Almost 4 #StarLink satellites fall back to Earth every day and they rain out aluminum oxide into the stratosphere which destroys the ozone layer. These microsatellites are more and mire problematic with every article I read.
🛰️ New Imagery Press Release 🛰️
The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite sends "first light" images.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-isro-satellite-sends-first-radar-images-of-earths-surface/
#NISAR #NASA #ISRO #remotesensing #gischat #gis #satellite #satellites #SAR #JPL
![Avatar for WIRED - The Latest in Technology, Science, Culture and Business [Unofficial]](/proxy/identity_icon/496167517127669114/e05444d14b.jpg){kind=icon}
🛰️ ICYMI New Imagery Press Release 🛰️
EUMETSAT has released the first Earth images from its METimage instrument on board the recently launched Metop Second Generation A1 (Metop-SGA1) satellite.
https://www.eumetsat.int/metimage-delivers-spectacular-first-images
HT to @niklasjordan who runs @eumbot which posts live natural color composites of EUMETSATs Meteosat satellites at 15-minute intervals.
#remotesensing #satellite #satellites #eumetsat #eumetsat #earthobservation #gis #gischat
"For two decades, spacefaring nations have operated under a simple rule: any satellite sent into orbit must have a less than one in 10,000 chance of injuring someone on the ground. The rule was written when a few dozen objects reentered the atmosphere each year. By early 2026, with more than 9,000 #Starlink satellites in orbit and filings for constellations totaling over 70,000 spacecraft, that arithmetic no longer holds."
https://indiandefencereview.com/starlink-satellites-falling-nonstop-to-earth-risk/
Yes, you may be killed by falling human made space junk, but the odds remain small(ish) that will occur. The (almost inevitable) #KesslerSyndrome may also prevent future #space flights if all those #satellites in Low Earth Orbit start colliding, creating countless debris.
However, we *ALL* have to worry about the ‘chemical problem’ being created by SpaceX et al in the upper atmosphere. I have been banging on about this for a while and the attached article summarises the science in an easy to understand way - I have pasted the bit about the ‘chemical problem’ below because we *ALL* need to understand what the billionaires are doing to the planet while we are watching.
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Quote:
Debris on the ground attracts immediate attention, but atmospheric scientists are tracking a slower process with potentially larger consequences. When satellites vaporize in the mesosphere, 50 to 80 kilometers above Earth, they release clouds of vaporized metals that condense into aerosol particles. Those particles descend into the stratosphere, where Earth’s protective ozone layer resides.
Aluminum is the element of greatest concern. Upon reentry, aluminum oxidizes into aluminum oxide nanoparticles. A single 250 kilogram satellite generates roughly 30 kilograms of these particles. Unlike chlorofluorocarbons, which directly destroy ozone, aluminum oxide acts as a catalyst. One particle can facilitate chemical reactions that destroy thousands of ozone molecules over decades without being consumed.
Researchers from the University of Southern California’s Department of Astronautical Engineering documented an eightfold increase in atmospheric aluminum oxides between 2016 and 2022, directly correlating with the proliferation of satellite constellations, a finding reported in detail by CNET. In 2022 alone, reentering satellites released an estimated 41.7 metric tons of aluminum, approximately 30 percent more than the natural input from micrometeoroids.
Projections based on current deployment schedules suggest annual aluminum oxide emissions could reach 360 metric tons, a 646 percent increase over natural background levels, according to research highlighted by Popular Mechanics. Because these particles take 20 to 30 years to descend into the ozone layer, the atmospheric chemistry of today’s satellite fleet will not manifest as measurable ozone loss until the 2040s. By then, the upper atmosphere could already be saturated with catalysts.
NASA high altitude sampling flights over Alaska in 2023 detected the signature of this process. At approximately 60,000 feet, instruments found that 10 percent of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles larger than 120 nanometers contained aluminum and other metals traceable to spacecraft reentries, according to data presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting that year. The atmosphere now bears a permanent chemical marker of human activity in space.
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#space #science #TheBillionairesAreKillingUsAll
https://indiandefencereview.com/starlink-satellites-falling-nonstop-to-earth-risk/
DOH! WHEN DID THE SKY
BECOME REAL ESTATE? 💎
I’ve just watched a fascinating and rather unsettling video about the next possible frontier of AI. Not another data centre on Earth. Data centres in orbit. SpaceX has filed plans for an enormous constellation of up to a million solar-powered satellites designed to carry AI computing into space. Other companies and countries are exploring similar ideas.
THE ATTRACTION IS OBVIOUS.
AI needs staggering amounts of electricity. Data centres also need enormous cooling systems and, on Earth, often huge amounts of water. In orbit, there is abundant sunlight and no local power grid to overwhelm.
INGENIOUS.
But then another question appears.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE NIGHT SKY?
We already live with thousands of satellites overhead. Most of the time, we barely notice them. But if the numbers rise from thousands to hundreds of thousands, or even MILLIONS, the night sky itself begins to change.
Not metaphorically. Literally. More moving machines. More reflected light. More interference with astronomy. More objects travelling through crowded orbital paths at extraordinary speeds. And suddenly this stops being merely a technology story. It becomes a question about ownership.
WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT THE NIGHT SKY LOOKS LIKE?
The stars belong to nobody. The sky was not invented by a company. It was not built by a government. Human beings have looked into essentially the same dark sky for hundreds of thousands of years. It may be the oldest shared inheritance we have.
Yet decisions made by a relatively small number of companies and regulators could alter that view for everyone on Earth.
THAT FEELS IMPORTANT.
We have done this before. We enclosed the land. We commercialised attention. We turned personal information into a commodity. Now we may be approaching another enclosure.
THE SKY ITSELF.
None of this means orbital computing should never happen. The technology may prove extraordinarily useful, and many of the worst predictions may never come true. But technological possibility is not the same thing as permission.
Before we fill the heavens with machinery, perhaps humanity ought to have a rather larger conversation about what belongs to all of us. Because if we change the night sky itself, there may eventually be nowhere on Earth left to drive out to see it as it was.
@3goodthings @DigitalCoup @meditation @economics_that_works @startrek
https://youtu.be/asggq4veVQc?si=-E7REY9NSHRlGcMF
#NightSky #Space #Astronomy #AI #Satellites #SpaceX #Technology
2hrs (from last Thursday)
"The Unlimited Hangout #Podcast Ep #02 - Stargate Argentina"
#WhitneyWebb and #MarkGoodwin
There's a lot of #oxytocin in the room lol, these two are great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF9uu9bCKpo
#ai #openai #datacenters #UnlimitedHangout #EpsteinClass #Lutnick #Billionaires #Mnuchin #StableCoin #bitcoin #Epstein #Bessent #Corruption #Privatization #Satellites #Satellogic #Crypto #Mafia #cornucopia #Argentina #Oracle #Stargate
