government officials.

#AAS241 #LPRISD

Bruno wraps with a slide summarizing the known impacts to professional #astronomy to date from large #satellite constellations. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Bruno: SpaceX tried several mitigations, some of which helped and others that did not or were abandoned for other reasons. The task of finding effective mitigations is ongoing, and ongoing dialog with companies is helping guide this effort. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Bruno: This all affects not only professional #astronomy, but also all users of the night sky including amateur astronomers, #Indigenous nations, and others. Astronomers quickly acted to understand the problem and make recommendations for mitigations. #AAS241 #LPRISD

First up, Sarah Marie Bruno (@JHUPhysicsAstro) gives an overview of the #satellite ' #megaconstellation ' issue as it pertains to #astronomy and a summary of events in this story to date. #AAS241 #LPRISD

Prof. Aparna Venkatesan (@UCSF Astro) opens the session with a welcome and description of what the AAS #LPRISD Committee does. Notes the focus of this splinter is on the continuum of the '#environment' from Earth to #space with an emphasis on large #satellite constellations. #AAS241