A random Sask person emailed me with pictures of a jet contrail, asking if it was space debris. I am happy to see people looking up at the sky and asking questions to scientists. I politely answered and sent them the AMS's great explainer: https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/fireball-or-contrail/

I used to get UFO reports that turn out to be a billionaire's fleet of tens of thousands of satellites, now I get people asking if they saw spacecraft debris falling on farmland!! This dystopian present is pretty wild sometimes.

Lots of Kessler Syndrome stuff getting posted, which is great, it is definitely a thing we should worry about.

But inevitably someone comes in to mansplain "Well actually at 500km the deorbit timescale is only ~10 years, so Starlink is totally fine!"

And it just amazes me that even if you think the timescale is only 10 years (I'm not convinced), the implication is that destroying all the satellites in LEO and not being able to have LEO satellites for 10 years is FINE?! HOW IS THAT FINE?

My partner randomly found a copy of the 1966 book "Intelligent Life in the Universe" by Shklovky & Sagan in a thrift store. It's like a really great intro astronomy textbook, but with a few really WILD statements thrown in here and there.

Like the fact that there isn't life on all the planets in our Solar System somehow apparently disproves Communism? (WHAT. That one really isn't explained).

But the wildest statement: Phobos is probably an artificial satellite. WHAT WHAT WHAT?

It's now official, over the next few months, I'll be transitioning in to become one of the 2 co-chairs of the American Astronomical Society's Committee on the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment https://compasse.aas.org/

Despite the depressing developments in orbit, this is definitely my favourite committee I've ever been on. The members are AMAZING, we GET SHIT DONE, and it's a perfect way to channel my anger about satellites into powerful and productive actions.

Also, in case anyone is counting, Starlink is now 63% of all active satellites.

2 out of ever 3 satellites up there now are owned by that awful billionaire. He effectively controls Low Earth Orbit. That should terrify everyone.

After absurd travel, I am back at home after advocating to anyone who would listen at the UNOOSA workshop for fewer satellites with longer operational lifetimes. I had a lot of great chats and got my point across very well. But I also saw the frantic pace of future sat launches.

As we turned onto my rural road, and I finally saw my gorgeous prairie skies again, what was there to greet me? A FUCKING STARLINK TRAIN. I can't express how angry that made me.

I will keep fighting. I have to.

The director of UNOOSA mentioned atmospheric pollution from satellites as a big problem in her closing remarks for the conference, but not in her opening remarks. I call that a big step in the right direction! I had SO many great discussions with so many people working in so many different aspects of the space industry (and a couple of good arguments too).

Pretty much every discussion I was in ended with "the UN needs to regulate satellites!" Not sure how to make that happen though...

Talk went really well! I got loads of compliments from lots of people doing lots of different research/engineering. I also had one good argument with someone who said I was trying to put everyone back in caves, and I got compliments on how I handled that too: "I'm not saying *no* satellites, I'm saying fewer satellites with longer operational lifetimes, dipshit!" (I totally didn't say dipshit, but it took pretty much all my willpower)

Ok, time to go give (perhaps) the most important talk I've ever given. I hope the Important Powerful People are less jet lagged than me and listen carefully!

Starting to feel pretty nervous about finding my way around an Italian city... especially after spending a few years on the prairies where everything is flat and straight and meets at right angles. This is going to be especially exciting with very little sleep. Fortunately, I hear there is good coffee. And I have a translate app and a transit app... this is the first trip I've ever gone on where I'm totally reliant on my phone, which I have very mixed feelings about.

I've never done anything like this before, but I just scheduled a session with a speaking coach (with an astro/environmentalist background, so they're a great match for my talk).

This UN talk is only 10 minutes (+ panel discussion), but if I have to fly all the way to freaking Milan to talk in-person to a bunch of space agency heads and politicians about why megaconstellations are terrible, I'm going to make sure I do a damn good job of it.

The American Astronomical Society has officially posted a statement voicing concern on the amount of atmospheric pollution from satellite megaconstellation launches and reentries, recommending a cap on the total flux of metal entering the atmosphere: https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/AAS%20Statment%20on%20Atmospheric%20Impacts.pdf

I'm going to Milan for a UN workshop so I'll get to talk with a bunch of space agency high-ups about how environmentally terrible disposable megaconstellations like Starlink are.

But I need to figure out where to stay! How do I pick a hotel in Milan that is:
1) not a scam
2) not stupidly expensive
3) not sketchy
4) preferably within 30ish min walk of conference venue (near "CityLife" development)

I'll talk about the Polaris Dawn mission in my astro 101 class today. I just watched the spacewalk video: https://www.space.com/spacex-polaris-dawn-first-private-spacewalk and WOW I cannot believe the range of emotions I went through.

I love science fiction: seeing Earth from high orbit, even on a tiny youtube video is stunningly breathtaking.

But SpaceX is awful! And billionaires are awful! And I saw pieces of a Crew Dragon trunk that fell near my house! And I'm an expert on the pollution from launches/reentries! UGH.

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.

What are things an uncultured north american person who loves food and doesn't speak any Italian at all should definitely see/eat while in Milan? (I'll be there in October)

(And what do I wear to a UN workshop??? Ugh I wish there was a scientist uniform I could wear everywhere)

Ok, it's official now: I'm going to give a talk about satellite pollution at a UN (!!) workshop.

I have very mixed feelings about this! It's 100% in person, which is SO much stupid travel pollution (in order to try to stop so much stupid satellite pollution, ugh). But it's in Milan!! I've never even thought about going to Milan, it's just so fancy and out of reach. So... wow.

I did a calculation yesterday that made me want to scream. If you look at the *current* density of satellites in 1km altitude bins in Low Earth Orbit, and assume they are travelling at circular velocities (generally true), then Starlink satellites pass within <1km of each other EVERY 30 SECONDS.

At Starlink altitudes, everything is travelling at 7 km/second, so <1 km close approaches are terrifyingly close. Every 30 seconds. WHY.

One of my colleagues wrote me an email to the effect of "Your satellite regulation advocacy is really having an impact! ...ok maybe that was a poor choice of words given your most recent news interviews..."

And there's even a petition you can sign to support these recommendations! Want the US government to actually look at the environmental consequences of SpaceX and other megaconstellation launches? Sign here!

https://pirg.org/edfund/take-action/tell-the-fcc-satellite-mega-constellations-need-environmental-review/

If you're an astronomer (amateur or professional), I have a different petition letter link to send you, DM me and I'll send it do you (...eventually)