Reflect Orbital CEO Ben Nowack disagrees with the findings of Kocifaj’s paper. “Some assumptions are simply inaccurate,” he says. “The critical point is that our safeguards, including maintaining exclusion zones, take account of scattering.”
He says that the company has “engaged substantively with legitimate concerns raised by astronomers, environmental researchers, and scientists,” and that their feedback has “informed our technology and operational plans.”
Kocifaj says that Reflect Orbital has not provided data to back up its claims. The company “states that safeguards exist, that scattering is taken into account, and that the models are being updated, but it gives no numbers, no description of the model, no assumptions, and no data,” he says. “There is therefore nothing that can be engaged with technically. Our calculations produce concrete figures.”
Reflect Orbital’s intention is to place its satellites into highly inclined orbits above Earth, almost from pole to pole. This will enable them to reflect sunlight in the hours before sunrise and after sunset, extending daylight hours in certain locations. Eventually, the company has said, it wants to place satellites high enough to provide light 24-7 to locations on Earth.
In August, a group of organisations including DarkSky International and the American Bird Conservancy urged the FCC to review its approval of the Eärendil-1 satellite. As well as the impact on astronomy raised by this and future satellites, the group also highlighted potential negative consequences for aviation and wildlife.
“Our primary request is straightforward: Reverse the Space Bureau’s order, and require a lawful public-interest and NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] review,” the group said in a statement.
The satellites could also pose risks to humans, according to Reflect Orbital itself. In a filing with the FCC in March, the company said that observing Eärendil-1 with a telescope larger than 12 inches —which many astronomers have access to—may be unsafe for human eyes. It added, though, that such observations are “unlikely to … result in significant injury” because the satellites are not constantly bright.
Currently there is no global entity that could regulate satellites such as these, so approval falls to national regulators such as the FCC in the US. Michelle Hanlon, a space lawyer at the University of Mississippi’s School of Law, says there are “real benefits” to the plans proposed by Reflect Orbital. “It could extend the productive hours of solar facilities and provide light in remote areas or after a disaster,” she says.
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