Pay attention: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz216-10thanniversaryspecial
Transcript:
SFX: Sputnik beeps
Brendan: (cheerful however ominous): G’day listeners, and welcome to Episode 216, the place we’re additionally celebrating our tenth anniversary of Astrophiz — and in at this time’s podcast we carry you the wonders of the cosmos with equal elements stardust and sarcasm.
I’m your host, space-curious and signal-sensitive, right here to beam you a story that begins with triumph… and ends with, properly, invisible tragedy.
As we speak’s episode?
We’re launching into the glowing historical past of satellites and rocketing by their quirky, explosive, and barely paranoid historical past and their influence on the slowly dimming skies above us, and why your yard stargazing classes are getting upstaged by billionaire’s newest house discos.
So seize your telescope, your tinfoil hat, and your greatest scowl — as a result of we’re speaking about satellites, sky air pollution, and the valiant, twinkling battle of the Darkish Sky Parks.
As soon as, the night time sky was a canvas for the creativeness. For millennia, humanity gazed upward, discovering within the constellations a large number of gods, myths, and goal … a time to fish, to reap, to sow, to gather Emu eggs.
However at this time, our stars are disappearing.
The wrongdoer? Satellites. Hundreds of them. Tens of 1000’s … quickly, tons of of 1000’s ….And so they’re only the start.
I’ll start with A Transient Historical past of Satellites
The historical past of satellites begins in 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union.
It was a shiny steel ball that went Beep beep beep .. Beep beep!
What’s that sound? That wasn’t simply radio telemetry.
That was the noise of each Chilly Warfare normal collectively dropping their minds, and which triggered a world freak-out that made Y2K appear to be a hiccup … it was 58 centimeters large, orbiting Earth and beeping again radio indicators … and so it marked the daybreak of the house age.
The world watched and listened in awe.
I used to be aged 4 on the time. My brother was 8, and my little sister was solely three months away.
We stood within the again yard at our household house in rural Victoria. The newspapers had been stuffed with the information of the Russian satellite tv for pc, and Victoria was going to have an ideal view!
… and this has at all times been my very first reminiscence … My brother and I had been allowed to remain up late to see the satellite tv for pc …. It was a fantastic spring night … not a cloud in sight … The sky was stuffed with stars …
However … we almost missed it. Why?
The Melbourne Argus – our every day newspaper on the time – had referred to Sputnik as ‘the Pink Moon’ as a result of Communism was a giant scary factor on the time … McCarthyism hit the states in 1950, and so “Reds below the mattress” hit Australia in 1952 …
so on October 9, simply 5 days after Sputnik’s launch in Kazakhstan, the O’Brien household is all on the market in search of a giant transferring crimson moon-like object within the sky. ….lol
… however lastly we did see one thing …. one of many stars was transferring … it wasn’t a ‘Pink Moon’ … it was a tiny white speck silently arcing immediately above us. I keep in mind it like yesterday … sigh
The influence of Sputnik 1 was instantaneous and world large … reeling from the sudden breakthrough by these rattling communists, quickly after, the USA launched its personal satellite tv for pc, Explorer 1, construct by JPL … which carried a cosmic ray detector that led to the invention of the Van Allen radiation belts.
Yay Science!!!
However wait … (Cue menacing music) … certainly we will weaponize house identical to we did the atom
We’ll zoom over over to the pentagon and eavesdrop ,,,
Common Buck Turgidson says ” These Commo Soviets can launch issues! Into house! Meaning… they might drop bombs on us from orbit!”
By no means thoughts that Sputnik had much less offensive functionality than a Roomba.
Thus started the satellite tv for pc house race! And First up was ..,. after all … defence.
Then Common Ripper stated, “We want eyes within the sky!” So, the U.S. launched the CORONA program. Which, regardless of the identify, had nothing to do with beer or pandemics.
