New Space and Tech

Satellite Constellation Avoidance with the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time

By Keith Cowing

Press Release

astro-ph.IM

November 30, 2022

Filed under astro-ph.IM, Astronomy, OneWeb, Satellite, Space Traffic, Starlink, Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey

Satellite Constellation Avoidance with the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time — Three simulated satellite constellations, one per column. Starlink Gen1 is 4,408 satellites, Starlink Gen2 is 29,988 satellites, and OneWeb is 6,372 satellites, for a grand total of 40,768. The top row shows the 3D distribution of each constellation around Earth. The middle row shows an instantaneous Hammer projection of the altitude and azimuth positions of each constellation as seen from Rubin Observatory on October 1, 2023 during twilight (Sun altitude −18 degrees). Blue points are satellites illuminated by the Sun at this time, red points are satellites not illuminated by the Sun, and black points are satellites that are both illuminated and above the Rubin 20 degree altitude pointing limit. The bottom row is the same Hammer projections six hours later in the middle of the night (Sun altitude −50 degrees). Because Starlink satellites orbit at 550 km, none are illuminated in the middle of the night at this time of year. The OneWeb constellation at 1200 km has only a single illuminated satellite above the Rubin altitude limit at this particular time. — astro-ph.IM

We investigate a novel satellite avoidance strategy to mitigate the impact of large commercial satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

We simulate the orbits of currently planned Starlink and OneWeb constellations (∼40,000 satellites) to test how effectively an upgraded Rubin scheduler algorithm can avoid them, and assess how the overall survey is affected. Given a reasonably accurate satellite orbit forecast, we find it is possible to adjust the scheduler algorithm to effectively avoid some satellites.

Overall, sacrificing 10% of LSST observing time to avoid satellites reduces the fraction of LSST visits with streaks by a factor of two. Whether such a mitigation will be required depends on the overall impact of streaks on science, which is not yet well quantified.

This is due to a lack of adequate information about satellite brightness distributions as well as the impact of glints and low surface brightness residuals on alert purity and systematic errors in cosmological parameter estimation. A significant increase in the number of satellites or their brightness during Rubin Operations may make implementing this satellite avoidance strategy worthwhile.

Jinghan Alina Hu, Meredith L. Rawls, Peter Yoachim, Željko Ivezić

Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2211.15908 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2211.15908v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Peter Yoachim
[v1] Tue, 29 Nov 2022 03:52:37 UTC (5,424 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.15908

Keith Cowing

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

Follow on Twitter