Archive for November, 2023
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November 30th, 2023
Image credit: NASA
NASA’s “re-booting” of the Moon via the Artemis program faces multiple challenges, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“NASA and its contractors have made progress, including completing several important milestones, but they still face multiple challenges with development of the human landing system and the space suits. As a result, GAO found that the Artemis III crewed lunar landing is unlikely to occur in 2025.”
The GAO points out that Moon lander provider, SpaceX and its Starship vehicle, must complete a significant amount of complex technical work to support the Artemis III lunar landing mission.
That SpaceX work includes developing the ability to store and transfer propellant while in orbit.
A critical aspect of SpaceX’s plan for landing astronauts on the Moon for Artemis III is launching multiple tankers that will transfer propellant to a depot in space before transferring that propellant to the human landing system.
SpaceX Starship human lander design to carry NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis program.
Credit: SpaceX
The GAO flags the fact that NASA documentation has stated SpaceX has made limited progress maturing the technologies needed to support this aspect of its plan.
The GAO-identified issues include:
An ambitious schedule: The Human Landing System program is aiming to complete its development—from project start to launch—in 79 months, which is 13 months shorter than the average for NASA major projects. The complexity of human spaceflight suggests that it is unrealistic to expect the program to complete development more than a year faster than the average for NASA major projects, the majority of which are not human spaceflight projects. GAO found that if development took as long as the average for NASA major projects, the Artemis III mission would likely occur in early 2027.
Delays to key events: As of September 2023, the Human Landing System program had delayed eight of 13 key events by at least 6 months. Two of these events have been delayed to 2025—the year the lander is planned to launch. The delays were caused in part by the Orbital Flight Test, which was intended to demonstrate certain features of the launch vehicle and lander configuration in flight. The test was delayed by 7 months to April 2023. It was then terminated early when the vehicle deviated from its expected trajectory and began to tumble. Subsequent tests rely on successful completion of a second Orbital Flight Test.
Image credit: NASA
Notional Depiction of the Human Landing System
A large volume of remaining work: SpaceX must complete a significant amount of complex technical work to support the Artemis III lunar landing mission, including developing the ability to store and transfer propellant while in orbit. A critical aspect of SpaceX’s plan for landing astronauts on the moon for Artemis III is launching multiple tankers that will transfer propellant to a depot in space before transferring that propellant to the human landing system. NASA documentation states that SpaceX has made limited progress maturing the technologies needed to support this aspect of its plan.
Space suit challenges: Axiom is leveraging many aspects of NASA’s prior work to develop modernized space suits, but significant work remains to resolve design challenges. For example, NASA’s original design did not provide the minimum amount of emergency life support needed for the Artemis III mission. As a result, Axiom representatives said they may redesign certain aspects of the space suit, which could delay its delivery for the mission.
Go to the GAO report — “NASA Lunar Programs: Improved Mission Guidance Needed as Artemis Complexity Grows” – at:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/d24106256.pdf
Posted in 
Credit: Yuqi Qian, et al.
NASA has certified its intent to Congress to allow NASA-funded researchers to apply to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) for access to lunar samples returned to Earth on that country’s Chang’e-5 Moon mission and made available recently to the international scientific community for research purposes.
Chang’e-5 transported its lunar sample collectibles to the Earth on December 16, 2020.
“The Chang’e-5 samples originate from regions of the Moon not yet sampled by NASA and are expected to provide valuable new scientific insight on the geological history of the Moon, which could provide new understanding of the Earth-Moon system and potentially inform NASA’s future lunar exploration plans,” states a “Dear Colleagues” communiqué from NASA.
Chang’e-5 return capsule holding lunar specimens.
Credit: National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
“Applying for samples will ensure that United States researchers have the same research opportunities as scientists around the world,” the communiqué adds.
Applications due in late December
This 7th round of applications for access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples as orchestrated by China is open until December 22, 2023, at 11:00 am Eastern Time / 2400 Beijing Time.
