Re: Starlink Internet for RVers
Reply #31 –
"I found it pretty sad that the sky was getting filled with this trail of lights traveling through interrupting the night sky."
I agree. But it doesn't look as if that will change in the foreseeable future. In fact, it'll get much worse.
"Wish they would just paint the satellites with that super dark paint to prevent any reflection"
As John mentioned, they've tried that. It isn't enough. The satellites are still visible, although less prominent.
And there's another problem: heat dissipation. People talk about "the cold of space," and that's true as far as it goes, but a vacuum is a perfect insulator--think of Thermos bottles. When your computer gets warm here on Earth, it can get rid of the excess heat by transferring it to air; that's why most computers have fans. In airless space, that isn't possible.
Heat buildup is a major headache for spacecraft designers. There's the heat generated by the electronics in the spacecraft (especially the transmitters), plus the heat from a sun that is a lot brighter out there than down here, where it's filtered by atmosphere. Painting a spacecraft flat black just means it will pick up more heat from the sun; that's why most spacecraft are covered in metallized foil--to bounce off that sunlight. In short, you can't go very far down the "flat black" road before your spacecraft will start to overheat. Separate black "sun visors" can help, but only a bit.
The SpaceX satellite constellation, plus similar ones from Amazon and other companies and countries, is going to be there for the foreseeable future. What we've seen so far is just a taste. If plans go ahead, in ten years there will be upwards of 50,000 (!) comsats in low earth orbit--that's in addition to all the ones that are already up there. The sky will probably be interesting to look at, with moving lights crisscrossing in every direction...but it won't be the serene sky that we grew up with.
Incidentally, this spells the end of most Earth-based astronomy--visual, infrared, UV, and perhaps even radio astronomy. Even if all satellites were totally black, they'd screw up observations by occulting stars and galaxies as they passed in front of them. Earth-based telescopes are going to be rendered useless. The only way to do astronomy will be either in open space (think Hubble or Webb telescopes), or from the far side of the Moon, a place where 2,000 miles of rock shield you from the Earth's light pollution, radio chatter, and satellite constellations. Anybody who is still planning yet another large Earth-based telescope at this point (e.g., US-ELTP, E-ELT, ngVLA) is deluding themself. By the time such instruments could be built, they'd be unusable. Remember: there'll be more than fifty thousand satellites visible in the sky.
Science fiction writers knew at least seventy years ago that space--or the lunar surface--was the only practical way to carry astronomy forward. See, for example, Arthur C. Clarke's novel "Earthlight." It's just taking the rest of the world some time to catch up. ;-)
As an Amazon Associate Lazy Daze Owners' Group earns from qualifying purchases.