These had been spy satellites taking grainy images of Soviet missile websites utilizing literal movie. They’d eject the movie in a capsule, which might parachute again to Earth, and a airplane would snatch it mid-air.
Very excessive tech on the time lol
Sure, the pentagon contractors invented high-tech house surveillance… and but nonetheless had to make use of Polaroid-era tech. It was like a James Bond film directed by a confused chartered accountant.
Ultimately, defence satellites grew extra refined. Infrared, radar, communications, even missile detection.
Generals Turgidson and Ripper nonetheless held the purse strings, the chartered accountant was fired.
Turgidson bellowed at President Eisenhower “In the event that they blink, we’ll see it. In the event that they sneeze, we’ll know which nostril.”
And thus, Earth was encircled by a rising military of techno-orbital tattletales.
Swiftly adopted by Climate satellites! As a result of the meteorologists received jealous.
“Hey! We wanna play with satellites too!”
So in 1960, NASA launched TIROS-1. That stands for Tv Infrared Statement Satellite tv for pc. That’s proper — TV in house, however as a substitute of cleaning soap operas, it starred clouds.
TIROS was revolutionary. For the primary time, we may see large climate programs from above. Hurricanes, cyclones, and now many international locations have complete fleet of those climate satellites. Some monitor ocean temperatures, others scan ozone, and at the least one is simply up there as a result of a launch intern hit the flawed button. (Simply kidding. In all probability.)
Know-how marches ahead with relentless enthusiasm … and we get TV satellites!
So now let’s speak about communication satellites — or as I wish to name them, “house walkie-talkies for grown-ups.”
In 1962, the U.S. launched Telstar 1, the satellite tv for pc that made it attainable to broadcast reside tv throughout the Atlantic. Earlier than that? It was all smoke indicators and indignant provider pigeons. (Okay, not likely. However shut.)
All of the sudden, we may make transatlantic calls, share information, and watch the Beatles on TV with out crossing an ocean.
Let’s skip to 1967. … I’m now 14 … Australia is grooving to The Seekers and questioning how the Queen retains her hat on within the wind, we determined it was time to go to house.
And no, not by strapping a sheep to a climate balloon.
We’re speaking about WRESAT — the Weapons Analysis Institution Satellite tv for pc.
Sure, WRESAT. Probably the least attractive satellite tv for pc identify ever, however we Aussies don’t want fancy names.
We simply want outcomes. And WRESAT delivered … mate.
[SFX: Old-timey newsreel voiceover] “Australia turns into the third nation to launch a satellite tv for pc from its personal soil.”
And the way did we pull that off? Easy! We borrowed a Sparta rocket from the Individuals — principally NASA’s model of a high-powered occasion popper — and launched WRESAT from Woomera in South Australia..
Sure, Woomera. It sounds just like the type of place Crocodile Dundee would stash his spaceship.
Now, WRESAT wasn’t filming Netflix or tweeting selfies. It was a scientific payload full of sensors to measure higher atmospheric temperatures, densities, and doubtless what number of flies it may squash on re-entry.
Spoiler: zero. It burned up after 42 revolutions across the Earth. Identical to your New 12 months’s resolutions.
However nonetheless — Australia had entered the house age. We beat the French, we beat the Japanese, and most significantly, we beat our personal expectations. Not unhealthy for a rustic the place our nationwide chicken is a flightless feathered rugby ball.
Quick ahead to the twenty first century. Whereas the world’s busy launching billionaire egos into house, Australia’s brewing an area revival — much less moon cheese, extra strong engineering. Enter Gilmour House Applied sciences: the Queensland-based firm that’s saying, “Oi, let’s go orbital.”
Based by two brothers — one a banker, one a rocket scientist.
Gilmour’s been growing Eris, a small launch automobile that makes use of a hybrid rocket engine. Meaning it combines strong gas with liquid oxidizer — like a smoothie, however with extra thrust and fewer strawberries.
