Will Manmade Satellites Outnumber All Visible Stars

[Cow Poke]

After SpaceX Launch, a Fear of Satellites That Outnumber All Visible Stars

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[QuantaFille]

Light pollution where I live is already so bad, we call it The Lone Star State. If people were concerned about being able to see the night sky, complaining about a few satellites is too little, too late.

[Cow Poke]

Light pollution where I live is already so bad, we call it The Lone Star State. If people were concerned about being able to see the night sky, complaining about a few satellites is too little, too late.

Fortunately, in my part of the (actual) Lone Star State, we live far enough "out in the country" where there is, on most nights, a gorgeous view of the night sky.

[Sparko]

I would be more worried about space pollution. We already have way too much in orbit. It causes all sorts of problems trying to track it all.

Musk said they are going to make the satellites less reflective so that probably isn't going to be the main problem:

Musk wrote on Twitter today (May 27) that he's already instructed teams to look into making future Starlink internet communications satellites less shiny to lower their "albedo," or reflectivity. He pointed that out in response to a direct call from a com menter on Twitter.

"Agreed, sent a note to Starlink team last week specifically regarding albedo reduction," Musk wrote. "We'll get a better sense of value of this when satellites have raised orbits & arrays are tracking to sun."
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlin...elon-musk.html

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I also wonder what a 500 pound satellite would do if it fell out of orbit? Would it burn up totally or not?. If not, there are going to be a lot of them above our heads. And they are in a low orbit, meaning more drag on them.

[Cow Poke]

I would be more worried about space pollution. We already have way too much in orbit. It causes all sorts of problems trying to track it all.

Musk said they are going to make the satellites less reflective so that probably isn't going to be the main problem:

Musk wrote on Twitter today (May 27) that he's already instructed teams to look into making future Starlink internet communications satellites less shiny to lower their "albedo," or reflectivity. He pointed that out in response to a direct call from a com menter on Twitter.

"Agreed, sent a note to Starlink team last week specifically regarding albedo reduction," Musk wrote. "We'll get a better sense of value of this when satellites have raised orbits & arrays are tracking to sun."
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlin...elon-musk.html

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I also wonder what a 500 pound satellite would do if it fell out of orbit? Would it burn up totally or not?. If not, there are going to be a lot of them above our heads. And they are in a low orbit, meaning more drag on them.

I remember 30 or 40 years ago an article about a "space trash collector" (I think it was Popular Science) because there was so much debris out there, that they were working on a way to corral it into manageable "piles". It was met with ridicule because of the immense scope of the challenge.

[Sparko]

I remember 30 or 40 years ago an article about a "space trash collector" (I think it was Popular Science) because there was so much debris out there, that they were working on a way to corral it into manageable "piles". It was met with ridicule because of the immense scope of the challenge.

This is just the stuff we can track:

http://stuffin.space/

[The Barbarian]

Q. How many astronomers does it take to change a light bulb?

A. Just one, if he's a good shot with a pellet gun.