NASA-funded researcher have been asked to follow the CNSA application process identified on this site: https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/c10413163/content.html
If a NASA-funded researcher’s application is selected, NASA should be informed for guidance on next steps.
“This allowance applies specifically to Chang’e-5 mission samples; the normal prohibition on bilateral activity with PRC [People’s Republic of China] on NASA funded projects remains in place,” the NASA statement concludes.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s mega-project of scooping up and transferring to our planet specimens of Mars is under intense scrutiny.
For one, it never looked easy.
Last September an independent study board released its findings after taking a hard look at the Mars sample return (MSR) project. NASA established the group of experts to appraise the technical requirements, price tag, and schedule plans of the concept prior to confirmation of the mission’s design.
Concept art depicts a Mars menagerie of machines that would team to transport to Earth samples of rocks, soil, and atmosphere being collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hit the pause button
A key finding: The board called for programmatic overhaul of the endeavor, projected to cost in the range of $8 billion, perhaps nearly $11 billion. Furthermore, the board reported a near zero probability of key MSR elements to being ready to meet the 2027/2028 launch readiness dates.
Seemingly caught between a Mars rock and a hard place, NASA has since hit the pause button on the Mars sample return initiative.
Reactions to the now stymied go-getting Mars sample effort are numerous and varied.
Go to my new Multiverse Media/SpaceRef story – “NASA Plan to Shoot and Ship Samples of the Red Planet on Hold” – at:
Once on Earth, Mars specimens will make their way to a sample receiving facility.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Enigmatic Venus holds tight its secrets under thick clouds.
Image credit: NASA
Albeit a hell hole of a world, the planet Venus is a tantalizing, cloud-enveloped cool place for scientific scrutiny to ferret out its history, evolution and gauge its present state.
Last month, the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VExAG) came together, a community-based forum to shape and advance a clear strategy to probe the cloudy planet.
It was not a meeting for the faint of heart. Akin to Venus itself, the heated chatter of the perplexed attendees could melt lead.
Rocket Lab is sending the first private mission to Venus.
Credit: Rocket Lab
Looming over discussions were NASA budgetary woes impacting not only selected missions for Venus, but the NASA-wide scene of flat or shrinking funds that now haunts future missions of all classes and destinations.
There are early causalities within the shifting NASA Venus agenda.
Meanwhile, work on the first private mission to that hellish world is pressing forward.
To find out more, go to the Space.com story – “Can a Private Space Mission Pierce Venus’s Clouds?” – at:
https://www.space.com/can-private-space-mission-pierce-venus-clouds
At China’s Xidian University space solar power station (SSPS) research is underway.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China continues to investigate beaming space solar power to Earth, as well as putting in orbit an electricity-providing “charging station” for spacecraft.
In Xi’an City of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, the work is being led by Duan Baoyan from the Chinese Academy of Engineering at Xidian University. The project is tagged with the name “Zhu Ri” – which means “chasing the sun.”
This space solar power station (SSPS) research consists of a 75-meter-high (246-feet) iron tower with four giant spherical steel jars filled with solar panels suspended from its top. The structure is designed to test a full system that generates power in space and transmits it back to Earth to be converted and distributed for terrestrial use, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
Li Xun, a member of the Zhu Ri Project research team.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Concentrating solar panels inside the giant steel jars generate direct currents of electricity in much the same way as terrestrial solar power stations do. But converting that electricity so that it can be transmitted as microwaves back to receiving stations on the ground is the key step.
Passing the test
“First, it is a complete model of the whole system, a prototype for the SSPS. It proves the viability of the whole process from turning light into electricity, transforming electricity into microwaves, transmitting microwaves and turning microwaves into direct currents. It is the first such system in the world to have passed this test,” said Li Xun, a member of the Zhu Ri Project research team.
According to CCTV the researchers have finished testing the prototype here on Earth. Back on June 5 last year, it passed the examination of a committee of experts.
Duan Baoyan, lead space solar power station (SSPS) investigator.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Charging point in space
Beyond the idea of generating power for transmission back to Earth, said Duan, the SSPS could also act as a charging point for satellites and space craft already in orbit.
