2nd interview of the day done (managed to not swear or yell, go me), time for a goat break.
Posts
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Of course there are military Starlinks. Shit. -
Of course there are military Starlinks. Shit.Ooops I just checked my email more carefully - Washington Post, not Wall Street Journal! Anyway... I'll try not to yell at the journalist too much as I explain the many, many ways that Starlink (and other megaconstellations) are terrible.
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Of course there are military Starlinks. Shit.I think I need to take a little break and yell swear words out in my hay field again before my Wall Street Journal interview. Shit shit shit shit.
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Of course there are military Starlinks. Shit.Of course there are military Starlinks. Shit.
"The LOFAR researchers also identified more brightly glowing satellites than publicly published orbital data accounted for. The researchers suspect the extras could be military Starlink satellites being deployed for a US Dept of Defense project called Starshield. If they’re right, the satellites are not as secret as the Pentagon thinks—and the interference problem could be worse than the public satellite numbers suggest."
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Tomorrow I've got an interview with the Financial Times and then the Wall Street Journal to talk about space junk and satellite pollution. So I guess maybe people with money are starting to notice that the commercial space race is a really really bad ...I was not expecting to have a really lovely conversation at the end of the interview about stargazing from a truly dark sky site as an almost religious experience, that was really nice.
Also, this poor journalist lives in the UK so he has to go to France to get somewhat dark skies, and all the way to like, Australia for truly dark skies. A good reminder to continue to be grateful for the amazingly good dark sky access I have here on the prairies. Worth fighting for!
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Tomorrow I've got an interview with the Financial Times and then the Wall Street Journal to talk about space junk and satellite pollution. So I guess maybe people with money are starting to notice that the commercial space race is a really really bad ...Tomorrow I've got an interview with the Financial Times and then the Wall Street Journal to talk about space junk and satellite pollution. So I guess maybe people with money are starting to notice that the commercial space race is a really really bad idea?
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Oh look, Starlink is continuing to screw up the sky in every way possible.Oh look, Starlink is continuing to screw up the sky in every way possible.
"Second-Generation Starlink Satellites Leak 30 Times More Radio Interference, Threatening Astronomical Observations"
Second-Generation Starlink Satellites Leak 30 Times More Radio Interference, Threatening Astronomical Observations | ASTRON
Observations with the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope last year showed that first generation Starlink satellites emit unintended radio waves that…
ASTRON (www.astron.nl)
It's going to be "hilarious" when Starlink messes up the radio sky so badly that radio astronomers can't even use quasars to calibrate GPS anymore. There are so many consequences from all these stupid, cheaply built, disposable satellites. https://www.universetoday.com/105160/navigating-the-cosmos-by-quasar/
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Today I learned that mama muscovy ducks can fling their poop extremely accurately in threatening situations, like when someone very carefully picks up their duckling to relocate it.Today I learned that mama muscovy ducks can fling their poop extremely accurately in threatening situations, like when someone very carefully picks up their duckling to relocate it.
Now that I have taken a full shower and washed my face multiple times, I have to say it's definitely an extremely effective defense strategy.
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Ooo that's a step in the right direction: https://www.epa.gov/tx/proposed-administrative-penalty-order-against-space-explorations-technologies-corp-spacex-cleanI learned from reading the incredibly entertaining and educational (also depressing) book Astrotopia that these space billionaires are using religious language. The site linked above seems to alternate between "look we're so good at taking care of sea turtles" and "we can't possibly be held to the silly Earth-based environmental standards of Earth governments, we have a higher calling!"
I think I might need to go out into my hay field and scream again.