They’re focusing on low Earth orbit. As a result of, let’s face it, geostationary is so final century. The aim? To present Australia sovereign launch capabilities — which is a flowery manner of claiming “We wish to launch our personal stuff with out hitching a trip from an over-egoed Elon.”
And the place are they launching from? Bowen, Queensland. That’s proper — the city greatest recognized for mangoes and sunburn is about to turn into Australia’s Cape Canaveral. The launch pad is correct close to the seaside, so if one thing goes flawed, at the least you possibly can watch your rocket explode with a cocktail in hand.
We’ll let you know the way it goes. Keep tuned.
In the meantime throughout our overheated planet, 1000’s of Comms satellites have turned the world into a really noisy group chat.
They relay telephone calls, texts, web information, your Aunt Maude’s twenty-four-paragraph Fb posts and your depraved uncle’s conspiracy theories —the entire shebang.
These principally orbit in geostationary orbit, which suggests they sit over the identical spot on Earth like a cosmic paperweight. You level your satellite tv for pc dish at them and increase: Netflix.
Or, you understand, these geostationary sats facilitate worldwide peacekeeping communications and the flexibility to direct assist to distant disaster-stricken communities . …. However principally Netflix.
Then we stated, “Hey, what if we level these spy-quality cameras… on the Earth?”
Enter Earth commentary satellites. These guys are the stalkers of the photo voltaic system. They watch forests, oceans, farmland, glaciers, city sprawl, in all probability your yard, and undoubtedly your weed crops behind the shed and that bizarre rock assortment you’ve been hiding.
Earth-observing satellites that may zoom in shut sufficient to inform in case your garden was mowed, and naturally extra refined Spy satellites that might see what model of cigarette you had been smoking,
Bear in mind people who smoke? Nah, me both …
And thus continued the race for house. Over the a long time, satellites developed from chilly conflict instruments into very important devices of contemporary life.
As time marches on, satellites received a lot smarter. And smaller. And cheaper. So what did we do?
We launched extra of them. As a result of nothing says “accountable house stewardship” like throwing 60 equivalent cubes into low Earth orbit each Tuesday.
As we speak, satellites permit us to navigate, talk, forecast, observe, measure, predict and even perceive our altering local weather.
They’re the spine of our world civilization. However as their numbers develop, so too do their unintended penalties.
That awe-struck 4 12 months outdated Quick forwards 68 years to at this time … the place many world states and plenty of personal corporations have entered the satellite tv for pc enviornment with unprecedented vigour.
Firms like SpaceX, OneWeb, Amazon’s Challenge Kuiper, and others are launching tons of, even 1000’s, of satellites into low Earth orbit.
China has simply launched the primary of 15,000 satellites … the Thousand Sails mega constellation, also called Qianfan
there are nearly 8000 StarLink satellites at the moment in orbit, Oneweb has over 500, Amazon’s Challenge Kuiper has deliberate for over 3000 …
These mega-constellations purpose to carry web entry to even probably the most distant elements of the globe.
A noble aim, maybe. But it surely comes with a worth.
Astronomers now battle to see the our pristine cosmos. Satellite tv for pc trails streak throughout long-exposure photos.
Observatories, as soon as sanctuaries of deep house research, are being blind sided.
The trigger? Our habit to upward infrastructure.
But it surely’s not solely scientists who’re affected. All of us are dropping one thing irreplaceable: the night time sky.
Mild air pollution, amplified by urbanization and satellite tv for pc reflection, washes away the celebs. In most cities, solely a handful of the brightest stars stay seen. The Milky Approach, as soon as seen to everybody, is now hidden from over two-thirds of humanity. There are thousands and thousands of city-bound youngsters throughout the globe who’ve by no means ever seen a star up within the sky.
This loss isn’t simply aesthetic. It has profound psychological, cultural and ecological penalties. There are numerous species of mammals, bugs, birds and marine life that rely on a darkish night time sky for navigation, feeding, breeding and migration.