“Currently, all satellites have wide solar panels attached to them. But for low-earth orbit satellites, which frequently go through areas with no sunlight, what should we do when they do not have enough power? If we build a ‘space charging station’ or a ‘space energy net’ in orbit, satellites could come to it when they need power, leave after they are fully charged, and return if they need power afterward. The SSPS functions like charging points on Earth,” said Duan.
Wait a minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
I have just finished digesting a post-Thanksgiving helping of Kennedy Assassination investigation output – including film director Rob Reiner’s new podcast, “Who Killed JFK,” a new deep dive into the history of what they call “America’s greatest murder mystery.”
Image credit: iHeartPodcasts
For myself, I went through that experience on November 22, 1963 in high school. I later visited and strolled up the grassy knoll of Dealey Plaza, a suspected spot tied to the slaying of President Kennedy. I was sure I’d stumble across the proverbial “smoking gun” but left the site empty handed, but with a mind filled with more questions.
Here we are 60 years later and I still await some undisclosed closure of some kind. There has been a long and protracted struggle to get documents released.
And six decades later I’m struck by some common threads to where we are in the current UFO/UAP melee.
Image credit: SCU
Cultural enigma
The term Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) has morphed into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). But whatever nomenclature you use, “unidentified” remains an up-front declaration of this weird and perplexing cultural enigma.
There’s the prospect of government cover-up, public belief that there are conspiratorial factors afoot, but also a sense we’ll never get the “truth” out and about. Once again, there has been a lengthy struggle to get documents publicly released.
For good measure, mix in a worrisome factor: Maybe we aren’t ready for reality and the attached sociological repercussions from revealing the truth?
Image credit: RAND
But perhaps there a purposeful, drip-by-drip doling out of evidence in preparation of “full disclosure,” be it what the JFK assassination facts are or what’s the bottom line on UFO/UAP?
Conspiracy theories
“The government’s persistent hiding and actions related to the UFO/UAP topic does nothing but fuel conspiracy theories,” says Robert Powell, an executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.
“Whatever the truth may be, we can be certain that it will be a long time before the public is made aware of the truth,” Powell adds. “Unfortunately, we cannot depend upon our government to tell us the truth,” he told Inside Outer Space.
Image credit: Yannick Peings, Marik von Rennenkampff/AIAA
Amen amendment
So what is the legitimacy of rumors that our government has extraterrestrial craft in its possession?
For Powell, the biggest persuader is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds-led amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024. That amendment, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023, talks specifically about the government and the concealment of non-human intelligence.
“Why would Schumer have associated his name with such an amendment? One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that government politicians don’t risk their careers on some lark of a story. And a powerful senator is going to be extra careful with what they endorse,” Powell senses. “Senator Schumer knows something that makes him confident that he is not risking his career with that amendment.”
Image credit: Congressional Record/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Bombshells and whistleblowers
“The American public, and humanity as a whole, deserve to know what the U.S. government has secretly learned about the UFO/UAP phenomenon, if indeed there have been such clandestine studies,” says Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies.
“I have faith in our collective ability to handle such information, even if initially disconcerting,” Rodeghier told Inside Outer Space.
So it’s a world of smoking guns, grassy knolls, newly-released old documents, X-files mysteriously misfiled, here-say “evidence” and “I’ve been told” tattle-telling, along with alien corpses, “bombshell allegations” from whistleblowers that can’t carry a tune but will sing like a bird after they are in an Orwellian-sounding “sensitive compartmented information facility” – a SCIF.
No telling where all this is headed.
What’s your view?
For your own deep-diving into this topic, go to:
- Center for UFO Studies at https://cufos.org/
- Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies at https://www.explorescu.org/
Also, here is Schumer’s amendment, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 at:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/uap_amendment.pdf
Book Review: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson; Simon & Schuster (2023); 688 pages, Hardcover: $35.00
I can’t help but start this book review without making note of this recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDrTMnm1IE
Walter Isaacson has done us all a favor by exploring a work in progress, the persona of Elon Musk.
