Congestion, Light Pollution Mitigation Steps Being Taken: OneWeb
In response to NASA and National Science Foundation concerns about OneWeb's pending second-generation broadband satellite constellation and mega constellations broadly, the company told the FCC International Bureau last week about efforts underway to tackle those concerns. NASA said last month…
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OneWeb's proposed constellation "may pose a significantly increased risk to NASA missions due to lengthy transits" of low earth orbit. It recommended OneWeb analyze the maximum number of expected conjunction warnings and the number of high-risk conjunctions requiring maneuver planning actions per day and do an analysis showing its automated ground system has enough capacity and sophistication to prevent collisions among the fully populated constellation and with objects outside the constellation. NASA said it's concerned about an increasing unavailability of safe launch windows. It said the proposed second-generation constellation could increase astronomical light pollution levels significantly and OneWeb should look at ways to solve that, and demonstrate its full second-gen constellation won't increase light pollution substantially over current recommended levels. NSF said it's urging satellite constellation operators to look at such light pollution mitigation steps as deflecting light away from the Earth, attitude maneuvering, choosing orbital elevations of 700 km or lower when possible, and giving astronomers orbital information to allow scheduling observations around satellite locations. OneWeb said in its Thursday response it worked with launch providers, providing predicted ephemeris, and "is committed to working closely with NASA to limit the impact its satellites have on NASA’s ability to find urgent launch windows." It said all its collision avoidance maneuvers are cleared with Space Force to ensure they don't create a conjunction with another object before being uploaded to the maneuvering satellite. It said it worked with Italy's GAL Hassin Observatory for observations of in-orbit OneWeb satellites and is creating a tool for accurate production of the brightness of next-generation OneWeb satellites.