Tag: SpaceX

Giant ‘Bond Villian’ Space Mirror Approved by Feds

“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to… fry!” If you’ve ever watched Diamonds Are Forever, Die Another Day, or any of the other James Bond films featuring megalomaniacs with space-based superweapons, you probably assumed giant orbiting mirrors capable of directing sunlight at Earth would remain safely in the realm of Hollywood fantasy.

From Watts Up With That?

By Anthony Watts

“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to… fry!” If you’ve ever watched Diamonds Are Forever, Die Another Day, or any of the other James Bond films featuring megalomaniacs with space-based superweapons, you probably assumed giant orbiting mirrors capable of directing sunlight at Earth would remain safely in the realm of Hollywood fantasy.

Apparently, no one told the Federal Communications Commission. In a decision that would make Ernst Stavro Blofeld nod approvingly while stroking his cat, regulators have approved the first step toward a commercial constellation of orbital mirrors designed to beam sunlight onto the Earth’s surface. What could possibly go wrong? -Anthony

Via Spaceweather.com:

Since SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019, astronomers have grown increasingly concerned. It’s almost impossible now to take a deep-sky image without satellite streaks in the background. The mega-constellation numbers nearly 11,000 functioning satellites, and SpaceX launched another 1,589 during the first half of 2026 alone.

Soon, Starlink may be the least of their worries.

An artist’s concept of sunlight beamed down from orbit. Bats, fireflies, and other creatures of the night could find their darkness interrupted by roving spots of artificial sunlight

Last week, the FCC authorized Reflect Orbital Inc. to launch a huge space mirror named “Eärendil-1.” From an orbit about 625 km high, it will cast a moving, 5-km-wide patch of light onto the Earth about as bright as a full Moon. Later, the company could combine beams from multiple satellites to create much brighter spotlights. Reflect Orbital wants to launch 50,000 more by 2035, selling sunlight-on-demand to solar farms, construction sites and search-and-rescue teams.

If Reflect Orbital’s plan is realized, it could be calamitous not only for astronomy but also for the natural world as a whole. Nocturnal animals and night-blooming plants, tuned by evolution to the rhythm of day and night, would suddenly find their darkness interrupted by moving pools of redirected sunlight. Small favors? Reflect Orbital says the light will not be bright enough to start fires.

The FCC itself acknowledged some of these concerns, but noted in its order that optical astronomy and the environment lie largely outside its jurisdiction. They can only regulate the project’s use of radio signals. For now, no US agency regulates how bright a satellite may shine.

The company’s FCC application attracted more than 1,800 public comments, most of them sharply critical. Nevertheless, the launch of Eärendil-1 is now expected before the end of the year.

Will Satellite Megaconstellations Weaken Earth’s Magnetic Field?

Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing mega-constellation of Starlink internet satellites.

From Spaceweather.com

By DR.TONY PHILLIPS

Feb. 1, 2024: Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing mega-constellation of Starlink internet satellites.

Environmentalists have raised many concerns about Starlink including light-pollution of the night sky, a potentially hazardous traffic jam in low-Earth orbit, and even ozone depletion. Copycat mega-constellations by other companies and countries will only multiply these concerns.

Now there’s a new reason to worry. According to a new study by Sierra Solter, megaconstellations could alter and weaken Earth’s magnetic field.

Solter is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, working on her PhD in plasma physics. She recently realized something overlooked by many senior colleagues: “More than 500,000 satellites are expected in decades ahead, primarily to build internet megaconstellations. Every satellite that goes up will eventually come down, disintegrating in Earth’s atmosphere. This will create a massive layer of conducting, electrically charged particles around our planet.”

To understand the scale of the problem, consider the following: If you gathered up every charged particle in Earth’s Van Allen Belts, their combined mass would be only 0.00018 kg. Other components of the magnetosphere such as the ring current and plasmasphere are even less massive. For comparison, “the mass of a second generation Starlink satellite is 1250 kilograms, all of which will become conductive debris when the satellite is eventually de-orbited,” says Solter.

Metal debris from a single deorbited Starlink satellite is 7 million times more massive than the Van Allen Belts. An entire megaconstellation is billions of times more massive. These ratios point to a big problem.

“The space industry is adding enormous amounts of material to the magnetosphere in comparison to natural levels of particulate matter,” says Solter. “Due to the conductive nature of the satellite debris, this may perturb or change things.”

There is already evidence of this process in action. A 2023 study by researchers using a high-altitude NASA aircraft found that 10% of aerosols in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals from disintegrating satellites and rocket stages. These particles are drifting down from “the ablation zone” 70 to 80 km above Earth’s surface where meteors and satellites burn up.

Solter decided to look for changes in the electrical properties of the ablation zone–and she found something. A NASA model of the upper atmosphere shows a sharp increase in the “Debye Length” just where satellites break apart when they deorbit:

“Debye Length” is a number that tells researchers how far an unbalanced electrical charge can be felt in conducting plasmas. The fact that it changes abruptly in the same place satellites disintegrate may be significant.

Extrapolating into the future, Solter worries that satellite debris could weaken Earth’s magnetic field–the same magnetic field that protects us from cosmic rays and solar storms.

“It’s a textbook undergraduate physics problem,” she explains. “Suppose you put a conductive shell (satellite debris) around a spherical magnet (Earth). Outside the shell, the magnetic field goes to zero due to shielding effects. This is a highly simplified comparison, of course, but we might actually be doing this to our planet.”  

Solter’s preliminary study appears to show that the space industry is indeed perturbing the environment.  “It is very concerning,” she concludes. “We absolutely cannot dump endless amounts of conductive dust into the magnetosphere and not expect some kind of impact. Multidisciplinary studies of this pollution are urgently needed.”

For more information, you can read Solter’s original research here.