•

SpaceX Satellites Are Ruining Observations With "Unintended" Radiation

https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-satellites-ruining-observations-radiation

SpaceX's Starlink satellites are emanating low-frequency waves from their onboard electronics, messing with astronomical equipment.

SpaceX Satellites Are Ruining Observations With "Unintended" Radiation

A new study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics suggests the satellites are emitting "unintended" radiation from the electronics onboard the satellites.

These low-frequency radio waves, are being picked up by telescopes designed to scan that frequency range. That's because this range also happens to be instrumental to deep space observations.

25 comments

Hirom

•

Aren't satellites tested in anechoic chambers to measure radio performance and other emitted noise?

If so, someone must have known about these radio emissions before launch.

fades

•

Musk wanted to meet a release date, nasa be damned

snowbell

•

Hopefully they are as quick to fix this as they were when astronomers complained that the satellites were too bright.

rho50

•

Did they ever satisfactorily resolve that issue, or did the media just stop covering it as aggressively? Last I heard they were trying to add solar shields to the satellites to reduce their albedo.

Haatveit

•

They do also use an antireflective coating/paint on the satellites now, which had helped quite a lot.

snowbell

•

I haven't been able to find any info past that update. I guess it isn't being covered at all anymore.

mike901

•

Media doesn't care when SpaceX/Starlink fixes issues. They only care when problems are discovered, and act like it's some malevolent act rather than an unforeseen issue. The albedo problem is fixed on all new launches for quite some time and the sats only have a 5 year service life before deorbit so the problem ones will be cleared out in short order. I expect this frequency issue to get ironed out in a similar fashion.

SpaceX and SL have a very good track record so far of working with scientists and authorities on minimizing impact of their sat constellations. Mind you, I don't think this pure altruism, they just want to keep the government from locking down on them and jacking up costs.

RoboRay

•

There were articles a while back stating that the target albedo had been met with the newer satellites.

I don't recall the specific details, though.

GolGolarion

•

can't believe musk also twittered the night sky. That's fucked up

balls_expert

•

Suspicious of this

With all the shit we have in orbit you're telling me SpaceX's shit specifically is more of a problem?

SpaceMonk

•

Musk is a fucking hack. Please stop this ding song from ruining more stuff.

MaggiWuerze

•

Maybe you could stop foaming about Musk just because SpaceX is mentioned. SpaceX has made incredible innovations for space launches and allowed thousands of projects that otherwise would never have been able to afford a launch.

DFTBA_FTW

•

Also has saved tax payers loads of money by being super cheap to lauch nasa and defense satellites

jmcs

•

They are cheap because they cut corners. Externalizing costs is not saving the tax payers shit in the long run.

DFTBA_FTW

•

You're gonna have to cite a source on that one, you can't just say one of the leading launch providers that has both nasa and defence customers is cutting corners without any proof.

Have you ever works with the airforce on space related stuff? Cause I have, and they are not the kinda people to just hand wave away stuff.

Gumby

•

Didn't they recently blow up a launch pad because they cut a corner? And then they had a couple of rockets blow up?

DFTBA_FTW

•

Nope, they test launched an experimental rocket from an experimental launch pad.

The pad actually survived and only needed minor repairs (completed within 3 months when it took well over a year to build) and going foreward a new suppression system will be used.

The only rocket that blew up recently was the experimental one but that was expected, they have 2 more test rockets built out, it was time to launch and get some real life data for future development. As long as the launch tower wasn't destroyed the test was going to be considered a success.

They have only lost 2 rockets in actual commercial operations and that rocket holds the title of most reliable in the world currently.

MaggiWuerze

•

Im sure that's why they are the company with the best launch statistics by a huge margin, as well as the company with the most launches per year. Which they manage by being the only company in existence to have a working reusable rocket for Leo.

kdekooter

•

@MaggiWuerze @SpaceMonk like shooting a car into space

MaggiWuerze

•

Yeah, but noone ever shot a comparable payload that cheaply into space.

AndrewMettier

•

@MaggiWuerze @SpaceMonk SpaceX will always remain awesome, Musk these days is quite questionable but still entertaining lmao.