The celebrities have guided explorers, impressed artists, and linked cultures. From Aboriginal Dreamtime tales to Polynesian navigation, darkish skies are part of our shared human heritage.
However their disappearance impacts greater than custom. Synthetic mild disrupts human sleep cycles, impacting well being.
And for kids who develop up by no means seeing the celebs, what desires will they dream? Children at this time develop up seeing fewer stars than their grandparents. For some metropolis dwellers, the night time sky has been diminished to a boring orange glow and a suspiciously fast-moving “star” each six seconds.
With out that awe, that sense of infinite risk —we’re reducing off our cosmic curiosity on the supply.
There’s hope. We spoke a few episodes in the past with Ciara Man, an area lawyer who took us by the treaties, agreements and protocols that purpose to supply a governance course of to guard our entry to the night time sky … however progress in getting internationally enforceable agreements is painfully sluggish …
On a extra constructive notice, all world wide, a motion is rising to guard the night time.
Darkish Sky Parks, reserves, and sanctuaries are being established to protect pristine night time environments.
Presently there are 38 licensed Worldwide Darkish Sky Communities globally, with over 200 Darkish Sky Locations general, together with parks, reserves and precincts.
We now have the internationally licensed Carrickalinga Darkish Sky Neighborhood which works with council to scale back road lighting and enact lighting design laws to protect their night time skies by eliminating sources of sunshine air pollution.
Carrickalinga Darkish Sky Neighborhood was licensed by organizations just like the Worldwide Darkish-Sky Affiliation, these communities implement strict lighting insurance policies, educate the general public, and provide unparalleled entry to the cosmos.
They’re refuges, not only for astronomy, however for an existential human expertise. Of their silence, we keep in mind our place within the universe.
Fortunately, all is just not misplaced. All over the world, passionate sky-lovers, astronomers, and nocturnal romantics have been preventing again — creating these Darkish Sky Parks.
These are protected areas the place synthetic mild is stored to a minimal, and the celebs can lastly come out to play.
I’ll record a number of — you is perhaps inside placing distance of 1 …. You would possibly put some in your bucket record …
Are you able to think about the fantastic views in a few of these lovely jewels?
Warrumbungle Nationwide Park, right here in Australia – The Southern Hemisphere’s first Darkish Sky Park! I’ve seen it … Kangaroos by day, galaxies by night time. What’s to not love?
Aoraki Mackenzie, close to Lake Tekapo in New Zealand – Stars so shiny they virtually tattoo your retina. We’ve been there too … Positively a bucket record merchandise should you’ve by no means been to NZ
Cherry Springs State Park, USA – The place the Milky Approach stretches throughout the sky like a cosmic snake.
NamibRand Nature Reserve, Namibia – Desert, silence, and the universe. Convey water and marvel.
Galloway Forest Park, Scotland – Stargazing with a aspect of haggis and the sound of bagpipes.
Pic du Midi, France – The place astronomers sip wine between observations. Positively going there!
Jasper Nationwide Park, Canada – The one place you possibly can see the aurora and combat off a moose concurrently.
These parks defend not simply skies, however tradition. Indigenous star tales. Scientific exploration. And that feeling — you understand the one — if you lookup and keep in mind you’re on a tiny rock hurtling by a glittering void.
However preserving the night time sky requires greater than distant parks. It calls for a world shift.
Now right here’s the kicker: Bear in mind I’m not anti-satellite. I’m pro-balance.
And there may be hope … Governments and firms are beginning to pay attention… type of… perhaps… on weekends.
However actual change solely comes when folks care.
So should you’ve ever seemed up and felt robbed of your cosmic inheritance, say one thing.
Assist darkish sky advocacy.
Go to Darkish Sky Parks. Discuss to your native councillors about mild air pollution.
Flip off that floodlight that’s been blinding your neighbour’s telescope since 1999.
And inform Elon to sit back with the satellites. Possibly ship up one formed like a koala for good PR. I don’t know. I’m only a podcast host.
