Thousands of Elon Musk's SpaceX satellites will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the next few years, adding huge amounts of metals and chemicals to our sky. Astronomer Samantha Lawler returns to Techtonic to explain why satellite "mega-constellations" are causing havoc for astronomers and will soon affect all life on earth.
• @sundogplanets, Sam Lawler on Mastodon
• AAS Releases A Compasse-Led Statement On Atmospheric Impacts Of Spacecraft Reentries And Launches (Sep 27, 2024)
• WasteX: Environmental harms of satellite internet mega-constellations (PIRG, Aug 8, 2024)
• When Space Junk Fell on My Neighbor’s Farm, the Law Had Few Answers for Us (by Sam Lawler in Scientific American, July 11, 2024), about just one incident of space junk:
The trunk’s outer layers of woven carbon fiber billowed and unraveled as it fell, likely insulating and slowing the plummeting pieces so abruptly that friction from the atmosphere failed to destroy them as SpaceX engineers had planned.Objects breaking apart high overhead often leave debris trails spanning hundreds of miles; the hefty fragments in Sawchuk’s equipment shed were a testament to many smaller ones undoubtedly generated by this event that are yet to be discovered. People will be finding additional pieces for years, if not decades.
• Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race by Mary-Jane Rubenstein
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