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posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the less-light-pollution dept.

Humanity Star to reach fiery doom earlier than expected

Rocket Lab's Humanity Star is expected to reach a fiery doom much earlier than expected.

The 8kg carbon fibre geodesic sphere with 65 reflective panels, which resembled a disco ball, was shot into orbit from the Mahia Peninsula on January 21 on board Rocket Lab's Electron rocket.

The launch also carried small satellites into the Earth's orbit for US companies Planet Labs and Spire Global.

It was expected the Humanity Star would be one of the brightest objects in the night sky for nine months, but satellite-tracking website Satview reported on Wednesday that it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate at 3am on Friday.

Satview.

Previously: Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket Launched "Humanity Star", a Temporary Source of Light Pollution


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Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket Launched "Humanity Star", a Temporary Source of Light Pollution 30 comments

Rocket Lab has put a highly reflective object into orbit around Earth:

US spaceflight startup Rocket Lab put three commercial satellites into orbit during its rocket launch this past weekend — but it turns out there was another satellite that hitched a ride on the vehicle too. The company's Electron rocket also put into orbit a previously undisclosed satellite made by Rocket Lab's CEO Peter Beck, called the Humanity Star. And the probe will supposedly become the "brightest thing in the night sky," the company announced today.

Shaped a bit like a disco ball, the Humanity Star is a 3-foot-wide carbon fiber sphere, made up of 65 panels that reflect the Sun's light. The satellite is supposed to spin in space, too, so it's constantly bouncing sunlight. In fact, the probe is so bright that people can see it with the naked eye. The Humanity Star's orbit also takes it all over Earth, so the satellite will be visible from every location on the planet at different times. Rocket Lab has set up a website that gives real-time updates about the Humanity Star's location. People can find out when the satellite will be closest to them, and then go outside to look for it.

The goal of the project is to create "a shared experience for all of humanity," according to Rocket Lab. "No matter where you are in the world, or what is happening in your life, everyone will be able to see the Humanity Star in the night sky," Beck said in a statement. "Our hope is that everyone looking at the Humanity Star will look past it to the vast expanse of the Universe and think a little differently about their lives, actions, and what is important for humanity." That includes coming together to solve major problems like climate change and resource shortages, Beck says.

Some astronomers are not happy about the geodesic sphere:

The only good thing about the "Humanity Star" (aka the NZ pollutes the night sky project) is that it burns up in 9 months. 9 months is way too far away IMHO.

— Ian Griffin (@iangriffin) January 24, 2018

Also at BBC.

Previously: Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit


Original Submission

Another Highly Reflective Art Object Will be Launched Into Orbit in November 45 comments

Less than a year after "Humanity's Star" was launched by Rocket Lab and destroyed in Earth's atmosphere, another art project aims to place a highly reflective object in the night sky:

Now, nearly 50 years [after the Apollo 12 mission], artist Trevor Paglen hopes to draw the public's eye back to the sky with "Orbital Reflector," a sculpture made of shiny material much like Mylar that will reflect the Sun's light while orbiting the Earth. The sculpture, contained in a small structure called a CubeSat, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in mid-November. When it enters orbit about 350 miles away from Earth, the sculpture will detach and inflate to its full shape, a diamond that may shine as bright as a star in the Big Dipper. After about two months, it will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate.

By sending an object with no military value into space, Paglen said he hopes to raise a conversation about who is allowed to operate past Earth's atmosphere. As artists and historians praise his effort as boundary-breaking, some people within scientific communities are saying it lacks a practical purpose.

Paglen, a 2017 MacArthur fellow, has long been preoccupied with the less-visible, or deliberately hidden, infrastructures that make up the world. For years, he tracked the movements of more than 180 classified U.S. military spy satellites, measuring and photographing their locations for his project "The Other Night Sky."

[...] The project has drawn some criticism and confusion from scientists who question the value of adding what they see as impractical items to Earth's orbit. "It's the space equivalent of someone putting a neon advertising billboard right outside your bedroom window," Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Gizmodo. [...] Paglen responded to criticisms in August in a Medium post titled "Let's Get Pissed Off About Orbital Reflector...," saying he hoped to provoke productive conversations.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:40AM (3 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:40AM (#655970) Journal

    the new tower of babel
    crosses the late winter sky
    meatbags don't learn

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:43PM (2 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:43PM (#656182) Journal

      Many satellites
      much higher than this one
      still orbit Earth

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:25PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:25PM (#656267)

        One man's hubris
        Turned out mostly ignored
        Now it's gone.

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday March 22 2018, @10:47PM

        by Bot (3902) on Thursday March 22 2018, @10:47PM (#656900) Journal

        many ordinary towers too
        hold steady against the cold spring winds
        you missed the point

        --
        Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:57AM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:57AM (#655974) Homepage
    Humanity Star to reach fiery doom earlier than expected
    or
    Humanity to reach fiery doom earlier than expected

    What am I talking about, the expectation for the latter is "real soon now".
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:05AM (1 child)

    by anubi (2828) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:05AM (#655980) Journal

    Kinda a disappointment... I never did see the thing.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:27AM

      by zocalo (302) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:27AM (#655986)
      I did - it happened to be going overhead during a morning commute, and since the skies were clear I pulled over for a few minutes and watched it go by. Subjectively it didn't feel like it was as bright as they claimed it would be, although that may have been down to atmospheric conditions like pollution and water vapour. I'm pretty sure I've seen the ISS much brighter on a few occassions, although that may have been down to a fortunate combination of timing, angles, and the amount of light being reflected towards me by the ISS' solar panels. Ultimately, it was just another fairly bright dot moving rapidly across the sky, so while it's nice to have seen it in a geeky Train Spotter kind of way, it wasn't really all that special.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:07AM

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:07AM (#655981)

    A ray of hope flickers in the sky
    A tiny star lights up way up high
    All across the land, another orbit's yearned
    This will not last, when the star is burned

  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:34AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:34AM (#655989) Journal

    it wasn't meant to be up there, anyway.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:59PM (#656359)

    ...and nothing of value was lost!

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