The dawn of the massive satellites has appeared to us annoyingly, blocking our view of the sparkling universe. Five of the largest communication satellites have been launched into Earth’s orbit, marking the beginning of a series of mobile phone towers in space for a startup company in Texas.
AST SpaceMobile company announced today that its first five satellites, BlueBirds 1 to 5, have reached their full size in space. Each satellite has launched the largest commercial communication array ever to be deployed in low Earth orbit, spanning an area of 693 square feet (64 square meters) when fully deployed. These are bad news for astronomers, as these massive arrays outshine most objects in the night sky, hindering the observation of the universe around us.
Things have just begun for AST SpaceMobile, as the company aims to create the first wideband cellular network in space accessible directly through mobile phones. Abel Avellan, the founder and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, stated in a press release: “Launching the first five commercial satellites from BlueBird is just the beginning of our journey.” “Our team is already working hard to build the next generation of satellites, which will provide ten times the capacity of our current BlueBird satellites, leading to further transformation in mobile communication and delivering greater benefits to our customers and partners worldwide.”
In September 2023, the Texas-based company conducted the first-ever 5G phone call between its prototype satellite and a Samsung Galaxy S22. The satellite array directly connects to standard smartphones at broadband speeds, but this innovation comes at a cost.
The company’s first prototype satellite launched its massive array in late 2022, outshining most objects in the sky except for the moon, Venus, Jupiter, and seven of the brightest stars. BlueWalker 3 shone like two of the ten brightest stars in the night sky, Procyon and Achernar, through various telescopic lenses, according to a recent study. The study was published in October 2023. Before deploying its array, the satellite’s brightness was about +3.5, making it visible to the naked eye. However, after deploying its array, its brightness increased by approximately two magnitudes.
Unfortunately, there are now five more of them. AST SpaceMobile launched its five BlueBird satellites on September 12, aiming to build a constellation of over 100 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide nationwide coverage across the United States.
The latest constellation is a sign of an increasingly concerning issue, which is the congestion of Earth’s orbit. The number of large artificial satellites has increased fivefold over the past 12 years, according to a message sent by a group of space experts to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“Experts from top universities warn that we are in a short window where we can prevent creating chaos in space and our atmosphere rather than spending decades cleaning it up,” said Lucas Guttman, director of the American PIRG Education Fund. The campaign said in the message. “The new space race does not need to create massive space debris.”
The message calls on the FCC to follow recommendations from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and stop excluding artificial satellites from environmental reviews. AST SpaceMobile is not the only company attempting to build cellular towers in space. SpaceX is building its own constellation of satellites, with over 6,000 Starlink satellites currently in low Earth orbit. Amazon, OneWeb, and Lynk Global are other companies trying to participate in this event.
But these artificial satellites have a significant impact that cannot be ignored. Robert McMillan, an astronomy professor and founder of the Space Surveillance Project at the University of Arizona, told the British “Daily Mail” that “even invisible satellites to the naked eye can obstruct astronomical monitoring operations that help discover asteroids and understand our place in the universe.” Speech.
The message continues, saying: “These are new limits, and we must save ourselves from a lot of trouble by ensuring that we move forward in a way that does not cause major problems for our future.”
