Losing Our Dark Skies: The Space-Biased Medium of Satellite Megaconstellations

• Published in: Astropolitics Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 194 - 204
• Main Author: Garland, Samuel P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 01.09.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Background noise; Celestial bodies; Communication satellites; Communications satellites; Low earth orbits; Satellite constellations; Satellite observation; Space debris; Stellar evolution
• ISSN: 1477-7622; 1557-2943
• DOI: 10.1080/14777622.2024.2439789

This article examines the technological risk of communications satellites assembled into globally spanning arrays known as megaconstellations. SpaceX's Starlink system is by far the largest, with the company having deployed several thousand units in low Earth orbit and planning to launch tens of thousands more. Starlink has been the subject of media scrutiny as light reflecting off these satellites, and the background electronic noise they emanate, impedes astronomical observation. Such infrastructure in increasingly crowded orbital shells is at a heightened risk of collision, which can break into smaller fragments and cause the proliferation of orbital space debris. The consequences of mounting economic pressures for satellite technologies is that Earth's skies will be increasingly diffusely brightened, obscuring the cosmos and the stars. Without effective regulation on access to space and orbital debris, the dark nighttime sky, which has been shared for all of history, is threatened. To analyze this unfolding possibility induced by technological innovation, this article draws from Harold A. Innis' theory of space-time bias to contend that communications satellite megaconstellations are a result of our modern civilization's fixation with the present moment.