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The natural place for truly undisrupted observation is going to be the far side of the Moon, so let's put an observatory or two there and stop quibbling about L

The natural place for truly undisrupted observation is going to be the far side of the Moon, so let's put an observatory or two there and stop quibbling about LEO.

Sebb767 5y ago
This is fine for really high budget astronomy, but anyone not having access to billions of funding will be out of luck. Not to speak of possible territorial conflicts on the moon, so billions might even not help you if you happen to be in the wrong country. Stargazers or hobby astronomers might as well just look at a desktop background ... That's not to say we should not build a observatory there - this is a good idea[0]. But it does not solve most of the issues these satellites pose. [0] Though a space station might solve a lot of similar issues without the need to land and take off.
- fallingknife 5y ago
  Commercial use is going to be prioritized over hobbyists in any domain. Think about what the reaction would be if drone pilots wanted to add restrictions to airline routes so that they could use the airspace. I don't really see how this is any different.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    It's not just hobbyists. Earth-based observatories have to contend with light pollution in many locations. And while, in some cases, there have been mitigations, astronomers aren't going to get cities to turn off their lights every night in general.
- zionic 5y ago
  Tourist flights to the moon will be $1-2 mil/person in 2035 ($1000 or so in today’s money). College students will get to visit and set up their own experiments as part of their billion dollar tuition.
  - tsjq 5y ago
    what's your inflation % ?
dsign 5y ago
This was exactly what I was thinking. Space is big and we don't use it as much as we should. Let's fix that instead of taking the Internet from people who need it.
- deadalus 5y ago
  As if millions of people around the world are benefiting from low cost satellite internet. Space should be open for all - nobody should be able to restrict vision. I won't be surprised if we have to use weaponry to remove these satellites in the future. Space boundaries will be a hot topic in the future.
  - fallingknife 5y ago
    Weaponry doesn't remove a satellite. It turns one satellite into 1000.
    - deadalus 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_weapon
  - dsign 5y ago
    > As if millions of people around the world are benefiting from low cost satellite internet. Do you have any numbers? I don't, but in my country of 11 million people, the dictatorship got scared last week of popular protests and cut out the Internet for everybody. How I wish they didn't have that power.
louis___ 5y ago
So, let's allow to launch a few more satellites in order to set our observatories on the far side of the moon ?! How much ? Surely having only 1 or 2 would require a planetary consensus, so let's say every country can have one or 2 ? Or simpler, let's everyone who has enough money to do it ! Yay ! Coming In : "how we came to pollute the far side of the moon"
- jerf 5y ago
  Light pollution would be easier to deal with if there was no atmosphere smearing it all around. (Potential repliers please ponder the difference between "easier to deal with" and "trivial".)
- UnFleshedOne 5y ago
  Nobody lives there, so I fail to see the problem even if the whole surface of the moon gets covered with various constructions Coruscant style...
Havoc 5y ago
There was hn chat about setting up a sat network there too about a month back so no don't think far side of the moon will be far enough

The natural place for truly undisrupted observation is going to be the far side of the Moon, so let's put an observatory or two there and stop quibbling about LEO.

Sebb767 5y ago

This is fine for really high budget astronomy, but anyone not having access to billions of funding will be out of luck. Not to speak of possible territorial conflicts on the moon, so billions might even not help you if you happen to be in the wrong country. Stargazers or hobby astronomers might as well just look at a desktop background ... That's not to say we should not build a observatory there - this is a good idea[0]. But it does not solve most of the issues these satellites pose. [0] Though a space station might solve a lot of similar issues without the need to land and take off.

fallingknife 5y ago
Commercial use is going to be prioritized over hobbyists in any domain. Think about what the reaction would be if drone pilots wanted to add restrictions to airline routes so that they could use the airspace. I don't really see how this is any different.
- ghaff 5y ago
  It's not just hobbyists. Earth-based observatories have to contend with light pollution in many locations. And while, in some cases, there have been mitigations, astronomers aren't going to get cities to turn off their lights every night in general.
zionic 5y ago
Tourist flights to the moon will be $1-2 mil/person in 2035 ($1000 or so in today’s money). College students will get to visit and set up their own experiments as part of their billion dollar tuition.
- tsjq 5y ago
  what's your inflation % ?

dsign 5y ago

This was exactly what I was thinking. Space is big and we don't use it as much as we should. Let's fix that instead of taking the Internet from people who need it.

deadalus 5y ago
As if millions of people around the world are benefiting from low cost satellite internet. Space should be open for all - nobody should be able to restrict vision. I won't be surprised if we have to use weaponry to remove these satellites in the future. Space boundaries will be a hot topic in the future.
- fallingknife 5y ago
  Weaponry doesn't remove a satellite. It turns one satellite into 1000.
  - deadalus 5y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_weapon
- dsign 5y ago
  > As if millions of people around the world are benefiting from low cost satellite internet. Do you have any numbers? I don't, but in my country of 11 million people, the dictatorship got scared last week of popular protests and cut out the Internet for everybody. How I wish they didn't have that power.

louis___ 5y ago

So, let's allow to launch a few more satellites in order to set our observatories on the far side of the moon ?! How much ? Surely having only 1 or 2 would require a planetary consensus, so let's say every country can have one or 2 ? Or simpler, let's everyone who has enough money to do it ! Yay ! Coming In : "how we came to pollute the far side of the moon"

jerf 5y ago
Light pollution would be easier to deal with if there was no atmosphere smearing it all around. (Potential repliers please ponder the difference between "easier to deal with" and "trivial".)
UnFleshedOne 5y ago
Nobody lives there, so I fail to see the problem even if the whole surface of the moon gets covered with various constructions Coruscant style...

Havoc 5y ago

There was hn chat about setting up a sat network there too about a month back so no don't think far side of the moon will be far enough