An offer from the SpaceX CEO – Elon Musk
The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, is now proposing the orbital observatories, which could assist the astronomers to resume their work without any interruptions.
According to the CNET, the CEO suggested the plan to a cabinet of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He proposed that the research agencies could make a partnership with the SpaceX to put the orbital observatories higher compared with the Starlink satellites right now in the orbit of the Earth.
This would indicate that those observatories would have an unobstructed glimpse of the cosmos. However, this won’t do a lot for the stargazers who want to see the night sky with telescope from the Earth.
What did Elon Musk say?
Elon Musk said that he was quite excited about the future of the space-based telescopes, which could be larger. Also, he has some other plans to reduce the interference of the Starlink on stargazing as well as scientific research.
It also includes adding the sunshades to the satellites to make them arrive relatively dimmer and less reflective. Musk confirmed the cabinet that they would take necessary steps as needed, and the fix had been quite simple, and they would feel somewhat silly in hindsight.
Starlink is a project, which aims to put more than 12,000 satellites into the orbit of the Earth so that they can provide inexpensive WiFi to the whole world.
Currently, the plan is to provide limited coverage to Canada as well as the US this year. The global coverage may be available by the year 2021.
The first 60 satellites of Starlink were put into the orbit during May 2019 and also got criticism for being marked in the night sky looking bright as well as visible. A lot of people have marked the satellite in the night sky and were surprised by the brightness.