In story sleuthing fashion, the author followed Musk for two years, interviewing not only the subject matter at hand and up-close, but family members, coworkers, friends – and “foe-fighters” too.
As explained on the book jacket, this volume ponders a key question: “are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?”
Musk has previously characterized himself as not a “chill, normal dude.”
Isaacson paints that picture too, but also spotlights the Jekyll-and-Hyde-like temper and other atmospherics that drives the ambitious hunger of Musk to not only challenge and change our world but also eye renovation of the Red Planet.
Starship
Image credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
This volume is comprised of 95 segments, well-written slices of Musk’s past, be it PayPal, Tesla, artificial intelligence, Twitter, underground boring, ex-wives to the sky-high Starlink constellation and his risk-taking reach for escape velocity via the SpaceX’s Falcon booster series and Starship.
Isaacson is a masterful writer. This book, like the author’s portraits of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Einstein, is absolutely first-rate.
In the book’s acknowledgments, Isaacson reports that Musk “did not ask to, nor did he, read this book before it was published, and he exercised no control over it.” Thank God and/or Musk’s lawyers.
So enough said…and start reading this book knowing full-well Elon Musk is a work in progress, arguably a person wearing a customized sandwich board: “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
Image credit: Columbia Records
To prove that point, take a look at this PBS Frontline documentary:
“Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6z4H_geX5A
Also, go to this resource provided by the book publisher, Simon & Schuster:
“Elon Musk: The Ultimate Inside Story” at:
https://youtu.be/2fYSuoJINKM?si=sW0Sy_0XW8o-LBpI
And you’ll enjoy “Walter Isaacson: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Einstein, Da Vinci & Ben Franklin/Lex Fridman Podcast #395” at:
https://youtu.be/aGOV5R7M1Js?si=iGL5G4iHZ9Y3zhsF
For more information on this book, go to:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Elon-Musk/Walter-Isaacson/9781982181284
China’s Zhurong rover.
Credit: CNSA
China’s robotic Mars rover has revealed new information about its landing zone, Utopia Planitia, the largest basin on Mars.
That site may well be the location for China’s projected Tianwen-3 mission dedicated to Mars sample return by the end of the decade.
In the just-published work, the country’s Zhurong Mars rover made use of onboard radar and detected irregular wedges (polygons) underneath its exploration zone.
The Chinese researchers are proposing that the polygons were potentially generated by freeze-thaw cycles. That interpretation implies that there was a strong palaeoclimatic variability at low-to-mid latitudes (roughly 25° North), possibly due to the high obliquity of ancient Mars.
Illustration of the scientific payloads mounted on Zhurong rover. The group picture of the rover (left) and the lander (right) was taken by the WiFi camera (Image Credit: the ChinaNational Space Administration (CNSA)). NaTeCam: Navigation and Terrain camera. RoMAG: Mars Rover Magnetometer. MSCam: Multispectral Camera. MSC-1: MarsClimate Station (Wind field and sound probe). MSC-2: Mars Climate Station (Air
temperature and pressure probe). MarSCoDe: Mars Surface Component Detector. RoPeR(CH1): Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (channel 1). RoPeR (CH2): Mars Rover
Penetrating Radar (channel 2).
Image credit: Steve Yang Liu, Et al.
The research – “Buried palaeo-polygonal terrain detected underneath Utopia Planitia on Mars by the Zhurong radar” – has been published in a new issue of Nature Astronomy and led by Lei Zhang of the CAS Engineering Laboratory for Deep Resources Equipment and Technology, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.
In-depth research
The polygonal wedges were radar detected below a depth of 35 meters within the rover’s journey of approximately 1.2 kilometers, according to the study.
The lander, carrying the rover with an expected life span of at least 90 Martian days or about three months on Earth, touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia on May 15, 2021.
