"Musk is the last adequate mind in North America. Or, at the very least, in gender-neutral America, he is the one with the balls," reacts Dmitry Medvedev, former president of #Russia.
I recently got quite some flak for discussing what #Starlink satellites burning up in the atmosphere after their planned lifetime of 6 years could do to the stratosphere. Adding tons of aluminium and other elements as fine aerosol particles. Well. New research has just been published:
"Here, we show that metals that vaporized during spacecraft reentries can be clearly measured in stratospheric sulfuric acid particles. Over 20 elements from reentry were detected and were present in ratios consistent with alloys used in spacecraft. The mass of lithium, aluminum, copper, and lead from the reentry of spacecraft was found to exceed the cosmic dust influx of those metals. "
And: "The influence of this level of metallic content on the properties of stratospheric aerosol is unknown." Which was my point. We have started a giant experiment on our atmosphere without any clue on the effects and there is no way to stop that experiment anymore.
Trying to observe the Perseid meteor shower through clusters of Starlink satellites crisscrossing the sky is a metaphor for our times. Billionaires are simply ruining everything.
@mastodonmigration We're out camping and I was able to find a field to lay down and watch for a bit with the kids. We saw several smaller ones but nothing really big. I still remember one I saw on a ferry back ~2003 that was like a yellow highlighter.
Elon Musk is a sorry shit, but I’m kinda grateful to him for reminding everyone that critical infrastructure has to be managed by states rather than private companies.
591 #Starlink satellites have already been burned in the atmosphere. Some planned, some unplanned. As these are LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites, that's part of the plan. Gravity at work. Once the system is fully operational, with 12.000 satellites, later maybe even 42.000 satellites that have a planned lifespan of 6 years in orbit, you can calculate yourself how many will burn on a daily basis. With 12000 it will be 5, with 42000 it will be 19. Per day. (UPDATE: Lifespan is 6 not 3 years)
@JenWojcik I am also critical of our approach in supporting Ukraine. We have limited the support provided like weapons with limited range before eventually allowing longer range weapons. If we are really trying to protect the people of Ukraine we should be doing everything.
I am particularly appreciating the support from Australia which has been those low cost cardboard UAVs which have been very effective. Taking out an airfield with millions in supplies and airplanes has to make Putin's forces think twice.
Musk's sabotage of an ongoing Ukrainian offensive military operation raises more questions: How did Musk know when and where the operation was happening so as to disable communications at the critical moment such that the attack would fail and the drone assets lost? What other operations is he meddling with? Is he sharing any comms or location information gleaned from #Starlink with the Russians?
“When Elon Musk reportedly spoke of a “great conversation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, minutes after declaring he could see “the entire war unfolding” through a map of activity on the small satellite constellation he owns, a senior defense official had the following reaction: “Oh dear, this is not good.”
My comment:
The hubris of Megaconstellations of Satellites, like #starlink, didn't just happen because someone created cheap rockets; the FCC licensed it, and will continue to do so in the future. And now others follow this example, because the money involved is big
@sundogplanets says in her presentation that they tried that for a while but had thermal problems with the satellites and abandoned it. Also tried another solution but dropped that one too.
🔴 It's been reported on #TwiX :twitter: that #Starlink, launched and operated by SpaceX - owned by #ElonMusk - went down just in the middle of an Armed Forces of #Ukraine attack on #Russian occupied #Sevastopol last night.
Tens of thousands of satellites in low orbit that require regular replacement and are designed to burn up in uncontrolled re-entries would add unprecedented amounts of aluminum to the stratosphere. What that would do is uncertain.
This feared space-junk cascade called Kessler Syndrome may have already begun.
By Mike Wall, July 14, 2022
"The Kessler Syndrome is a phenomenon in which the amount of junk in orbit around Earth reaches a point where it just creates more and more space debris, causing big problems for #satellites, #astronauts and mission planners.
"Consider this scenario: The destruction of a dead spy satellite spawns a swarm of debris in Earth orbit, which wreaks ever-increasing havoc as it zooms around our planet.
