SpaceX’s plan to launch 1 million satellites into orbit to serve as data centers for artificial intelligence is concerning scientists who believe it would impact the visibility of stars at night.
Currently, around 10,000 satellites from Elon Musk’s company are orbiting the Earth.
“Orbital data centers do not really seem to be a viable option on the scale they have proposed,” said Aaron Boley, an astronomy professor at the University of British Columbia.
Boley, along with two other professors, Samantha Lawler from the University of Regina, and Hanno Rein from the University of Toronto, criticized SpaceX’s proposal in an article published in The Conversation. They aimed to raise awareness about the consequences of such projects on the sky.
These professors based their analysis on models to illustrate what a constellation of this magnitude would look like. They concluded that under such a situation, observers would see more satellites than stars during certain hours and for much of the year.
“Satellites provide services we couldn’t otherwise have, but that doesn’t mean every project we think of in space is ultimately a good idea or worthy of exploration,” acknowledged Boley.
In 2021, Boley and his co-authors published a scientific paper on the impact of a high number of satellites in orbit on our view of the stars. They found that with 65,000 satellites in orbit, one in 15 visible points in the night sky would be a satellite, not a star.
Marie-Michèle Limoges, an astrophysicist and scientific director at the Cosmodôme in Quebec, is also worried about SpaceX’s project. “There could be more satellites than stars visible in the sky to our eyes, it’s catastrophic,” she said.
This means the loss of the starry sky for humans on Earth, for future generations.
The Upper Atmosphere Affected
According to Limoges, the extensive rocket launches required for the project, along with the use of fossil fuels for takeoffs, emit greenhouse gases and alter the chemistry of the upper atmosphere.
“Having so many rocket launches passing through the upper atmosphere could be harmful,” she fears.
“Launching such a large number of satellites into space, especially with such mass and surface area in orbit around Earth, would have many repercussions,” stated Boley.
“There is also a societal aspect: the night sky is a shared resource in societies around the world,” emphasized the UBC professor.
When we degrade this resource to the point where it is not possible to see the cosmos as we could, even if we go under a very dark sky, away from light-polluted cities, it’s a loss.
He acknowledged that for now, SpaceX and similar companies have managed to avoid major space collisions between satellites. However, accidents have occurred, and “as we add more and more satellites, the margin of error decreases significantly,” he pointed out.
“On a scale of several million, it is difficult to imagine how we could prevent random events from causing serious damage to the orbital environment and the Earth’s environment,” Boley believed.
“Space exploitation holds immense potential for prosperity, but this promise of prosperity does not give permission to be reckless,” he concluded.
