RS2--daniel

STARLINK x STARLINK: What's worse than a train of Starlink satellites cutting across an astro-photo? Two trains of Starlink satellites cutting across an astro-photo. In the Czech republic on April 19th, amateur astronomer Zdenek Bardon captured perhaps the first picture of two orthogonal Starlink trains in a single image:


"I was trying to photograph disintegrating Comet ATLAS (C2019 Y4)," says Bardon. "My local night sky suffers from light pollution, and stacking of multiple exposures is necessary in order to image the comet. Unfortunately, I had not considered the trajectories of the Starlink satellites, and many of my exposures were contaminated."

This is the latest illustration of a growing problem. To date, SpaceX has launched 360 Starlink satellites -- with more than 12,000 planned. These satellites are showing up unwelcomed in so many images of the night sky, we now have an entire photo gallery devoted to them.

The whole situation reminds Spaceweather.com reader Peter Tarr (Chief Science Writer at the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation) of classic science fiction. "For those old enough, Bardon's astonishing image of the cross-hatch pattern made by Starlink satellites is the coming-to-life of 'The Tholian Web' of the original Star Trek series."


"Only problem is, it's not the Enterprise that's caught in Elon's Web; it's Earth-based observational astronomy!" he says.

Taken from Spacewather yesterday - https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?vi ... &year=2020

From the growing problem link above:

Understanding the Impact of Satellite Constellations on Astronomy
In June 2019, the International Astronomical Union expressed concern about the negative impact that the planned mega-constellations of communication satellites may have on astronomical observations and on the pristine appearance of the night sky when observed from a dark region. We here present a summary of the current understanding of the impact of these satellite constellations.
https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2001/

Musk: Designing a rocket is "a piece of cake." The hard part is producing it and launching frequently.

Rapid reuse is essential. Not like the Shuttle, whose turnaround was slow and incomplete.

Musk: the creation of the Space Force is cool. It makes sense there’s a branch for every domain

Musk: we can make Starfleet real but we have to make radical innovations. We won’t get there with expendable rockets

Musk: US has to create breakthrough innovation , incremental is not good enough

Musk: US has to innovate or it will be second in space. How ? Reusability is extremely fundamental for assured access to space

Musk: vehicle we’re working on #starship is the holy grail which is full reusability

Musk: it would be good to have other companies develop competing reusable vehicles like Starship . He mentions the F-35. Would be nice to have competition ... hmmmm

Musk: failure has to be an option . What you want is to reward success but there should be minor consequences for trying and not suceeding. And major consequences for not trying

Musk: volume production and volume launch of a reusable system is super super hard. Not reusable like the Space Shuttle. Has to be agile like an aircraft. Shuttle too expensive

Musk: building a city in Mars will require fully reusable vehicles to lift 5 million tons of cargo

Musk: Starlink satellites are being produced faster than we can launch them. We need Starship for launch costs to come down

Musk: in the next five years one of the most transformative technologies will be AI . I tell young people to study computer science and physics

Musk says SpaceX will need to use Starship to launch the full Starlink constellation rapidly.

On satellite design, Musk says it's important to blend design with the manufacturing process. "We brought up the Starlink production line before we had the design finalized."

Musk: When you have assured low cost access to space other technologies will be enabled. Many things are possible once the transport problem is solved . Establishing a self sustaining base on Mars opens opportunities

Musk: the future of air warfare is in autonomous drone warfare. But we still want to retain authority with a person in the loop. The fighter jet era has passed

Musk: how do we protect our IP at Tesla? We don’t . We have open source patents . IP protection is done by innovating rapidly and staying ahead of competitors

Musk: China has a lot of smart hard working people. They’re going to do a lot of interesting things. China’s economy is going to be at least twice or three times the size of the US economy

Musk: in order for US to be militarily competitive with China we need radical innovation. At SpaceX we have an incentive structure so big mistakes don’t come with a big penalty but not trying is worse

Musk: final message to #AWS20 ‘we have to make starfleet happen’ while we’re still alive. Try to make it happen ASAP

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... is-ending/

Billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for pioneering disruptive technologies like reusable rocket ships and electronic cars, but during an appearance Friday at a conference on the U.S. Air Force, he was disruptive for other reasons.

During a fireside chat at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium, Lt. Gen. John Thompson, who leads the Space and Missile Systems Center, asked Musk whether he had any innovative ideas about how aerial combat could be revolutionized.

The answer was less whimsical than what was probably anticipated.

“Locally autonomous drone warfare is where it’s at, where the future will be,” Musk said. “It’s not that I want the future to be this, that’s just what the future will be. … The fighter jet era has passed. Yeah, the fighter jet era has passed. It’s drones.”

Hushed murmurs and laughter rippled across the audience.

“OK. Let’s go back about failure,” Thompson said, changing the subject back to the early days of SpaceX.

Musk’s answer was hardly an original one. The Air Force and other military services have been embroiled in a decades-long debate about the balance of manned and unmanned technology, and how future leaps in artificial intelligence could both enable and complicate the rules of engagement on a battlefield.

But the discussion — and Musk’s willingness to go off script — highlighted a still-apparent culture clash between the more conservative, risk-averse Air Force and the dynamic, freewheeling commercial space industry, even as the Defense Department stands up the Space Force and casts an eager eye on a space-technology boom.

Much of what Musk talked about with Thompson lined up with typical Air Force talking points: The SpaceX founder encouraged young airmen to study physics and computer technology, saying both disciplines have “very good predictive power.” He predicted that AI would likely be the most transformative technology to emerge over the next five years. And he urged the service to take big risks to get “radical outcomes.”

But sometimes, things got weird. At one point, smooth jazz started playing, leaving Musk and Thompson struggling to talk over the bleating of a saxophone. At another, Musk compared low-cost access to space to the construction of a railroad that could safely bring travelers to the West Coast without the risk of calamities that could force those making the journey to eat their compatriots.

Also at the event, Musk praised competition during a discussion on reusable rockets, which SpaceX is developing.

“Not to cause controversy, but in my opinion, the Joint Strike Fighter — there should be a competitor to JSF. I know that’s [a] controversial subject,” he said, referring to Lockheed Martin’s F-35. Lockheed beat out Boeing in 2001 for the JSF contract, but the downselect and the cancellation of the F-22 program left the Defense Department with no other fifth-generation alternative to the F-35.

Unsurprisingly, Thompson did not follow up on that point.

Two times during the hourlong chat, Musk urged the Air Force to make the Space Force emulate Starfleet, the iconic space organization made famous in “Star Trek.”

“We’ve got to make Starfleet happen,” he said as the audience applauded. “We want real big space ships that can go far places. And this will probably get me into the most trouble of all: I think there should be a new uniform.”

“When the public thinks about Space Force, that’s what they think,” he added. “We want the sci-fi futures, the good sci-fi futures, to be real. And, ideally, to become real while we’re still alive.”

Djchrismac wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:25 pm

I wonder what those Starlink satellites are really up to?