SATCON1 Report on Impact of Satellite Constellations on Astronomy
This NIMOP (&quot;Not In My Orbital Plane&quot;) movement is very concerning and I feel the need to speak out against the dangers of this &quot;luddite movement&quot; type thinking.<p>First, of course its good for companies to reduce the negative externalities of things in space (paint, shades, etc). I think there is near universal agreement here, including from SpaceX.<p>However, there is no way to become a space faring civilization without putting lots of things in space, period. I want to see 1,000,000x more objects in space, including much larger ones.<p>If we truly become space faring, we have the matter and resources to have a quadrillion humans living in comfort (likely in large rotating space habitats like&quot;O Neil Cylinders&quot;). This is the kind of dream we could have, imagine over 100,000x the humans, artists, friendship, science, and love. We can simultaneously make earth an ecological paradise, with most of the planet reserved for nature.<p>This &quot;anti-satellite&quot; movement seems to generally have 4 kinds of attacks against the satellites:
1) The satellites &quot;impede my rights to view the sky&quot;. The implication is that anyone who attempts to build in their &quot;view to infinity&quot; violates their rights. This seems like an extremely presumptuous statement, like they own trillions of miles. This also doesn&#x27;t match the current legal framework of any country (nobody needs your permission to fly over your house in aircraft or space).
2) The usecase of these satellites is bad because they are &quot;like cell towers&quot;. Getting low cost internet access for the planet is IMO an extremely good thing, one of the best things for the poor.
3) The satellites will kill astronomy. This is absurd, we will have much better astronomy if we are a space fairing species with cheap space access and many things&#x2F;expertise in space and giant telescopes outside our atmosphere. It may kill amateur astronomy from earth eventually, but I just don&#x27;t think that as society a relatively fringe hobby should stop the progress of humanity. Many hobbies have been killed over time. I personally think this will inspire more people to look to space, and have the opposite effect.
4) We should not put things into space, and we should look to reduce our impact on the universe. This also manifests itself in those that want to see population reduction on Earth. I believe consciousness is better than lifeless rock. I say this as a human and a parent who has brought consciousness into the world.<p>Lets upgrade our dreams, take to the stars, and make the universe a more interesting place.