Is Rising Congestion in LEO a Problem for Astronomers? By Harsh Patel

During the Cold War era, the Soviet Union launched the very first artificial satellite ever to reach into the depths of LEO (Lower-Earth Orbit), the region defined as the space between 160 km (about 99.42 mi) to 2,000 km (about 1242.74 mi) above Earth’s surface. This satellite was known as Sputnik 1 and was an extraordinary scientific and technological feat, being the first man-made object to ever be launched into space and thus starting the space age. 

Since then, thousands upon thousands of satellites have been launched into LEO, with the amount active satellites totaling about 12,150. Now, what does this mean for astronomers? Well, there are three main issues that must be considered when discussing how satellites affect astronomers’ ability to study the universe. 

Firstly, satellites pose the issue of creating optical interferences for telescopes due to the large amount of light that seep out from streaks and flashes emitted by satellites. Secondly, satellites in the LEO create a background sky glow, which is essentially just light pollution that makes it difficult to observe celestial bodies clearly; moreover, due to the number of satellites in space, there becomes an increasingly large chance of collisions which poses a threat to technologies and telescopes that astronomers set into space to gather data. Lastly, satellites introduce various types of radio interference that may interfere with astronomers’ ability to communicate and receive information from radio telescopes. It may seem as though rising congestion in the LEO is, or could be, a major problem for astronomers, but that’s not the whole story. 

To accurately grasp how large of an issue congestion in the LEO poses, some of the smaller details must be examined. For instance, although satellites may introduce optical interferences for telescopes in the LEO region, the amount of interference they cause is determined by the telescope that is affected. Nowadays, as telescope technology has advanced to a level in which they can visualize the entire electromagnetic spectrum and can produce clear images due to the intricate detector technology, adaptive optics (ability to adjust shape of mirrors in order to avoid distortion), and larger apertures (larger mirrors and lenses which allows them to collect more light and thus create clearer images), these optical interferences are almost negligible in their affect. Furthermore, the first ever collision between satellites occurred in 2009, and there have been less than five collisions between satellites and other objects in history. To continue, most radio telescopes are placed in designated radio-quiet zones which typically range from West Virginia to West Australia and South Africa. Based on all of this information, it is reasonable to conclude that although congestion in the LEO may cause a problem for astronomers, a lot of the threats they pose can be avoided. 

Congestion in the LEO is not much of a problem for astronomers at this point, however, that is not to say that it may not become a major problem in the future. Every year, more satellites are launched into the LEO along with there being multiple plans to launch more satellites including one by the Chinese government who have a plan to launch a constellation of 300,000 satellites. Also, as more satellites are launched, the issues that we talked about earlier will become increasingly relevant. There will be more debris, radio interference, and light pollution, and the number of problems these satellites cause will increase considerably. If the world continues down this path and these plans come to fruition, no advancement in technology will be able to negate the effects of LEO congestion.  

At EcoAero, we are sure these developments will only be a slight roadblock in humanities’ quest in exploring the extraterrestrial world, and we believe innovative and eco-friendly solutions will be made that align with our goal to promote sustainable and efficient technology in aerospace. Even so, the answer to our original question of whether the rising congestion in the LEO is a problem for astronomers is not yet. Currently, astronomers have plenty of ways to work around and negate the effects of satellite congestion in the LEO, but there will need to be new workarounds and progressions made as more satellites are built and launched. All in all, only the future will be able to tell us whether congestion in the LEO will be a problem for astronomers. 

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