Related papers: Looking out for a sustainable space
The rapid expansion of satellite constellations is transforming the radio-frequency environment around the Earth. At the same time, radio astronomy is entering a new era of sensitivity and survey capability, requiring unprecedented control…
Space debris is a major threat to the satellite infrastructure. A collision with even small particle, e.g. 1 cm of size, can cause a catastrophic event when the parent body, spacecraft or upper stage, will break up into hundreds of…
Earth is constantly being bombarded with material from space. Most of the natural material end up being dust grains that litter the surface of Earth, but larger bodies are known to impact every few decades. The most recent large impact was…
The world is changing fast, and so is the space sector. Planning for large scientific experiments two decades ahead may no longer be the most sensible approach. I develop the argument that large science experiments are becoming comparable…
The study of the Universe and all its contents, the physical phenomena and the evolution of the sky objects has always attracted the Humanity. The Astronomy begins to try to explain these things, others sciences too. Therefore, we think a…
In the nearly 60 years of spaceflight we have accomplished wonderful feats of exploration that have shown the incredible spirit of the human drive to explore and understand our universe. Yet in those 60 years we have barely left our solar…
Solar sails enable missions to observe the solar environment from unique vantage points, such as sustained observations away from the Sun-Earth line; sub-L1 station keeping; high inclination solar orbits; Earth polar-sitting and…
Scientific research is a continuous process, and the speed of future progress can be estimated by the pace of finding explanations for previous research questions. In this observers based view of stellar pulsation and asteroseismology, we…
Recent scientific and technological advancements driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), distributed computing and data communication technologies have opened up a vast range of…
Since the late 1950s, when the first artificial satellite was launched, the number of Resident Space Objects has steadily increased. It is estimated that around one million objects larger than one cm are currently orbiting the Earth, with…
CubeSats are small satellites built in standard sizes and form factors, which have been growing in popularity but have thus far been largely ignored within the field of astronomy. When deployed as space-based telescopes, they enable science…
Private space companies are increasingly commercializing near-earth space. Some estimates show that more than 100,000 satellites may orbit the Earth by 2030. This increase in the number of satellites has many consequences for science,…
The global climate crisis poses new risks to humanity, and with them, new challenges to the practices of professional astronomy. Avoiding the more catastrophic consequences of global warming by more than 1.5 degrees requires an immediate…
Astrophysics facilities have been of tremendous importance for planetary science. The flagship space observatory Hubble Space Telescope has produced ground-breaking Solar System science, but when launched it did not even have the capability…
The solar system has changed dramatically since its birth, and so did our understanding of it. A considerable research effort has been invested in the past decade in an attempt to reconstruct the solar system history, including the earliest…
Astronomy has played a major part in the development of civilisations, not only through conceptual developments, but most importantly through the very practical gains obtained through the observation of Sun, Moon planets and stars. Space…
There is a growing appreciation that the environmental conditions that we call space weather impact the technological infrastructure that powers the coupled economies around the world. With that comes the need to better shield society…
Thousands of active artificial objects are orbiting around Earth along with much more non-operational ones -- derelict satellites or rocket bodies, collision debris, or spacecraft payloads, significant part of them being uncatalogued. They…
With the low Earth orbit environment becoming increasingly populated with artificial satellites, rockets, and debris, it is important to understand the effects they have on radio astronomy. In this work, we undertake a multi-frequency,…
This article aims to highlight the impact for ground based astronomical observations in different windows of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from the deployment of fleets of telecommunications satellites. A particular attention is given…