Musk's StarLink is already impacting astronomy

I never really thought it was a great idea to pollute the skies with satellites that attempt to solve a problem better solved by existing infrastructure. It seems the risk of wasting a valuable limited commodity (unobstructed line of sight between earth and space) is not worth the proposed benefits, especially considering that the service is not likely to be free, or even necessarily affordable. (Note that Tesla cars are not exactly the cheapest choice on the market… and Musk doesn’t seem overly preoccupied by poverty.) I also worry about the very real possibility of a cascade failure making the entire near earth zone unusable for decades or centuries or more.

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I think Musk should watch a re-run of Gerry Anderson’s UFO series from 1970-1973.

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I’ve been reading stories about this before they were even launched. Yes, if he puts them all up there, like he wants, I think this will be a major problem.

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Ungrateful astronomers. Don’t they know who Elon Musk is? :upside_down_face:

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Ground-based astronomy was doomed from the moment Sputnik was launched. We need the next Hubble Space Telescope.