Quiet, magnificent, boundless – in the imagination, space should be as clean as the movie footage shows.
However, astronomers have found some strange things, such as what is this line in the observation map taken by the telescope?
Astronomical observations taken by the Zwicky Transient Probe of the Paloma Mountain Observatory in the United States. Image credit: Caltech Optical Observatories/IPAC
Oh, and this mysterious line comes from the Starlink communications satellite launched by the richest man, Musk, the American Space Exploration Technology Company (hereinafter referred to as SpaceX).
Musk's Mega Constellation Program
Musk is trying to build a satellite Internet covering the whole world through the Starlink program, providing unlimited broadband services to the world, and starting to send the first satellites into space in 2019.
SpaceX's ambitious end goal is a "super giant constellation" of up to 42,000 satellites. To date, some 2,000 satellites have been launched into low-Earth orbit.
2000 satellites, what is the concept? At present, the total number of all satellites in orbit in the world is only more than 2,000.
It is estimated that the satellites weigh no more than 260 kilograms, including launch costs, and cost less than $500,000 per satellite.
Achieve "small goals" first, and then do big things. Launching a large number of relatively low-cost small satellites to "occupy the pit", and then using the Internet to connect them together, "encircling" the only home of mankind, the earth, this is Musk's strategy.
Look at the number of launches of starlink satellites, 60 stars with one arrow, Xiaobian called good guys!
SpaceX's own highest record is 143 stars in one arrow, the highest in the world, and India's one arrow 104 stars is still almost meaningless.
And look at the frequency of this launch, several batches a month, whizzing fast to take off, who can reach?
SpaceX's Starlink satellites are launched with a dense frequency. Image source: Screenshot of CBS coverage page
Continuous "touching porcelain" Chinese space station
As a result, these huge number of "Musk" brand satellites are flying in space...
Wait, no, it's "flying around".
Spacecraft with the word "Starlink" written on it. Image source: SpaceX
Worldwide, Musk's satellites have not only been unclaimed, but have also received a lot of criticism. Because whether it is Europe or China, whether it is astronomers or astronomers, they are afraid of these American satellites!
In December 2021, the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations (Vienna) submitted a note to the UN Secretary-General stating that the U.S. Starlink satellite was twice dangerously approaching the Chinese space station.
Xiaobian found the note file on the official website of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNOOSA), and first looked at the first emergency avoidance listed by the Chinese side
The Chinese side cited the first emergency collision of the Chinese space station to the US Starlink satellite. Image source: Screenshot of UNOOSA's official website.
What's the situation? The US satellite ran for a month and suddenly changed orbit, and the orbit change process took another month, where to stay? In the end, it was the Chinese side that took the initiative to take the initiative and evaded urgently.
Look at the second emergency avoidance
The Chinese space station avoided collision with the US Starlink satellite for the second time. Image source: Screenshot of UNOOSA's official website.
What is "Strategy Unknown, Unable to Evaluate Error"? To put it more technically, it is "continuous orbit maneuvering", to put it bluntly, American satellites are like a dangerous bullet, you don't know where it will shoot.
The Economic Daily pointed out that in the high-speed operation state, as long as it collides with an object with a diameter of more than 10 centimeters, the Chinese space station will be damaged. Avoiding U.S. satellites twice shows the Chinese space station's superb space perception and obstacle avoidance capabilities.
Key points: The Chinese side said that this has threatened the personal safety of Chinese astronauts, and it is impossible not to hide!
The Chinese side cited the second emergency collision of the Chinese space station to the US Starlink satellite. Image source: Screenshot of UNOOSA's official website.
After the Chinese side submitted a note, the US side denied that the Starlink satellite endangered the Chinese space station, saying that its activities did not meet the established threshold of emergency collision standards, so under no circumstances did it require urgent notice.
In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded on February 10 that after the collision avoidance incident, the Chinese side repeatedly tried to contact the US side, but did not get a reply. Today, the United States is shirking its responsibility and diverting its attention, which is not the responsible attitude that a space power should have.
What's more, the US side does not have the right to unilaterally set a "lower limit of emergency collision standards".
Zhao Lijian pointed out that article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty stipulates that all States parties shall explore and use outer space on the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance; all activities of The State party in outer space shall properly accommodate the equal interests of other States parties.
China has registered the relevant information on the space station with the United Nations and published the number of orbital roots of the Chinese space station on its website. Proceeding from safeguarding the safety of Chinese astronauts and space stations, China is willing to establish a long-term communication mechanism with the United States and hopes that the United States will take practical measures to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.
Look at our attitude, how open!
There were too many criticisms that NASA had to come forward
Europe faces the same problem. As early as September 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) actively carried out evasion operations to ensure that its satellites would not collide with SpaceX's starlink satellites.
