[ExI] Data Center satellites will end ground-based astronomy

[Adrian Tymes]

You'd think that.  Mahy of the objections seem to be from those who
have ground-based telescopes and figure they can't get the funding,
political pull, or other resources to replace their investment with
space-based telescopes.

And in many cases they are essentially correct: it may be a sunk cost
argument, but it is one they don't see a practical means for them to
overcome, amounting to a cost imposed on them for the benefit of
(mainly) others.  It is still hard to get to space.  People say that
it's so easy and cheap with SpaceX doing everything - but a hard look
at the details reveals there's still a lot to do to make access to
space truly affordable and convenient.

Consider what it would take to deploy and operate a 10 meter diameter
optic on the ground.  Then consider what it would take to deploy and
operate the same hardware in LEO or GEO - including launch costs,
dedicated telemetry bandwidth (perhaps assume dedicated laser comms to
avoid bandwidth entanglements), and general unfamiliarity with space
operations because doing anything in space is still so expensive that
only a tiny fraction of the labor force can afford to gain prior
experience.

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 1:10 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
> Isn't the only reason we do 'ground-based astronomy" is because it's so hard to get to space?
> But now the telescopes are moving to space, where they belong, right?
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 7:39 AM BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> I asked iAsk.ai -
>> Will thousands of data center satellites end ground-based astronomy?
>>
>> Answer -
>>
>> The proposed deployment of one million orbital data centers by SpaceX represents a potential existential threat to ground-based astronomy as it is currently practiced. While SpaceX’s existing Starlink constellation of approximately 10,000 satellites has already created significant "streaks" in astronomical images, the scale of the new proposal is orders of magnitude larger. Astronomers warn that if these plans proceed, the number of visible satellites could eventually outnumber the visible stars in the night sky, effectively "smothering" ground-based observations.
>>
>> Full Report here -
>> <https://iask.ai/q/satellite-constellations-impact-ground-astronomy-ae27098>
>>
>> BillK
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>
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