11 big things: Dreams & nightmares of the satellite era – PitchBook News & Analysis

Venture capitalists and industry evangelists alike have been predicting for a few years now that the world is on the brink of a new space age. And for good reason.

Ambitious, well-funded companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX are becoming household names with plans to travel to the moon and beyond. Rockets are easier to build and less expensive to launch than ever before (you can even 3D print one).

And more companies are popping up with intentions of ringing the globe with high-powered networks of pint-sized satellites. That trend in particular kept popping up in the past seven days.

It was a good week for those who are optimistic about the potential benefits vast satellite networks can bring to us here on Earth. But it was a worrisome week for scientists who are concerned about what omnipresent satellites might mean for watching the stars. And that's one of 11 things you need to know from the past week:

Thursday also brought news from one of SpaceX's primary rivals in the satellite-powered internet industry. OneWeb, which is backed by SoftBank, successfully launched 34 new satellites from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the latest additions to a planned network of nearly 650 orbiting transponders.

Earlier in the week, a rocket startup called Astra emerged from stealth after reportedly raising more than $100 million in venture capital. Astra plans to conduct low-cost, high-frequency launches for companies like OneWeb that want to blanket the skies in satellites.

Blue Origin, which is also in the business of powering satellite launches, might have received a boost of its own this week. Regulatory filings show Jeff Bezos has liquidated about $3.5 billion in Amazon stock over recent days. Bezos said in 2017 he sells $1 billion in Amazon stock every year to fund Blue Origin's operations. As he famously put it a year later: "The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel."

News of all the successful launches and piles of funding, though, only added to the consternation of people who have dedicated their professional lives to watching the stars.

In the wake of OneWeb's Thursday launch, The New York Times published a story about the disturbed astronomers who worry OneWeb's satellites will produce chatter that interferes with the sorts of radio waves used to monitor and learn about faraway stars.

Considering some other recent events, it seems fair to be concerned. SpaceX and its existing Starlink satelliteswhich are highly reflectivehave already been wreaking havoc on interstellar observation. For months now, astronomers have been taking to Twitter with otherwise useful images ruined by bright streaks of light bouncing off satellites. Experts like astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell say that if the trend continues, it would "represent a serious change to the night sky."

And there's reason to think it might continue. SpaceX and OneWeb are far from alone in their plans for sweeping satellite constellations. Amazon and Facebook are believed to be planning networks of their own. And startups like Planet, Spire Global and Swarm Technologies have similar aims.

The obvious solution here, of course, would be for satellite companies to be a little more conscious of the products they're putting into the skies. Musk has already pledged to make changes in Starlink's satellites, tweeting that SpaceX cares "a great deal about science." And there are already some safeguards in place. OneWeb was reportedly required to cooperate with radio astronomers before the launch of its satellites in an effort to avoid crossing wires (so to speak).

But what is it they say about the best laid plans? Maybe Starlink will indeed fix its over-reflective satellites. But as the Earth's orbit becomes more crowded, even a small percentage of carelessly designed satellites could contaminate the night skies for us all.

And sure, there are probably more immediate concerns out there than astronomers struggling to photograph some far-off star. But astronomy is, I think, an important tool humans use to figure out who we are, where our world came from, and what our future might hold. It was radio astronomythe kind threatened by OneWebthat allowed scientists last year to take the first photograph ever of a black hole.

It would be a shame if the science of improving communications and knowledge here on Earth comes at the expense of the science concerned with the rest of the universe. It doesn't have to.

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11 big things: Dreams & nightmares of the satellite era - PitchBook News & Analysis