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Ooo that's a step in the right direction: https://www.epa.gov/tx/proposed-administrative-penalty-order-against-space-explorations-technologies-corp-spacex-cleanAnd apparently SpaceX is feeling a bit defensive, to the point that they posted pictures of sea turtles and smiling, diverse people wearing SpaceX t-shirts, and their "we need to colonize Mars" line: https://www.spacex.com/updates/#starships-fly
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Ooo that's a step in the right direction: https://www.epa.gov/tx/proposed-administrative-penalty-order-against-space-explorations-technologies-corp-spacex-cleanOoo that's a step in the right direction: https://www.epa.gov/tx/proposed-administrative-penalty-order-against-space-explorations-technologies-corp-spacex-clean
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Oh what a beautifully written rantOh what a beautifully written rant
"The fantasy—and it is a fantasy—isn't one of space travel and exploration and some bright Star Trek future for humanity, but one of winnowing and eugenics, of cold actuarial lifeboat logic, of ever greater reallocation from the dwindling many to the thriving few. That's the world as Elon Musk and his cohort want it; Mars colonization is just a pretext."
https://defector.com/neither-elon-musk-nor-anybody-else-will-ever-colonize-mars
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Updating my astro 101 lecture on satellites and holy crap...Updating my astro 101 lecture on satellites and holy crap... there are 1738 more active satellites in orbit today than 1 year ago, and 1690 of those are Starlinks.
62% of all active satellites are now Starlinks, up from 55% 1 year ago.
As long as Starlink doesn't make a single mistake in orbit, it's all fine, I guess. Which is cool, because SpaceX never makes engineering mistakes, like dumping hundreds of pounds of "fully demisable" space debris on other countries... whoopsie.
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I have to turn in my talk slides for this UN workshop on Sunday (even though the workshop itself isn't for 5 weeks!!) And I am feeling extremely grumpy about editing slides on a Friday night, also depressed about the fact that there will probably be ...@intothewestaway I wonder if we're at the point now where you're more likely to get hit by space junk than a meteorite? That's a fun calculation... definitely too tired right now though ha.
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I have to turn in my talk slides for this UN workshop on Sunday (even though the workshop itself isn't for 5 weeks!!) And I am feeling extremely grumpy about editing slides on a Friday night, also depressed about the fact that there will probably be ...I know google is evil and all, but I just googled "meteorite" to grab a photo for this talk, and uh... wow. That's something.
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I have to turn in my talk slides for this UN workshop on Sunday (even though the workshop itself isn't for 5 weeks!!) And I am feeling extremely grumpy about editing slides on a Friday night, also depressed about the fact that there will probably be ...I have to turn in my talk slides for this UN workshop on Sunday (even though the workshop itself isn't for 5 weeks!!) And I am feeling extremely grumpy about editing slides on a Friday night, also depressed about the fact that there will probably be like 200 more disposable satellites in orbit in 5 weeks.
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I think I'm mostly ready for teaching Solar System Astronomy in an hour, and Astro 101 in 3 hours.I think I'm mostly ready for teaching Solar System Astronomy in an hour, and Astro 101 in 3 hours. But I haven't gone through the dozens of emails from students yet, and I'm not sure when I'm supposed to each lunch on these 2 lecture days. Hm.
And now I have 2 interviews scheduled for tomorrow, possibly 4 (3 on space junk, 1 on Planet 9). WHY do they all pile up like this?
Now time to see if I can get my old Linux laptop to talk to the new network printers before lecture starts...
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Good morningGood morning
My llama is too chill to be stressed out about 30 emails from students that came in overnight even though I haven't even taught the first lecture yet. I need to be more like my llama.
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Time to panic about everything! Super not excited about playing the who-will-get-covid-first game again (2 kids in public school, partner teaching at a tribal school, me teaching in a public university, no boosters yet).If you want to know more about Cree astronomy, Wilfred Buck's book is a great place to start: https://www.strongnations.com/store/7079/tipiskawi-kisik-night-sky-star-stories
And there are resources to learn about astronomy from the perspective of many different Indigenous cultures here: https://nativeskywatchers.com/
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Time to panic about everything! Super not excited about playing the who-will-get-covid-first game again (2 kids in public school, partner teaching at a tribal school, me teaching in a public university, no boosters yet).If the elder can't come and teach his astronomy knowledge, do I try to teach some of that myself? I am a settler who grew up in a very different part of the world, I have only just barely started to learn a tiny bit of this.
A few years ago I got to see Cree astronomer Wilfred Buck speak (amazing) and I asked him if it's ok for settlers to teach their astronomy. He said yes, if it's respectfully done, and if you refer to original sources. So... I guess I should, if it comes to that.