How Space Debris is Destroyed by Satellites? Astronomy and Regulating Its Impact on the Future of the Internet of Things

Satellites are increasingly a global-communications lifeline, allowing people in remote areas, even war zones, to make phone calls and get online without the need for ground-based infrastructure. The Starlink network, the largest of its kind, has seen a boom in business over the past decade. Between 2017 and 2022, companies requested access to the radiofrequency spectrum for more than one million satellites.

This success comes at a high price, with mounting concerns about safety and sustainable living. As things stand, most satellites are single-use products with a lifetime of 15 years or less. Moreover, space debris is a growing problem, as physicists Richard O. Ocaya at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa and Thembinkosi D. Malevu at North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa, describe in a Comment article. The satellite boom raises key questions about whether humanity could or should clutter the environment around Earth without regulation.

Currently, satellite streaks are a relatively minor issue for telescope operators. But the problem will grow as satellite numbers continue to increase drastically, meaning more observation time will be lost, and this issue will be magnified for Rubin.

The pace has to quicken to get this done. Three years ago the IAU established a centre in Paris for the protection of dark and quiet skies. Common-sense recommendations that are already being adopted are being put forward by this hub as a result of discussions about satellite swarms. After France updated its space law last year in response to the IAU recommendations, French satellites will tone down their brightness.

The first step is raising awareness. Finance is not the only thing. Astronomers provide free time and in-kind contributions for the IAU center. The US National Science Foundation gave a grant to the IAU last year that enabled them to develop software that predicts when satellites will appear in telescopes.

Last but not least — and some would say most importantly — there needs to be a discussion on regulation, or rather, the lack of it. Most companies are not dimming their satellites at least partly because there are few regulations saying that they must. There are a number of regulatory agencies for satellites, but they have little or no enforcement power when it comes to the impacts on astronomy.

Beyond the clash with astronomers’ observations, discussions about the future of satellite swarms need to be integrated into broader conversations about space sustainability and human rights. Many Indigenous peoples have important links with the night sky but have been left out of decision making and economic power in outer space.

The number of working satellites has increased in the last five years to over 11,000 because of the constellations of satellites that provide internet access around the globe. OneWeb in London has over 630 satellites in its constellation, while the only company with any more than 7,000 operational Starlink satellites is the one in Hawthorne, California. A variety of companies and nations are planning hundreds to hundreds of thousands more, but probably not all of them will launch.

How often do satellites pass? An astronomer’s perspective on the problems of detecting streaks in their observables and identifying them

Knowing when and where a satellite will pass above a observatory is the first step in reducing satellite interference. “The aim is to minimize the surprise,” says Mike Peel, an astronomer at Imperial College London.

Tools such as SatChecker help telescope operators to avoid problems by allowing them to target a different part of the sky when a satellite passes overhead or by simply pausing observations as it flies by. It would aid the astronomer if SatChecker had more information on the satellites, but there are some constraints on improving the system. SatChecker data come from the US Space Force, which uses a global network of sensors that tracks objects in the sky and issues updates on satellites as frequently as possible. There are a few factors that affect the frequencies of the updates, such as how often a sensor can see an object and whether the sensor can distinguish what it is looking at.

The problem was mitigated by the early steps taken by Musk’s company. Rubin astronomer worked with the company to try to keep the Starlinks’ brightness beneath a threshold. Amazon, the retail and technology giant based in Seattle, Washington, is also testing mitigations on prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper constellation. The problem is that such changes don’t eliminate it.

For other observatories, the IAU CPS is working on tools to help astronomers identify and correct satellite streaks in their data. The other is a new database which is currently being tested and is planned for wider release in the coming months. Peel said that this will allow scientists to work backwards, because they might see something puzzling in their past observations.