At the end of 2021, the newly appointed director-general of the European Space Agency, Ashbach, warned that the Starlink program affects the radio frequencies and orbital space conditions in space, and that "it is amazing that one person has half of the world's active satellites", which means that "Musk is making the rules of space on his own".
The performance of the Starlink satellites has also been questioned. On February 8, 2022, SpaceX announced that as many as 40 of the 49 starlink satellites it deployed could not leave safe mode to carry out orbital lifting operations due to geomagnetic storms, so they were scrapped and "will re-enter or have re-entered" the Earth's atmosphere.
Although SpaceX pointed out that these deorbited satellites have "zero risk of collision" with other satellites, many people did not buy it, and NASA had to come out to "extinguish the fire".
NASA has expressed "concern" about the Starlink deployment plan because there are currently at least 25,000 objects in orbit around the earth, while SpaceX's satellites will more than double the number of related objects in orbit, threatening the security of the International Space Station.
Now that the outside of the earth has covered 2,000 satellites, according to the imagination, there will be tens of thousands of satellites in the future, and when observing the universe from the earth, you will see SpaceX".
Even if the deployment is completed, once the Starlink satellite fails, it will become a huge amount of space junk, and it will take 1 to 5 years to fall into the atmosphere and burn up, and the consequences are unimaginable.
David Galadi, an expert at the Spanish Astronomical Society, pointed out that the main responsibility for the global generation of space junk should be borne by private companies, of which SpaceX has the largest number of active satellites.
According to the statistics of the US Space Surveillance Network, as of July 2021, the United States ranked first in the world with the number of 3819 active and abandoned spacecraft, and far left the second CIS country with a gap of nearly 2 times.
Light pollution interferes with astronomical observations
Because the reflective ability of starlink satellites seems to be stronger than other satellites, and the photosensitivity of astronomical telescopes makes these satellites a "source of light pollution". In addition to NASA's warning, mainstream media such as USA Today, ABC, and Business Insider have also paid attention to this.
Last month, the California Institute of Technology in the United States issued an article saying that researchers relied on astronomical images taken by the Zwicky Transient Facility of the Paloma Observatory in the United States to analyze the orbital traces of more than 5,000 star-chain satellites in the map in 10 months.
This background image of Caltech is one of them.
Familiar? That's the one at the beginning of the article
The official website of the California Institute of Technology published the impact of the Starlink satellite on astronomical observations. Image source: Screenshot of the official website of the California Institute of Technology.
When renowned astrophe photographer Daniel Lopez used expensive equipment to track the neowise on Earth, the Starlink satellites also became "spoilers."
In the time-lapse photography, it is all this "fan line" that obscures the brilliance of the protagonist's comet — yes, it is caused by the star chain satellites.
A large number of traces of the movement of the satellite chain have interfered with the observation of the new wisdom comet. Image credit: Daniel Lopéz/elcielodecanarias .com
This picture has become one of the evidences of the astronomical community and astronomy enthusiasts' big-scale crusade against Musk.
You know, Comet Xinzhi only returned to Earth once in more than 6,000 years, while the life of the starlink satellites was only 5 to 7 years... No wonder the AMERICAN media described the incident as a "visual bombardment."
Business Insider reported that Musk's starlink satellite trajectory "bombarded" the beautiful scene of the comet's passing. Image source: Screenshot of foreign media report.
Musk, who is aware of these problems, installed a folding board called "Visorsat" for the newly launched satellite to reduce the reflectivity, but this did not meet the standards of organizations such as the American Astronomical Society, and it was still not satisfactory, and the satellites that had been launched could not install these devices.
SpaceX plans to reduce reflectivity by installing sun visors. Image source: SpaceX
Is there a deep meaning behind the deployment?
In addition, many analysts believe that there is a deep meaning behind the "massive" launch of such satellites by the United States.
General Manager of the Russian State Aerospace Corporation Rogozin. Image source: Russian Satellite News Agency
Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Russian Aerospace State Corporation Dmitry Rogozin said that spaceX's starlink satellites can not only change the direction of in-flight cruise missiles, but also command special forces and control spy networks.
He noted that SpaceX received about $900 million from the U.S. government to deploy satellite communications systems, and the next phase of budget subsidies will total $20 billion.
"The question arises: Why does the [U.S.] government need this," Rogozin said. ”
Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao analyzed that SpaceX did not deny that the networking services provided by Starlink were paid, and the cash flow generated would be a necessary condition for funding its Mars plan. Will the company make up its mind about user data for the sake of cash flow?
In other words, StarLink has the ability to obtain user browsing records, personal information and control the websites that users can access outside the scope of supervision.
Xiao bian believes that in addition to information security being one of the key points of attention, not abiding by international treaty obligations, and not considering public safety, no matter which country wants to move the barbaric and hegemonic "law of the jungle" to outer space and wantonly "race horses" in space, its danger cannot be underestimated.
In this way, it is not surprising that Musk has been rated by foreign media as the "number one protagonist of space horror".
Source: China News Service WeChat public account