Megaconstellations Obscure Night Sky View in Australia, Thousands of Satellites Affect Indigenous Astronomy Practices

Across cultures and continents, ancient people have relied on the night sky to guide them. These ancient star knowledge are ingrained with practical knowledge of the land, skies, waters, and dreams passed down to generations. But ancient indigenous astronomy practices are now at a critical point where human-made satellites are obscuring the night sky view.

These megaconstellations deployed by private space companies, such as SpaceX, range from hundreds to thousands, and reports suggest that they may reach up to 100,000 by 2030.

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Megaconstellation of Satellites Obscuring Night Sky View in Australia, Affecting Indigenous Astronomy Practices

Losing the Stars Due to Megaconstellation of Satellites

SpaceX's Starlink project has launched about 1,700 satellites into Low-Earth orbit since 2018 and they plan to launch another 30,000 satellites over the next decade. Likewise, British company OnWeb has also launched 150 satellites and plans to send 6,000 more, while Amazon intends to launch an additional 3,000 satellites to its fleet in the coming years.

All three companies deliver an accessible internet connection to even the most remote areas. However, indigenous peoples and many astronomers are left to wonder at what cost?

Krystal De Napoli, an astrophysics graduate student at Monash University in Australia, has compared the night sky to a library in which each start represents a book. "And if we start to cover up and lose sight of those books, we lose our reference points, we lose that link and our information," Discover Magazine quotes De Napoli.

Indigenous peoples in Australia, for instance, have looked at the sky for thousands of years to gain knowledge about the behavior of plants and animals. De Napoli added that indigenous science is often transferred through oral traditions or stories that serve as important knowledge tied to the celestial sphere.

Cultural astronomer Duane Hamacher explains that Australian indigenous astronomy practices center on dark sky constellations that consist of patches of gas and dust, where the Emu in the Sky lives. On the other hand, Western constellations rely on bright stars to trace images.

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How to Reduce Impacts of Megaconstellations

Space.com reported that some companies tried to reduce their impacts on the night sky, like OneWeb opted to rollout fewer satellites than initially planned and designed new satellites to be positioned at a higher altitude to produce less skyglow and could cover a larger area.

But Starlink has shown no public interest in operating at higher and less impactful altitudes because it might affect the network's speed and latency. Due to that, the company has designed its new batch of satellites to have lesser luminosity by painting an anti-reflective coating that reduces reflected sunlight by up to 50%. However, not all wavelengths of light are scattered and reduced that still puts astronomy and animals at risk.

That means more solutions are needed to navigate the increasing light pollution in the atmosphere that hinders astronomical research and threatens indigenous astronomy practices. Experts call on space tech companies to be responsible for adding their satellites on the already polluted space.