this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Starlink v2 reached the brightness reduction target recommended by astronomers (arxiv.org)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's great to hear! Is this with the shades and paint, or something else?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Mirror film. The antenna have a highly reflective film coating that reflects all light from the sun in a specific direction in space, away from Earth. The parts of the satellite that aren't flat enough for the mirror film do use the dark paint.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Pretty sure it's in-house developed black paint.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Black paint was causing heat problems.

Sounds like it's more about orientation:

SpaceX has responded to the concerns of astronomers by developing an improved reflective layer for their Gen 2 satellites which directs more of the sunlight away from observers on the ground.

[–] marsokod 1 points 1 year ago

Looks like it is more about the shade. I also wonder if they are able to have a small yaw axis law around the time it is a problem to reduce the reflection on the solar panel, which is hard to shade. That's a reduced power budget but it may be worth it, the solar panels and batteries they are using are quite cheap.