Launched in July 2020, China’s Tianwen-1 mission consisted of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The Zhurong rover was deployed by the lander after touching down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia on May 15, 2021.
Topographic map of Utopia Planitia, showing the landing sites of the Zhurong rover, the Viking 2 lander and the Perseverance rover. The elevation contour is shown. Four local regions (c–f) with polygonal terrain are marked with white squares. b, The Zhurong rover traverse from Sol 11 through Sol 113. Green segments denote the wedges of buried polygons recognized from. Purple segments denote the interiors of the polygons. Image credit: Lei Zhang, et al.
Water/ice freeze?
According to the research paper, sixteen polygonal wedges were identified within roughly 1.2 kilometers distance, suggesting a wide distribution of such terrain under Utopia Planitia. These detected features probably formed on ancient Mars and were buried by later geological processes.
Lei and colleagues went through a process of elimination focused on cause of the buried polygons.
The buried palaeo-polygonal terrain requires a cold environment, they report, “might be related to water/ice freeze–thaw processes in southern Utopia Planitia on early Mars.”
a, The origination of thermal contraction cracking on the surface of Mars. b, The formation of cracks in-filled by water ice or soil material, causing three types of polygonal terrain (ice-wedge, composite-wedge and sand-wedge polygons). c, The stabilization of the surface polygonal terrain in the Late Hesperian–Early Amazonian, possibly with the cessation of an ancient wet environment. d, The palaeo-polygonal terrain, either with or without being eroded, was subsequently buried by deposition of the covering materials in the Amazonian. The Mars surface image was acquired by the Navigation and Terrain Camera (NaTeCam).
Image credit: Lei Zhang, et al.
The detected buried polygons indicate that freezing occurred at low-to-mid latitudes and requires strong palaeoclimatic variability, potentially due to the higher obliquity of Mars than today.
“The possible presence of water and ice required for the freeze–thaw process in the wedges may have come from cryogenic suction-induced moisture migration from an underground aquifer on Mars, snowfall from the air or vapor diffusion for pore ice deposition,” the paper explains.
Mars return sample site?
While not discussed in the research paper, China has outlined a plan that calls for launching a Mars sample return mission in 2028, snag specimens of the martian surface, and rocket those materials to Earth, perhaps as early as July 2031.
Such an undertaking mirrors, in large measure, return sample knowhow exhibited at the Moon in 2020 by the country’s Change’-5 lunar mission.
A return to the Utopia Planitia area, surveyed in detail by the Zhurong rover (now thought expired), could well be on tap.
To access the Nature Astronomy paper published November 23 – “Buried palaeo-polygonal terrain detected underneath Utopia Planitia on Mars by the Zhurong radar” – go to:
Shelter – lunar style.
Image credit: Thales Alenia Space/ASI
It is tagged as the Multi-Purpose Habitat or MPH for lunar shorthand. MPH aims to be the first permanent outpost on the Moon.
Thales Alenia Space recently signed a contract with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to initiate activities on the concept, building upon work to develop and provide three pressurized modules dedicated to Lunar Gateway: ESPRIT and I-HAB for the European Space Agency (ESA) and HALO for Northrop Grumman.
According to NASA’s Element Initiation Review, crucial functionalities of the Artemis lunar surface architecture, such as the Italian MPH module, are being scoped out.
In line with ASI’s and NASA’s requirements, the next step will be to complete the Mission Concept Review, expected in the first quarter of 2024.
Moon encampment involves multi-nation participation.
Image credit: ESA
Life-support solutions
“This will be a key milestone to move the project forward to the next phases of critical technology design and development of the module,” explains a Thales Alenia Space statement. “Life-support solutions, even for short-to-medium durations in the inhospitable lunar environment, demand cutting-edge technologies to provide protection from regolith and survive the cold lunar nights.”
In this initial phase, adds the Thales Alenia Space statement, it will be tasked with coordinating an industrial consortium of large, small, and medium-sized companies from the national supply chain, to advance the program to its implementation phase.
