Planned satellite constellations may swamp future orbiting telescopes

Planned orbital observatories would see satellites cross nearly all of their images.

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[Bernedoodle]

I wish this article ended with a more upbeat conclusion, like the ARS article on space based telescopes from 2023:

https://meincmagazine.com/space/2023/...s-should-take-advantage-of-starship-paradigm/

Since most of these satellite constellations are dependent on launch costs continuing to fall dramatically, why not assume that in the near future it will become very affordable to launch telescopes far above the constellations? Already New Glenn can launch a telescope heavier than Hubble to a geostationary transfer orbit, and it’s a reasonable bet that Starship will figure out refueling and be able deliver something much bigger there and beyond.

Additionally there are dozens of companies planning to mass produce telescopes pointing downward; this will lower component costs for new science missions.

https://nova.space/press-release/commercial-earth-observation-market-surpasses-8-billion-by-2033/

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Ob...ends_to_watch_in_commercial_Earth_observation

I see no reason to be pessimistic about the future of astronomy.

 

[Bernedoodle]

Astronomers have stated time and again that they don't want a plethora of telescopes of existing capability. They want a handful of large, expensive flagship observatories that they then have to fight over for access.

Perhaps someone would enjoy fighting over this:

“
The big advantage of using individual small telescopes is that they can be separated as far apart as we like. Since the finest detail in an image depends on the maximum separation between the mirrors collecting the light, this implies that we can make images of stars as though we had telescopes with mirrors hundreds of metres in size. It would be impossibly difficult to build a conventional telescope as large as that, so aperture synthesis is the only way to achieve the sharp images that astronomers really want.”

https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/websites/AMI/mrao.cam.ac.uk/telescopes/coast/handout.html

 

[Bernedoodle]

It's not just about having the small telescopes fart apart. It's also keeping their position to a small fraction of the wavelength of light that you're going to image. Orbital interferometers are being considered for an orbital version of LIGO (LISA), but even that's a rudimentary first step to what's required to achieve imaging that's diffraction limited by such a large separation.

“Our team in Cambridge has, however, recently commissioned the world's first optical aperture synthesis telescope. The instrument, called COAST, currently incorporates five 40cm telescopes arranged in a `Y' configuration, with a maximum telescope-telescope separation of approximately 22m. Up to four of the telescopes are used simultaneously. COAST already produces images showing several times more detail than the Hubble Space Telescope at less than a thousandth of the cost, and has been designed to operate with the telescopes up to 100m apart allowing another factor of 10 improvement in the sharpness of its images.”

“The total cost of the telescope was £850,000.”

I’m optimistic about what a space based version could do considering the lack of sound, wind, seismic waves and atmospheric distortions.