On the top of a mountain in the Chilean desert, an $800 million U.S.-taxpayer-funded telescope just opened its eye.
The brand-new Vera C. But Rubin’s scientists have encountered a problem. Fast-moving, light-reflecting satellites are leaving white streaks across their photographs. In the future, as it becomes cheaper to launch material into space, more companies and governments will launch their own satellites. Satellites now aren’t very large. Starlink’s satellites are about four square meters in size, roughly equivalent to a king bed. But satellites involved in orbital data centers would be much larger. Tyson hasn’t talked to any Chinese satellite manufacturers. SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment. Google and Blue Origin declined to comment. Cowboy Space couldn’t be reached for comment. Now, he wonders if they’ll be forced to end the experiment early. Not only do satellites leave streaks across the telescope’s photographs, but Tyson also projects that megaconstellations of satellites would scatter so much light that it would brighten the entire sky.
SpaceX said in public filings that the satellites involved in its orbital data center would be up to 1,500 square meters. Cowboy Space said its satellites would be 4,800 square meters, close to the size of a football field. Tyson and his fellow astronomers at the Rubin Observatory just started their 10-year survey of space.
Rubin Observatory is supposed to complete a groundbreaking “survey” of the universe, the most comprehensive catalog of its galaxies, asteroids, supernovas and black holes ever completed. Blue Origin, Google, Cowboy Space and others have all said they plan to build orbital data centers , which would likely consist of hundreds of thousands of satellites. SpaceX says its “Starmind” orbital data center would have over a million satellites. “They’ve been very helpful, or they’re trying to be,” he said. But Starlink satellites are already brighter than International Astronomical Union recommendations and visible to the unaided eye, he said. Chinese satellites are sometimes brighter than American ones, scientists said.
Tyson and other scientists warn that these orbiting machines will make it increasingly difficult to do astronomical research from Earth—and, eventually, will render the night sky unrecognizable. Satellites reflect sunlight back to Earth. As the number of satellites grows, so too will light pollution from space.