Engineers are growing satellites with much less reflectivity. Cities are adopting downward-facing, amber lighting. Astronomers are working with corporations to search out options.
It’s not too late. However the clock is ticking. Each new launch modifications the sky and limits our scientific endeavour to grasp our universe and our place in it.
The night time sky is just not a luxurious. It’s a legacy. A proper. A marvel. One that each technology deserves to inherit.
As a result of solely in darkness can we really see the sunshine.
Now, I get it. Satellites have given us unbelievable stuff: climate alerts, GPS, emergency communications, cat movies, watching somebody juggle flaming swords on TikTok.
However there’s a value. And we’re not simply speaking sky litter.
What will we dream of, if we by no means see the celebs?
And that’s not all …
We’re not simply dropping sight of the celebs. We’re dropping the silence of house, too.
During the last 10 years, we’ve got interviewed properly over 100 eminent astrophysicists,
Enter the villain … and the enemy of all radio astronomers … RFI — Radio Frequency Interference.
These radio astronomers use big dishes and arrays to take heed to the whispers of the universe. Black holes. Pulsars. Quasars, Quick Radio Bursts, Gamma Ray bursts, Cosmic collisions between neutron stars and black holes … complete galaxies colliding ….
They even take heed to the Cosmic microwave background radiation — the unique Large Bang after occasion.
All Satellites — particularly these mega-constellations — emit radio indicators that overwhelm these treasured and faint cosmic whispers. And identical to that, your quest to detect primordial hydrogen from the daybreak of time, or what’s known as the Epoch of Reionization …. turns into a recreation of “Guess That WiFi Password.”
There are answers being proposed — satellite tv for pc darkening paint, higher orbital coordination, launching fewer however extra succesful spacecraft. Efficient ‘Silent mode’ over the VLA, VLBI ALMA, CHIME, many different radio observatories …
During the last 200 odd episodes we’ve got interviewed astronomers utilizing all these observatories … plus right here in Australia, the ASKAP array, the ATCA, the MWA, the gorgeous dish at Parkes.
In China we spoke with astronomers utilizing the large 500meter dish known as FAST, within the US we spoke with researchers utilizing Greenbank and the alien searching Allen Array, within the Netherlands the Westerbork Array, and the UK’s Jodrell financial institution … I do know there’s different radio observatories we’ve featured that I haven’t talked about right here … I apologise ….
And in any respect of them, researchers and information scientists are hoping that AI can do a good battle with mega constellation RFI …. However Fingers crossed is just not an answer to a really actual downside
and let’s not neglect the billion greenback funding we’ve got over in Manchester HQ, in Australia and South Africa within the mind-boggling SKA … the Sq. Kilometer Array being construct as we communicate…
Do you keep in mind the Occasion Horizon Telescope … which captured the primary picture of a black gap again in 2019 … it will battle to do the identical job at this time … squinting by a haze of RFI.
The sky belongs to all of us. It’s not only a place for billionaires to park their orbiting devices or for satellites to clog up like interstellar ldl cholesterol.
It’s our oldest canvas, our authentic storybook, our largest thriller.
Let’s defend what’s left of it — not as a result of we’re afraid of the longer term, however as a result of we nonetheless consider the celebs ought to shine for everybody.
I’ll log off now … The sky belongs to all of us.
Let’s defend what’s left of it — not as a result of we’re afraid of the longer term, however as a result of we nonetheless consider the celebs ought to shine for everybody, particularly children with desires …
This has been Astrophiz — your starlit, barely satirical reminder that house isn’t simply up there. It’s ours. Let’s preserve it seen, audible, and magical.
Till subsequent time: keep curious, keep form, and don’t neglect to lookup… when you nonetheless can.
Astrophiz — the place the celebs are free-range, the details are gravity-defying, and the longer term is… hopefully not fully fluorescent.
Maintain wanting up
