This ensures that more big, bright #satellites are coming: "A Block 1 satellite would have 10 times the capacity of the company’s 1,500-kilogram BlueWalker-3 prototype; [Block2] would be twice as big and have 10 times the capacity of a Block 1 BlueBird." (via @spacenews_inc)
(Also, a reminder that this comms mode is potentially very harmful to ground-based radio astronomy.)
Our IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference paper on observations of the #BlueWalker3 prototype #satellite is finally out in the latest print edition of Nature accompanied by a News & Views piece by @sundogplanets.
"The spectacle offered by a very dark night sky no longer just contains stars and planets that are standing still. We now also see numerous satellites… and only their movement allows us to distinguish them from the natural stars."
A new paper examines the alarming brightness of #BlueWalker3 a big communications satellite of ~64.3 m2. At times it outshines 99% of the stars in the sky. One such satellite is no problem, but it may soon be followed by hundreds more. #News
In it we conclude that "the expected build-out of constellations with hundreds of thousands of new, bright objects will make active satellite tracking and avoidance strategies a necessity for ground-based telescopes."
Dank Riesensatellit: Erstes 5G-Telefonat über BlueWalker mit normalem Smartphone
Seit einem Jahr kreist der Riesensatellit BlueWalker 3 um die Erde und wird für Tests genutzt. Handelsübliche Smartphones kommen darüber schnell ins Internet.