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They already do. This isn't about intentional radio emissions, this is radio "leakage" from the onboard electronics, essentially EMI. Strangely there are no le
by schiffern 3y ago
They already do.
This isn't about intentional radio emissions, this is radio "leakage" from the onboard electronics, essentially EMI. Strangely there are no legal requirements to limit these emissions, and the detected emissions are so tiny you literally need to point a radio telescope right at the satellite to even detect them. The problem is that even tiny emissions are bad in this case because they're in frequency bands used for radio astronomy.
The fix is simple: add more EMI shielding & filtering. The researchers were already working with SpaceX on the problem, and SpaceX had already started making fixes. The researchers pointed this out in the very first paper on the subject, but somehow that detail almost never makes it into the pop-journalism article treatment....
It's good to share these Lessons Learned because SpaceX is doing things nobody has ever done before, and is (rightly) subject to levels of scrutiny nobody has ever seen before.
If instead you want to shoehorn this into Elon Bad / SpaceX Bad clickbait, its a non-story.
- adastra22 3y agoThat would get in the way of writing a click-generating Rocket Man Bad article.
- quantified 3y agoIt's heartening that SpaceX engineers want to be good citizens here. I hope the financial side of the house, and other satellite operators, also will work to lower the noise.
- panick21_ 3y agoThey already have done a lot for the visual part, so they seem to be active on these topics.
- defrost 3y ago> pop-journalism article treatment.... By which you mean this linked article in The Conversation written by Steven Tingay, a John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University talking about real and current issues faced by the SKA (Square Kilometre Array), Microwave Cosmic Background, and other projects in the Murchison (supposedly) Radio Quiet Zone ? I hope not as this linked article refers to the ongoing efforts made by Starlink engineers .. while pointing out that: We estimate emissions in radio wavelengths will need to be reduced by a factor of a thousand or more to avoid significant interference with radio astronomy.
- schiffern 3y ago> > pop-journalism article treatment > By which you mean this linked article I do not. Thank you for asking, instead of just assuming! That's quite rare these days.