Prof. Sam LawlerProfessor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her.
Living and learning on the land and under the skies of Treaty 4 (Saskatchewan, Canada). Currently on sabbatical, yelling about satellite pollution in many locations around coastal BC.
Prof. Sam LawlerThis is looking SOUTH. Holy crap.
Prof. Sam LawlerWell, this is embarrassing. Looks like I finally cursed at Starlink enough that I managed to open up some kind of portal in VLEO right over my barn. Sorry everybody! I promise I'll help clean up.
Prof. Sam LawlerI'm an astronomer currently fighting for regulation and better engineering of satellites (particularly Starlink) so that the night sky isn't ruined for everyone: https://theconversation.com/soon-1-out-of-every-15-points-of-light-in-the-sky-will-be-a-satellite-170427
I also have super cute baby goats!
Prof. Sam LawlerIt's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch.
A bunch of astronomers and I have sent out a fact sheet about them to a bunch of journalists, but very few are going to write about this. So, let me try posting it all here.
Here's what I know about Reflect Orbital and all the downsides:
Prof. Sam LawlerHey, finally made it into an American news story! So far, SpaceX has not contacted the people in North Carolina who found SpaceX debris. Interesting. I hope that news stories like this will push them to take some responsibility here!
https://wlos.com/news/local/professor-spacexs-lack-of-accountability-for-space-debris-frustrating-nasa-samantha-lawlwer-university-of-regina-saskatchewan-canada
Prof. Sam LawlerThis is the best way possible to (maybe?) end this epic thread!
Here is the story of the Saskatchewan SpaceX debris fall, written by me, published by Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-dropped-space-junk-on-my-neighbors-farm-heres-what-happened-next/
Many of you got to see this story unfold in real-time toots, but this is the whole thing, plus some extra science context. Extra special thank you to @NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social and @laurahelmuth@mastodon.social for encouraging me to pitch the story to SciAm! I am so excited to publish in a magazine I read all the time as a kid.
Prof. Sam LawlerI've had like 3 co-workers text or email me about this interview this morning, so I guess I should share it. This is the one that I thought was for radio so I didn't even brush my hair. New rule for myself: always assume it's a video interview!
Came out pretty good though, overall I'm happy with it
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6685144
Prof. Sam LawlerAmazingly talented fediverse astrophotographers: gorgeous, perfectly exposed and processed telescope images
Me, a professional astronomer: accidentally points a 4 meter telescope at Saturn for a series of 5 minute exposures
Prof. Sam LawlerIt's happening! Tomorrow I leave for Aotearoa New Zealand to visit a whole bunch of amateur astronomy clubs (to yell about satellite pollution) and then spend a few weeks with collaborators at University of Canterbury (to yell about satellite pollution, and hopefully also talk about the Kuiper Belt and interstellar objects!)
I am looking forward to new foods, visiting farms, having conversations with farmers and astronomers, and different stars (hello MAGELLENIC CLOUDS!!) #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerMy first week of talks includes WhangΔrei https://events.humanitix.com/astronomy-and-the-billionaire-space-race
Then Auckland https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/astronomy-vs-the-billionaire-space-race-tickets-1979945182339
Then Hamilton https://www.has.org.nz/bht-registration-2026
(Bonus: in Hamilton I've been invited to visit the "methane barn" where they study emissions from cows and I'm so here for this) #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerIt's happening! Tomorrow I leave for Aotearoa New Zealand to visit a whole bunch of amateur astronomy clubs (to yell about satellite pollution) and then spend a few weeks with collaborators at University of Canterbury (to yell about satellite pollution, and hopefully also talk about the Kuiper Belt and interstellar objects!)
I am looking forward to new foods, visiting farms, having conversations with farmers and astronomers, and different stars (hello MAGELLENIC CLOUDS!!) #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam LawlerInterview requests today on the topic of satellite pollution from a journalist in China and one in Turkey. Interesting.
Prof. Sam LawlerMy house is 10km from the nearest town, and 1/2km from my nearest neighbour. But I am hooked to an electric line, I could be hooked to a wired phone line, I could hook up to a water line, and I could even hook up to a natural gas line (which is completely wild).
But no wired broadband internet! This is just not where governments are putting money, and many are happy to use Starlink to leapfrog that rural infrastructure development cost, at the cost of supporting an American billionaire company.
Prof. Sam LawlerAnyway, fairly petty things to complain about, given everything else that's happening.
But pollution from satellite internet is my thing that I'm an expert on! So I will keep complaining about it and educating people about it. This is the fight that all my training has prepared me for, so I'm fighting it!
Prof. Sam LawlerI assumed that Starlink has sucked up so much of their rural Sask business that they are having to shut off towers as more and more Canadians switch to using American billionaire-owned satellites. But no, they sent out a confusing form letter to everyone: they're actually just upgrading my tower and my receiver is too old. (Annoying because my farm-sitter will have to deal with this, but oh well)
So, I still have access to cell-tower ground-based internet, in rural Canada. For now!
Prof. Sam LawlerMy house is 10km from the nearest town, and 1/2km from my nearest neighbour. But I am hooked to an electric line, I could be hooked to a wired phone line, I could hook up to a water line, and I could even hook up to a natural gas line (which is completely wild).
But no wired broadband internet! This is just not where governments are putting money, and many are happy to use Starlink to leapfrog that rural infrastructure development cost, at the cost of supporting an American billionaire company.
Prof. Sam LawlerI finally had time to wade through sitting on hold long enough to talk to my rural Sask internet provider (Xplore, yeah, I know I should switch to a different company...) because they sent me a vague email a few days ago saying I needed a new receiver and that I may have to switch to satellite-based internet, which, as you might imagine if you've read like...any of my posts... I'm just not doing. Nope.
Prof. Sam LawlerI assumed that Starlink has sucked up so much of their rural Sask business that they are having to shut off towers as more and more Canadians switch to using American billionaire-owned satellites. But no, they sent out a confusing form letter to everyone: they're actually just upgrading my tower and my receiver is too old. (Annoying because my farm-sitter will have to deal with this, but oh well)
So, I still have access to cell-tower ground-based internet, in rural Canada. For now!
Prof. Sam LawlerI finally had time to wade through sitting on hold long enough to talk to my rural Sask internet provider (Xplore, yeah, I know I should switch to a different company...) because they sent me a vague email a few days ago saying I needed a new receiver and that I may have to switch to satellite-based internet, which, as you might imagine if you've read like...any of my posts... I'm just not doing. Nope.
Prof. Sam LawlerHere, have some huge BC trees:
Prof. Sam LawlerRE: https://scicomm.xyz/@JohnBarentine/115967984519741487
Amazon Kuiper has actually been quite good about talking to astronomers from the very beginning of building their megaconstellations.
Did all that volunteer time from astronomers make any difference at all?
Looks like... no. They are still too damn bright. (Though I supposed maybe they would have been even brighter without any discussions with astronomers? Sigh.)
Dr. John Barentine FRAS"The satellites in Amazon's new internet-beaming megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) are bright enough to disrupt astronomical research, a study has found." (via @spacedotcom@bird.makeup)
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/amazons-internet-beaming-satellites-are-bright-enough-to-disrupt-astronomical-research-study-finds
#Satellites #Space #Astronomy
Prof. Sam LawlerJonathan McDowell updated his "Enormous (`Mega') Satellite Constellations" page, now showing 200,000+ more planned satellites thanks to China's CTC and the US's Terawave megaconstellations. βΉ
οΈ
https://www.planet4589.org/space/con/conlist.html