Light Pollution and the Future of Space Science and Astronomy

This chapter focuses on two topical issues which threaten the future of ground-based astronomy and space science. They are the plans to launch tens of thousands of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites by a number of companies, including SpaceX and OneWeb, for global internet communications. These satellites result in trails that degrade wide-field imaging by astronomical telescopes. The second issue is the ever-increasing problem of light pollution from artificial light at night (ALAN) that brightens the night sky, causing a serious deterioration of the conditions needed for astronomical research. ALAN has impacted vast areas of the globe and astronomers have fewer and fewer of the darkest sites left where observatories can still operate.