#satellite-constellations

#satellite-constellations

In an interview with The Register, Tudor Williams, CTO of high-frequency RF communication company Filtronic, explained the problem, which is mainly related to satellite-to-ground transmissions (many large constellations, such as SpaceX's Starlink, use optical links for satellite-to-satellite communication, which don't cause the same issues.) According to Williams, the problem comes from the side lobes of poorly designed antennas, where signals are unintentionally spread. The effect can be bands used for communications overlapping with observation bands, causing headaches for radio astronomers.

The elephant in the room is that our current energy plans simply won't get us there fast enough.

Included in the study was NASA's SPHEREx space telescope, the European Space Agency's proposed ARRAKIHS system, and China's planned Xuntian space telescope, as well as Hubble, all of which orbit at altitudes between about 450 and 800 kilometers. The findings suggest about 39.6 percent of Hubble's images and 96 percent of images from the other three telescopes would be affected by interference from satellites.

After putting 200 satellites into orbit in 2023, it has now doubled its orbital payloads from last year, and it is also building two substantial low-Earth-orbit constellations similar in some ways to Elon Musk's Starlink. These are just a few examples of howChina is speeding through its five-year national strategy for space. Launch vehicles have been expanded, satellites are continually being updated, and launch pads are being built for not just more but also faster missions. It has even tested experimental "dogfighting" satellites.