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Bewaretheicespiders t1_jafoqux wrote

This is so ridiculously melodramatic it belongs in a fiction sub. Very disapointed by Scientific American. In the meantime:

  • Astronomers (serious ones) have the means to easily deal with this
  • We arent going to stop LEO traffic forever, not for any reason. Humanity belongs in space.
  • Starlink pays for Starship which will make space telescopes affordable, and ground astronomy obsolete for science purpose
  • Millions of people having internet access is more important than what is realistically a minor short-term inconvenience to astronomers. Really, shame on you.
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ElReptil t1_jahdw4o wrote

>Starlink pays for Starship which will make space telescopes affordable, and ground astronomy obsolete for science purpose

No. Launch costs are not what makes space telescopes expensive, and Starship won't make it possible to build space telescopes anywhere near the size of current and near-future ground-based telescopes. Space telescopes complement ground-based observatories, but they won't replace them anytime soon.

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Bewaretheicespiders t1_jahz73z wrote

Ah, people with no vision. Thanks to low gravity and free real estate, you could build on the moon a bigger and better telescope than anything possible on earth. All you need to low launch costs.

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Goregue t1_jai46k3 wrote

Satellite constellations are a huge issue and can completely kill ground-based astronomy if the number of constellations continues its exponential grow.

"Astronomers (serious ones) have the means to easily deal with this"

So far astronomers have the means to deal with it, but what about in 10-20 years from now when the number of satellites is 100 times greater? You will not be able to take a single long exposure without these satellites appearing. It will make astronomy observation from the ground completely unpractical.

"We arent going to stop LEO traffic forever, not for any reason. Humanity belongs in space."

There is a big difference between typical LEO satellites and these mega constellations. The later are increasing the number of LEO objects at a rate unlike anything seen previously. The problem is specifically satellite constellations, NOT general LEO traffic.

"Starlink pays for Starship which will make space telescopes affordable, and ground astronomy obsolete for science purpose"

Even if the launch cost were zero, it would still be orders of magnitude more expensive to build and operate space telescopes. Astronomy with only space telescopes would only be possible if we had military-level funding for science. And there are still types of telescope which we cannot replicate in space, such as the 30-40 meter ELTs currently under construction. While building giant telescopes on the moon seems like a nice solution, it is still at least 50-100 years away and will always have an extreme cost associated with it.

"Millions of people having internet access is more important than what is realistically a minor short-term inconvenience to astronomers. Really, shame on you."

There are other ways to bring internet to everyone. And satellites constellations are not a "minor inconvenience", they have the potential to completely kill astronomical observation from the ground. It's not an exaggeration when astronomers say this. Astronomers know the observations they deal with. You should listen to what the experts say instead of choosing to believe what you find more comforting. Anyone that cares about the progress of science should be alarmed by the current trends of these mega constellations.

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