Astronomers push for global debate on giant satellite swarms
Cheap space launch is the cause of, and the solution to, our light pollution issues.<p>50,000 satellites would be impossible to launch without the recent step change in the wholesale price of launch. And even 5% of that number of space based telescopes will decrease the contention for valuable instrument time enormously.<p>Particularly if the next generation space based telescopes used tethers or precision formation flying for extremely large simulated aperture size, we'll start getting phenomenally amazing data. (Even some of the largest ground based telescopes will be possible to compete with in space using large formations of connected satellites.)<p>So all of the hue and cry around Starlink is really just growing pains. It will hurt some of the science temporarily (particularly around sunrise and sunset), but in the long run, cheap launch is really what the field of astronomy needs to continue to have better and better instrumentation.