Letters of Intent received in 2021
LoI 2023-2147
Astronomy and Satellite Constellations: Pathways Forward
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Date:
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2 October 2023 to 6 October 2023 |
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Category:
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Non-GA Symposium
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Location:
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Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
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Contact:
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Constance Walker (connie.walker@noirlab.edu) |
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Coordinating division:
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Division B Facilities, Technologies and Data Science |
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Other divisions:
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Division C Education, Outreach and Heritage
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Co-Chairs of SOC:
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Constance Walker (NSF's NOIRLab) |
| Angel Otarola (ESO) |
| James Lowenthal (Smith College) |
| Ramotholo Sefako (SAAO) |
| Diane Turnshek (Carnegie Mellon U.) |
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Co-Chairs of LOC:
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Casiana Muñoz Tuñon (IAC) |
| Antonia Varela Perez (IAC) |
Topics
* SatHub as a platform for data repositories, an orbital solution portal, software tools, training curriculum, etc.
* Industry and Technology including mitigations measures, hardware testing, technical analyses, observation campaigns.
* Policy: interaction with UNCOPUOS, ITU, national regulators & standardization bodies on international policy, space law, and legal positions
* Community Engagement with a variety of stakeholders
Rationale
In May 2019, SpaceX’s Starlink satellites introduced a new phase in the industrialization of space. The satellite constellations create an enormous set of issues that must be addressed by astronomers. The optical/infrared trails and their radio transmissions from these satellites will have major impacts on astronomy from the visible to the radio; wide-field survey instruments such as the Vera Rubin Observatory will be especially severely impacted by myriad trails of reflected sunlight. The astronomy community urgently needs a multi-stakeholder and properly funded center dedicated to the mitigation of these impacts.
In 2020 and 2021, two NSF-funded SATCON workshops and two United Nations-mandated Dark and Quiet Skies meetings examined this issue and developed recommendations for mitigation, as well as pathways to implement those recommendations. The new center will pursue those implementations along multiple avenues, including a comprehensive satellite observing network, development of required software, research into hardware solutions, exchanges of community involvement, and creation of policy for the use of space.
Satellites pose a severe (and for some facilities possibly existential) threat to astronomy, and industry is moving rapidly with launch and deployment. We must act immediately to preserve, to the greatest extent possible, the dark and quiet sky, i.e., the source of our data. The symposium will focus on the progress to date, discuss concerns, ask questions, and plan next steps.