Скачать или смотреть The Space Problem No One’s Talking About

Yeah… look at all those little dots.
What are you seeing?
Those are just #starlink #satellites .
Just Starlink.
Since 2019, #spacex has launched over 7,000 of them.
And their goal? More than 40,000.
But they’re not the only ones.
#china has two massive #projects coming — at least #20,000 more #satellites .
Amazon wants their own network.
So does the #EU, #AT&T, and more.

If everyone follows through, we could end up with hundreds of thousands of satellites in low #earth orbit.

And here’s the part that blows my mind:
This chart of space launches looks like a proper hockey stick.
A massive spike.

But those dots you see in graphics?
They’re not even to scale.
In reality, the space around our planet is getting very #crowded .

Yes, these satellite constellations are meant to bring the whole world online — even the most remote areas.
But they also bring serious challenges.

For example: astronomy.
SpaceX has tried to make satellites less reflective to help telescopes that look at the stars.

But now there’s a new problem.
Radio waves.

A group of scientists found that the new generation of Starlink satellites leak 30 times more radio interference than the old ones.
That means space telescopes trying to listen to the universe… can’t.

And here’s the irony:
We call these mega-networks satellite constellations.
But if they block our view of the real stars…
That might be the last constellation we ever see.
‪@CleoAbram‬ ‪@johnnyharris‬ ‪@Vox‬ ‪@dhruvrathee‬ ‪@ISPR‬