Reacción a "A study warns of the impact that satellite megaconstellations will have on images from space telescopes such as Hubble"

Is the study based on solid data and methods?

"Yes, it's based on publicly available data."

How does it fit in with previous work? What new insights does it provide?

"It expands on previous studies, which until now had focused mainly on ground-based astronomy. The main new insight is to show how this will not only affect ground-based astronomy, but also space astronomy."

Are there any important limitations to consider?

"This study is even optimistic, as there are satellites that have not been considered, such as those currently being evaluated by Reflective Orbital and other projects in China and Russia. Some are planned to launch as early as next year. It is difficult to keep track of all the business initiatives that are emerging, and some of this information was not available when the article was submitted or does not yet exist."

How relevant is this study in practice?

"The lack of media coverage in an area that represents a cultural and strategic loss of this magnitude is striking, both for ground-based and space-based astronomy and global cultural traditions, as well as for its ecological impact, as it is an uncontrolled geoengineering experiment. The impact on astronomy is not even the tip of the iceberg of this problem. There are other much greater risks, for example, to air traffic, climate change or cultural genocide. Cultural genocide occurs when you prevent a particular culture from surviving. In particular, there are several cultures – some recognised as intangible heritage of humanity – that need the vision of the stars for their transmission. A paradigmatic example is the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, but they are not the only ones.

This study shows how we are not only going blind in ground-based telescopes, but also in space telescopes, which will result in additional costs to raise future telescopes above this layer of space debris, not to mention the risk of being hit by space debris.

What we must do is start applying existing space legislation to try to mitigate the impact of these mega-constellations as soon as possible and raise awareness of their effects.