Symbolic Disconnection from the Stars and the Universe?
Surreptitious global implementation of full-spectrum dominance and shielding
Symbolic Disconnection from the Stars and the Universe?
Overt consequences of ongoing technological initiatives
Psycho-social and covert implications of star loss
Unexamined symbolic implications of disrupted star light?
Unadulterated star light as a human right
References
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This is an exercise in noting a pattern to very recent events and their implications for the immediate future.
Unilateral mass launching of thousands of satellites: The Starlink satellite constellation is a formation by SpaceX, purportedly to provide global broadband Internet service. In June 2015 the company requested the US regulatory authorities for permission to begin testing for a project that aimed to build a constellation of 4,425 satellites in 1,100 km orbits capable of beaming the Internet to the entire globe, including the remotest currently lacking Internet access. As of March 2017, plans were filed with those authorities to field a constellation of an additional 7,518 "V-band satellites in non-geosynchronous orbits to provide communications services" in an electromagnetic spectrum that had not previously been heavily employed for commercial communications services. As of November 2019, some 122 satellites had been launched, with the ultimate goal of deploying some 12,000 satellites by the mid-2020s.
- Stephen Clark: SpaceX poised to accelerate launch cadence with series of Starlink missions (Spaceflight Now, 20 December 2019)
- Tim Fernholz: SpaceX builds out satellite network with a milestone launch (Quartz, 11 November 2019)
- Why SpaceX and Amazon plan to drastically increase the number of satellites orbiting Earth (CNBC News, 15 December 2019)
- SpaceX wants to triple the number of satellites in our skies (World Economic Forum, 5 January 2017)
Amazon is planning a constellation of 3,200 satellites. OneWeb (a UK company) is aiming to launch 650 satellites -- potentially to be increased to 2,000 if there is enough customer demand. As of the beginning of 2019, some 8,950 satellites had already been placed into orbit – and while 5,000 of those were still in space, only about 1,950 were still functioning.
These initiatives promise to sharply accelerate the physical presence of human technology in space. There is no requirement or facility for seeking global consensus on such unconstrained use of outer space or of effectively considering its potential implications.
Establishment of space war forces: A space force is a military branch that conducts space warfare of which 8 have been variously constituted. These are a feature of the progressive militarisation of space.
The only nation which currently has an independent space force is the United States, which established the United States Space Force in December 2019. In 1992 the Russian Space Forces were established as a separate service branch within the Russian Armed Forces, becoming the first independent space force in the world -- subsequently merged with other military forces from which it has since been variously independent. In 2015 China established the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force as an independent service branch of the People's Liberation Army, responsible for space, cyber, and electronic warfare.
As argued by Michael Nayak (Fighting a War in Space: The Case for a Space Innovation Force, Astropolitics: The International Journal of Space Politics and Policy, 16, 2018, 2):
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) is gearing up to face the challenge of a contested, degraded space environment that may degenerate into a full-on battleground. The U.S. space enterprise needs to be ready to not just respond, but dominate.... To win a war in space, AFSPC must build rapid breakaway capabilities that can asymmetrically rearrange the Space Order of Battle. This work proposes the formation of a top-down "Space Innovation Force" (SIF) to complement the bottom-up SMF. If appropriately empowered, this autonomous flat-management cadre of SIF warriors provides revolutionary technological capabilities that an enemy will be unable to counter in the near term.
Systematic disruption of astronomical observation: This has been of increasing concern in relation to light pollution (as discussed below) and the potential degrading of the space environment (noted above), now exacerbated by the mass launching of near orbit satellites as variously noted:
- Rebecca Morelle: Satellite Constellations: astronomers warn of threat to view of Universe (BBC News, 27 December 2019) -- including indicative images
- Ethan Siegel: Latest Starlink Plans Unveiled By Elon Musk And SpaceX Could Create An Astronomical Emergency (Forbes, 11 December 2019)
- Henry Samuel: Astronomers around the world warn massive satellite build-up could 'cut us off from the cosmos' forever (The Telegraph, 12 November 2019)
- Rhiannon Williams: Elon Musk's internet satellites risk destroying the night sky (INews, 2 December 2019)
- Charlotte Edwards: Elon Musk's Starlink 'internet satellites' caught ruining footage of last week's rare Unicorn meteor shower (The Sun, 27 November 2019)
- Miriam Kramer: 1 big thing: Hunting for asteroids is about to get harder (Axios Space, 3 December 2019)
- Michael J. I. Brown: Lights in the sky from Elon Musk's new satellite network have stargazers worried (The Conversation, 28 May 2019)
- Victoria Gill: Light pollution: huge fall in stars that can be seen with naked eye (BBC News, 20 January 2023)
- Rosie Frost: Stars are becoming 'invisible' to the human eye at an alarming rate, scientists warn (Euronews, 20 January 2023)
- What satellites will do to our view of the night sky (World Economic Forum, 22 November 2019)
- SpaceX plans to launch thousands of satellites: Is this the end of dark skies? (ABC News , 12 December 2019)
- As SpaceX Launches 60 Starlink Satellites, Scientists See Threat to 'Astronomy Itself' (The New York Times, 11 November 2019)
- Elon Musk's satellites threaten to disrupt the night sky for all of us (The Washington Post, 5 June 2019)
Unchallenged accumulation of orbital debris: Space debris (also known as space junk, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) is a term for defunct human-made objects in space -- principally in Earth orbit -- which no longer serve a useful function. This can include nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris. Examples of space debris include derelict satellites and spent rocket stages as well as the fragments from their disintegration, erosion and collisions, such as paint flecks, sol
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