Overall, the main objective is to deliver a secure, comfortable, and multifunctional habitation module for astronauts, able to interface with other systems and components in the Artemis architecture.
Space debris plunges to Earth, burning its way through the atmosphere.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The recent revelation concerning pollution input into Earth’s stratosphere due to reentering spacecraft, rocket bodies, and atmospheric dumping of other human-made clutter is striking a nerve in space law circles.
First, the problem.
New research using high-flying aircraft armed with special collection devices have discovered significant amounts of metals in aerosols in the atmosphere. This residue is likely from increasingly frequent launches and returns of spacecraft and satellites. Most notably, the uptick in Starlink constellations of satellites put in place by SpaceX – with other competitive systems by other firms and countries to follow.
That mass of in-falling refuse is altering atmospheric chemistry in ways that could well impact Earth’s atmosphere and ozone layer.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation/Center for Space Policy and Strategy
Rarefied region
“We are finding this human-made material in what we consider a pristine area of the atmosphere,” said Dan Cziczo, one of a team of scientists involved in a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study. He is a co-author of the NOAA work reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“And if something is changing in the stratosphere—this stable region of the atmosphere—that deserves a closer look,” says Cziczo, professor and head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue’s College of Science. He is an expert in atmospheric science who has spent decades studying this rarefied region.
Starlink satellites.
Credit: SpaceX
Orbital use fee
One legal beagle legal assessment and approach to dealing with the issue – an “orbital use fee” — will appear in a forthcoming publication of Southern Methodist University’s Journal of Air Law and Commerce.
“More specifically, I am arguing that the proceeds of such a fee would go towards funding the research and remediation regarding compositional changes to Earth’s upper atmosphere caused by FCC-mandated satellite reentry.”
That’s the view of Michael Runnels, an assistant professor of business law at California State University in Los Angeles.
Titled “On Who Should Pay When Orbital Debris ‘Trickles-down’ in a Tragedy of the Low Earth Orbit Commons,” the purpose of the article is to tackle the question of who should pay when orbital debris “trickles down” in a manner that compromises Earth’s satellite-reliant infrastructure and otherwise causes damage to Earth’s environment, persons, and property.
Clutter in the cosmos.
Credit: Used with permission: Melrae Pictures/Space Junk 3D
Tragedy of the commons
Runnels describes the low Earth orbit (LEO) environment as a classical “tragedy of the commons” scene and draws from studies conducted by NASA, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, as well as the United Nations.
What’s recommended by Runnels is specific language to amend Title III of the Communications Act of 1934. That Act created and charged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with regulating commercial satellite systems. A satellite constellation “orbital use fee” (OUF) would be established. That OUF would then fund orbital debris remediation projects, related research, and remediation of the environmental impacts of satellite constellations.
Maelstrom of orbital debris
As the paper points out, experts note that the global space market grew by 8 percent to $424 billion in 2022 and is expected to be valued at more than $737 billion by 2030.
The atmospheric layers from the ground up to the boundary with space, showing natural phenomena, human inputs and resultant impacts. These human inputs impact the troposphere (by enhancing climate change), the stratosphere (through ozone loss from multiple causes), the mesosphere (by influencing metal chemistry and accumulation and increasing noctilucent clouds), and the thermosphere (by likely causing contraction which will impact orbiting satellites).
Image credit: Jamie D. Shutler, et al.
That market will certainly be impacted if LEO is enshrouded in an impenetrable maelstrom of orbital debris moving at speeds seven times faster than a bullet.
“Given that the U.S. leads the world in the total number of satellites in space per country, and SpaceX will own more satellites than each country in the world combined once it fully deploys Starlink,” the Runnels paper concludes by arguing that “the U.S. is uniquely positioned to engage its allies in forging the foundation of customary international space law.”
Similarly, as pointed out by Cziczo and research colleagues, an estimation is that as many as 50,000 more satellites may reach orbit by 2030. In the next few decades, up to half of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles would contain metals from reentry. What effect that could have on the atmosphere, the ozone layer and life on Earth is yet to be understood.
