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Experts have warned that a “major issue” is looming for both amateur stargazers and astronomers as an abundance of satellites is threatening to “clog up” the night skies. There are over 8,000 satellites orbiting the Earth as space companies launch at staggering rates. In fact, this is a four-fold increase since 2019. This rate will only continue to grow as the commercial global space industry grows.
Satellite launches are usually a flagship indicator of a nation’s burgeoning space sector. Take, for example, the interest around the UK’s first attempted rocket launch last month with Virgin Orbit from Spaceport Cornwall. The private firm’s rocket was meant to take nine satellites into low-Earth orbit, but failed to reach orbit after suffering an anomaly.
While this launch was not successful, SaxaVord, based in Scotland, is hoping to complete a launch by the summer and hopes to complete 30 satellite launches a year once its site in Shetland becomes fully operational.
There is huge excitement building for the UK’s burgeoning space sector, but the scale is much larger when names likes SpaceX get thrown into the mix. Elon Musk’s firm is poised to launch a further 44,000 for its Starlink internet constellation, for instance. All in all, around 400,000 satellites have been approved for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) around the world.
While satellites are used for crucial means, anything from internet connectivity and navigation to climate change observation studies, there is one “major issue” that an excess of the technologies poses.
Tony Tyson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis, was quoted in the Telegraph saying: “If you just went out in a dark place somewhere and looked at the sky in 2030 it would be a very macabre scene.The sky will be crawling with moving satellites and the number of stars that you would see are minimum, even in a very dark sky. It’s a major issue.”
Last week, The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the UK Space Agency (UKHSA), and the Department of Business met for the Dark and Quiet Skies conference in a call for closer regulation.
Dr Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director of the RAS, said there has been “a paradigm shift” in how we view space.
He said: “There is the real prospect that we could see hundreds of thousands of satellites in orbit by the end of the decade. Frankly, searching for the origin of life may be a long shot but detecting signals from other civilizations becomes harder if you have an incredibly powerful and noisy sky. Unlike light pollution, you cannot get away from it, because wherever you are on Earth you can see the sky.”
“If we leave this unchecked, I think this is also a cultural issue. If you get to the point where satellites make up, say about 10 percent of the stars in the sky moving around, I think that’s fairly intrusive and it is a damage to that natural landscape.”
Part of the issue is that satellites reflect sunlight back down to Earth, which has already been causing problems for astronomers.
This is because bright streaks of light form when satellites drift in front of the optical field. Another issue is that internet satellites are capable of interfering with sensitive radio telescopes. One telescope faring particularly badly from the abundance of satellites is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.
It is set to embark o a 10-year survey next year and its purpose is to search for tiny changes in the movements of 37 billion stars and galaxies. However, early testing has revealed that around 40 percent of frames will be affected during twilight hours.
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Astronomer Anthony Tyson, the project’s chief scientist, told science.org: “It’s a perfect machine to run into these things.” However, he noted that “all optical and infrared observatories will be affected to some degree”.
Professor Joanne Wheeler, an expert in satellites and space policy at Alden Legal, said: “Space debris and space traffic management have been a growing issue for decades and unless addressed will lead to orbits becoming unusable.”
She added that there is a “very real risk of Low Earth Orbit becoming uninsurable. We need to protect access to space, not just for now but also for the unborn generations”.
This comes as the space industry boast about space becoming “even busier” in 2023.
Speaking on the Virgin Orbit launch, Paul Kostek, Commercial space expert and IEEE senior member, advisory systems engineer with Base2 solutions, said: “2023 should be a landmark year for space both commercially and for countries as costs drop, and technical knowledge expands.
“Also, satellite constellations will continue to grow larger with new players emerging from around the world.”
However, he noted that firms are looking into the debris and overcrowding issues.
Mr Kostek said: “There are challenges that will need to be considered. Including managing the increasing volume of small satellites as they reach the end of their life span, organisations will need to consider how they can mitigate their re-entry and destruction in earth’s atmosphere.
“Several companies are exploring the creation of vehicles that can refuel and move satellites extending their lives. Moving forwards, there needs to be a more comprehensive Space Traffic Management (STM) to prevent collisions resulting in the loss of an asset and the generation of new debris. Discussions are needed on how to manage the ever-growing amount of space debris by finding ways to capture and destroy debris; this will become essential as the number of users grows.”
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