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In a conversation on Twitter, an entrepreneur stated that the company should adjust the positioning of the solar panels and, in the future, adopt the use of special material
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk revealed on Wednesday (22) that the company is working to reduce the brightness of Starlink satellites to minimize the team’s interference in observing the sky at night. The information was revealed by the businessman in dialogue with followers on Twitter.
According to Musk, the company plans to immediately change the angle of the satellite’s solar panels, as well as install “umbrella” species on all devices since the mission’s ninth launch. These materials will be made from a special dark foam that is extremely transparent to radiation waves.
Thank you. We are taking some key steps to reduce the brightness of the satellite by the way. It should be much less noticeable during increasing orbit by changing the angle of the solar panel and all sats get umbrellas starting at launch 9.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2020
This Wednesday (22) SpaceX concluded the sixth launch operation of the Starlink mission, which sent 60 more satellites into space. As a result, the company’s constellation already has 422 units in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). The main objective of the project is to form a global network for Internet communication.
Elon Musk’s initiative to reduce the luminosity of satellites is a response in the midst of a discussion about the impacts of these equipment on astronomical observation. In February, the International Astronomical Union published a preliminary study that concluded that observing Earth stars can be “severely affected” by interference from satellite constellations.
In this sense, the SpaceX team is already a draw. In late January, part of the Starlink constellation was visible to the naked eye. When asked by a Twitter user, Musk clarified that they have shown more luminous aspects due to the variation in the positioning of the solar panels during the lifting and parking maneuvers.
Is there any reason they’ve been brighter and more noticeable lately? I feel like tons of people are suddenly seeing them and they went quite unnoticed before.
– Astronaut every day (@Erdayastronaut) April 22, 2020
The Starlink mission hopes to form an initial constellation of 1,600 satellites, with the expectation of expanding that number to 40,000 units.
Source: TechCrunch
space spaceX musk elon Starlink Science and space
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