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Posts Tagged ‘musk’

Elon Musk reveals how SpaceX will address light pollution caused by Starlink satellites

28 Apr

Following the successful launch of its Starlink 6 batch of satellites last week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted out a few details about night sky light pollution caused by these low Earth orbit satellites and the company’s plans to address this issue.

According to the tweet, SpaceX is taking ‘some key steps to reduce satellite brightness,’ something that Musk says should make them ‘much less noticeable during orbit raise.’ This change involves adjusting the solar panel angle, according to the tweet, plus there will be a new addition to the satellites starting with the Starlink 9 launch: sunshades.

It’s unclear how drastically these changes will reduce the brightness of its satellites, but the move underscores SpaceX’s efforts to address concerns about light pollution caused by these small satellites.

The Starlink initiative aims to launch thousands of small low-Earth orbit satellites that will beam Internet service to the ground, providing high-speed broadband access in places where it’s unavailable from terrestrial providers, or where only slow and expensive options are available. Musk said in a tweet following the Starlink 6 launch that the company plans to start a private beta of the Starlink service in around three months.

Renewed attention to the issue of light pollution caused by low-Earth orbit satellites was spurred with the launch of NASA’s Satellite Streak Watcher project in early March. In explaining the reason for the initiative, the space agency said that the increasing number of these satellites launched into orbit makes things more difficult for astronomers on the ground.

The light pollution caused by these satellites is also a problem for astrophotographers, causing long streaks of light to appear in long-exposure images. Unlike avoiding light pollution from the ground, it’s not possible to head to a ‘dark sky reserve’ or other similar places to avoid light pollution originating from space.

SpaceX hasn’t been ignoring this problem; back in December 2019, the company said that it was experimenting with a new anti-reflective coating that would make the satellites less bright, though it may potentially result in satellite performance problems by causing thermal issues. Based on Musk’s most recent tweet, it seems the company is turning to sunshades as its solution.

With the Starlink 6 satellite launch last week, SpaceX now has 420 of these small satellites in orbit. The company plans to launch a minimum of 12,000 satellites over the coming months, though the figure may exceed 30,000 in the long run. A public beta of the Starlink service will start in the US and Canada in around six months following the private beta, according to Musk’s tweet. It’s still unclear how much the eventual Starlink Internet service will cost.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Frozen Warriors: Capturing the mighty musk ox in its natural habitat

25 Mar

Wildlife photographer Chris Schmid recently travelled to Norway’s Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park—which contains some of the most punishing-yet-beautiful landscapes on Earth—to shoot an ambitious documentary photography and filmmaking project. His goal was to capture the mammoth-like musk ox in their natural arctic habitat, and the result is the short film The Frozen Warriors.

Using RED cameras for video, DJI drones for aerial shots, and the Sony a9 and a7R III for stills photography, Schmid sought to capture footage that would foster some sort of connection between his audience and the musk oxen, whose already dwindling numbers are increasingly threatened by climate change. This, despite being one of the most resilient animals on Earth, having survived the last ice age without breaking a sweat.

As Chris explains:

What fascinates me about the musk ox is the strength it has to adapt to the most hostile of environments. In the winter, they feed on roots, mosses and lichens buried under the snow and spend over four months without sunshine, in total darkness, surviving in temperatures reaching as low as -60°C

Check out the film at the top of this post and scroll through Schmid’s photographs from the project below to get to know these Frozen Warriors for yourself. And if you want to learn more about the project (and help raise awareness), visit (and share) the Frozen Warriors project page here.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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