"The cloud destroys a number of communications satellites, generating more and more debris with every violent collision. It takes out the iconic #Hubble Space Telescope and a NASA #SpaceShuttle, killing several crewmembers aboard the winged vehicle. It then lines the International Space Station (#ISS) up in its crosshairs, destroying the $100 billion orbiting lab with a hail of fast-flying shrapnel." #SpaceJunk#Starlink
Visible and infrared astronomers are concerned about light pollution from satellite megaconstellations, and radio astronomers should be concerned too. A team of astronomers used radio telescopes in Australia to image the sky as Starlink satellites overhead. The tests were done at the future Square Kilometer Array facility in Western Australia, using prototype stations that will become part of the array. According to the team, the satellites were easily detectable, and they could see them performing periodic bursts and steady transmissions. When the full SKA comes online, satellites will be another source of radio interference to contend with.
"#Starlink satellites flooding sky with radiation, which could be hurting radio astronomy
#ElonMusk’s thousands of Starlink satellites aren’t just disrupting scientific research by causing streaks in deep space photos — according to a new study, they are also dumping “unintended electromagnetic radiation” into space, something that could be a major problem for Earth-bound astronomers.
In the study, forthcoming in the peer-reviewed journal #Astronomy & #Astrophysics, scientists observed 68 Starlink satellites made by SpaceX and found that the satellites in low Earth orbit could be muddling or even drowning out signals from deeper in space that radio astronomers search for.
Some of the radiation emitting from the satellites falls within a bandwidth that is designated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to allow radio astronomers to perform their work, according to the study."
#SpaceKaren is a straight up Bond villain without the charm.
"Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars
(...) While Mr. Musk is hailed as a genius innovator, he alone can decide to shut down Starlink internet access for a customer or country, and he has the ability to leverage sensitive information that the service gathers. Such concerns have been heightened because no companies or governments have come close to matching what he has built.
In Ukraine, some fears have been realized. Mr. Musk has restricted Starlink access multiple times during the war, people familiar with the situation said. At one point, he denied the Ukrainian military’s request to turn on Starlink near Crimea, the Russian-controlled territory, affecting battlefield strategy. Last year, he publicly floated a “peace plan” for the war that seemed aligned with Russian interests."
Radio astronomers are also extremely concerned, as all these satellites transmit information down to Earth, which can interfere with astronomical observations.
This image was made by Bill Dunford (NASA JPL) at McDonald Observatory last Friday night. The red blob appears to be an induced aurora from a rocket launch, likely the 2nd stage burn of the #Falcon9#Starlink 6-16 launch out of Canaveral at 0338 UTC on the 16th. Coincidentally, the 2.7m telescope, equipped with an IFU spectrograph, was looking in the direction of this spot as it passed overhead. It's not known yet whether the light affected the data.
@JohnBarentine I once saw it with my own eyes in Ostrava - Czech Republic (Central Europe). There were never any rocket launches in the area. I considered it a kind of red sprite. This phenomenon lasted barely a few seconds.
This article about #Starlink and low earth orbit satellites ht @petergleick is well worth a read. I'm conflicted. It's horrifying what has been done to the night sky and the powe and influence that has basically been concentrated in one person + company. On the other, there are some real benefits to being able to use satellite internet in places like #Ukraine.
Anyway, worth a read and a ponder ..
"We observe #Starlink#satellites reaching intensities of 10^6 Jy/beam, with the detected transmissions exhibiting a range of behaviours, from periodic bursts to steady transmission. The results are notable because they demonstrate that Starlink satellites are detected in the SKA-Low frequency range, transmitting both intentionally and unintentionally."
Is the #birdsite now called #X part of the operating system of #starlink? Or, not yet? Regardless, you can be sure he’s watching. Planning. Thinking about power and leverage. The “best deals” to be made (as Trump would say).
Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars
The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. The ways he is wielding that influence are raising global alarms.
"In the past year, the amount of collision-avoidance maneuvers that needed to happen with the #Starlink constellation were an order of magnitude greater than they were in the past five years combined."
@Powerfromspace1 It still requires regulatory approval. So far I'm only aware that FCC has given out conditional permits for "experimental" applications (like to AST SpaceMobile for testing of its BlueWalker 3 satellite last year). That said, FCC is considering a potential regulatory framework for direct-to-mobile transmissions. There's a notice of rulemaking available here: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-400678A1.pdf
Teenagers in a remote Brazilian tribe have become hooked on pornography months after they were given high-speed internet access via Elon Musk’s #Starlink.
that's nice Pentagon. but couldn't we have done this a little bit sooner before all the #ElonMusk#Putin bootlicking on terminal access? it's an #American company
granted, this is all "fog of war" stuff and it's probably not the whole story. i'm sure there was intelligence gathering and deception going on, "random" errors in terminals used by #Russia.
