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Man, this really excites me! I hadn't even thought about this before, but it seems super obvious now. Especially the bit in the article about putting a telescop

Man, this really excites me! I hadn't even thought about this before, but it seems super obvious now. Especially the bit in the article about putting a telescope at one of the poles inside of a crater (to shield from sunlight). I'm surprised this proposal hasn't been tried sooner. Is this because the cost per pound to send something into space has gotten cheaper? Why now?

enlyth 4y ago
Also, Earth's sky will eventually get polluted by things like SpaceX satellites, so this would solve that issue as well.
- BurningFrog 4y ago
  Putting telescopes in higher orbits should handle most of that.
- oh_sigh 4y ago
  If there were a million satellites(which there won't be), and they averaged 100 square meters each (which they don't), and they were all very close to earth in LEO(like starlink, which they aren't), they would take up 0.0000166% of the night sky. I think we will be okay.
  - govolckurself 4y ago
    It's not their size that's an issue. But astronomers have already voiced their concerns in great detail. It might be worth exploring the specifics.
    - googlryas 4y ago
      Some astronomers have voiced their concerns. Others have voiced their lack of concern. It's not an open and shut issue, but I do suspect a lot of hubbub is about who is launching the satellites, not the fact that they are there.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  Once Starlink builds up the capacity around the moon to handle all the new telescopes' data, won't they have the same problem?
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    We can maintain continuous internet connection from anywhere on the surface of the moon to Earth using 2 lunar satellites. Using more won't provide any advantages until its using a lot of bandwidth.
    - Rebelgecko 4y ago
      How would you do that? Land based (or whatever the term is for "terrestrial" on the moon) relays?
      - Cyphase 4y ago
        Groundside.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- schiffern 4y ago
  >polluted by things like SpaceX satellites I know the media likes to hyper-focus on SpaceX, but it should be noted that Starlink is one of the best large constellations in this regard. SpaceX goes far above and beyond the (inadequate IMO) legal requirements for radio/IR/visible emanations, at substantial engineering expense to themselves. https://youtu.be/MNc5yCYth5E?t=1717 https://youtu.be/MNc5yCYth5E?t=1717 https://cps.iau.org/news/nsf-and-spacex-sign-agreement-to-mitigate-impact-of-starlink-satellites-on-ground-based-astronomy/ https://cps.iau.org/news/nsf-and-spacex-sign-agreement-to-mi... If you really want to get mad about badly-designed satellites impacting astronomy, look up AST SpaceMobile.

enlyth 4y ago

Also, Earth's sky will eventually get polluted by things like SpaceX satellites, so this would solve that issue as well.

BurningFrog 4y ago
Putting telescopes in higher orbits should handle most of that.
oh_sigh 4y ago
If there were a million satellites(which there won't be), and they averaged 100 square meters each (which they don't), and they were all very close to earth in LEO(like starlink, which they aren't), they would take up 0.0000166% of the night sky. I think we will be okay.
- govolckurself 4y ago
  It's not their size that's an issue. But astronomers have already voiced their concerns in great detail. It might be worth exploring the specifics.
  - googlryas 4y ago
    Some astronomers have voiced their concerns. Others have voiced their lack of concern. It's not an open and shut issue, but I do suspect a lot of hubbub is about who is launching the satellites, not the fact that they are there.
Rebelgecko 4y ago
Once Starlink builds up the capacity around the moon to handle all the new telescopes' data, won't they have the same problem?
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  We can maintain continuous internet connection from anywhere on the surface of the moon to Earth using 2 lunar satellites. Using more won't provide any advantages until its using a lot of bandwidth.
  - Rebelgecko 4y ago
    How would you do that? Land based (or whatever the term is for "terrestrial" on the moon) relays?
    - Cyphase 4y ago
      Groundside.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
schiffern 4y ago
>polluted by things like SpaceX satellites I know the media likes to hyper-focus on SpaceX, but it should be noted that Starlink is one of the best large constellations in this regard. SpaceX goes far above and beyond the (inadequate IMO) legal requirements for radio/IR/visible emanations, at substantial engineering expense to themselves. https://youtu.be/MNc5yCYth5E?t=1717 https://youtu.be/MNc5yCYth5E?t=1717 https://cps.iau.org/news/nsf-and-spacex-sign-agreement-to-mitigate-impact-of-starlink-satellites-on-ground-based-astronomy/ https://cps.iau.org/news/nsf-and-spacex-sign-agreement-to-mi... If you really want to get mad about badly-designed satellites impacting astronomy, look up AST SpaceMobile.