Oligarchs' Horrible Plan To Turn Our Nights Into Never-Ending Days

Tech companies want to launch a bunch of satellites that
would reflect sunlight back to Earth at night over
specific locations. Taken together and adding in
proposals by SpaceX to put up perhaps a million
satellites would largely take away our ability
to enjoy the night sky

As dystopian as things seem now, the oligarchy class wants to take away our nights. 

 The Trump administration seems to be on a mission to make all of our lives more miserable, except for the billionaire oligarch class that is just loving life these days. 

I just found a new way the administration is set to make life even worse for humans, and everything else on Earth. And this one is especially horrible. 

Big companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, have plans that would fill our skies with a million or more little satellites, and also position a whole bunch of mirrors in orbit around the Earth to reflect sunlight down on us at night.

Sounds a little like depressing science fiction, but it's true. 

THE PROPOSALS

Per the Washington Post:

"Two little-noted applications under review by the Federal Communications Commission would, if fully implemented, fundamentally remake the night sky. But the FCC, the satellite regulator, appears to have fast tracked approval without much of a pass eo weigh the benefits of these proposals against the harms they could cause to life on the planet". 

The two proposals would essentially turn night into day, or something close to it. WaPo explains further:

"A start-up called Reflect Orbital proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night, with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight. 

At the same time, Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to launch as many as a million satellites to serve as orbiting data centers - 70 times the number now in orbit. We could have a million points of light streaking across our skies at night."

Space X only submitted its proposal on January 31. Per PC Mag:

"Usually, the FCC takes weeks or months to respond. In this case, it made a decision in days, even though SpaceX's proposal appears preliminary and even rushed, according to space experts, some of whom question the constellation's feasibility."

TEMU STARS

 The Washington Post concedes there is some benefit of moving data centers to space. It's better that consuming huge amounts to land water and energy on Earth.  Reflected sunlight could boost clean energy supplies and help with food production and even search and rescue.

But should we destroy night to accomplish these goals? Especially since we could solve all these problems right here on the ground. I'm rolling my eyes at the big building boom of AI data centers, that will use up huge amounts of energy and water. You'd think they'd be able to find a way to run AI that doesn't gobble up all the energy and water in the world. 

Aside from ruining the night sky, all this SpaceX satellites could end up colliding with other satellites and space debris. Some scientists worry this could lead to a chain reaction of colliding material.  Picture a high speed highway in a snow squall. 

One motorists swerves on the slick freeway to avoid debris on the road, crashes, and then all the other vehicles behind it pile up.t really is a war on nature waged by the oligarch class, egged on by the goons in the Trump administration. 

After all, to the billionaire class, nature is to be exploited for profit. Simply letting us serfs have calm, peaceful moments with the night sky is verboten. They should be working under grim, florescent lights for peanuts.  

Washington Post again: 

"...untimely light contributes to the loss of insect and bird populations. It disrupts migration, the seasonal patterns of plants and the circadian rhythms of animals ranging from sea turtles and mountain lions. Humans lose sleep because of artificial light, which potentially contributes to obesity and cancer. Light as faint as a full moon has been shown to alter our sleep patterns.

Reflect Orbital aspires to produce for its customers the high of up to 1,000 moons by 2028 and 360,000 moons by 2035. 

Then there's the philosophical questions: How will it feel if we can no longer gaze upward to see Orion, Ursa Major or the other constellations our ancestors have traced since Ptolemy? How will we perceive our place in the universe if we can no longer take in the twinkling starlight that began its voyage to us before the Pyramids rose in Egypt?"

Granted, Reflect Orbital does not propose lighting up the entire night sky at once. The reflected light from the mirrors would target specific areas. And under the lights, it would only have 20 percent or so of the sun's brightness. But the light pollution in areas surrounding the beam of night light would still be staggering. 

Especially combined with the zillions of SpaceX satellites up there that would essentially create a huge, ugly constellation of fake Temu stars 

The mirror satellites themselves would look like giant, artificial bright starts in the sky cluttering up and dimming the natural field of millions of stars so, so far away.  As you can imagine, astronomers are livid at this idea from Reflect Orbital.     

CAN WE STOP THIS?

 There's precious little standing between all of us who actually like it dark and night and the forces that would take that away from us. 

The FCC has pretty much exempted satellites from the National Environmental Policy act, which should require federal agencies to take into account environmental considerations. 

And, WaPo adds, the Trump FCC wants to strengthen the exemptions for satellite operations. And bipartisan legislation that recently got through the Senate Commerce Committee would further speed approval for satellites. 

I guess I'm one of the few left in the world who actually enjoys the night sky. I hope I'm wrong. An organization called DarkSky.org is of course opposed to this.

In addition to the harm the mirrored light would cause to birds, insects and our own circadian rhythms that regulate sleep, DarkSky.org catalogs other risks. People could be at risk of eye damage if they look at the light from the satellite mirror, like what would happen if people look directly at a partial solar eclipse. 

Moving beams of light from the mirrors could create sudden flashes, glare or weird illumination patters that could cause problems for airline pilots or even motorists, especially if these satellites and mirrors malfunction. 

"We also call on Reflect Orbital to demonstrate leadership by voluntarily commissioning a comprehensive, independent environmental impact assessment conducted by qualified experts - regardless of whether such review is required by the FCC," Darksky.org said in a statement.

In other words, even if nobody in charge wants to review dangers to the public, that review should be done anyway.

Public comment on SpaceX's proposal only lasts through Friday, March 6 . Click this link for information on how to do that.

I guess for now, we should find places away from cities to gaze up at the stars and the heavens. If the oligarchy class has its way, we might soon lose that simple pleasure. 

Michael Brown, an astronomy professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia put it this way: 

"I sort of ike the sky being sort of this shared wilderness. If you go somewhere where it's nice and dark and look at the night sky and have all these constant reminders of technology, I think that's a bit of a loss."

That's a huge understatement, but the man is absolutely correct.