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The American Astronomical Society is calling on all nations to ban advertising in space that can be seen from the ground. Their concern is that “obtrusive space advertising” will interfere with astronomy efforts on the ground.
The good news for them is that “advertising in outer space that is capable of being recognized by a human being on the surface of the Earth without the aid of a telescope or other technological device” is already currently banned in the United States.
The bad news is that the law only really covers granting launch licenses for anyone seeking to deliver payloads to space that produce space advertising. That means, as John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), said during the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), that law doesn’t stop companies in other nations from launching “obtrusive space advertising” payloads.
In a statement by the AAS, the astronomers wrote, “It is the position of the American Astronomical Society that obtrusive space advertising should be prohibited by appropriate international convention, treaty, or law; and the AAS urges the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) to support such a prohibition.”
Their concern is that astronomy “is currently under threat from activities in space, including the proliferation of large satellite constellations; existing space debris and the potential for future debris-generating collisions; radiofrequency interference (RFI) and unintended electromagnetic radiation (UEMR)” and that “various nation-states and private commercial entities doing business in those countries have publicly expressed interest in launching payloads into space whose stated purpose is to function as platforms for displaying advertisements visible to observers on the ground by emitting optical light.”
Astronomers are not only concerned about their ability to study space from the ground, there have also been warnings that if things don’t change, there could eventually be so much space junk in low earth orbit that it will become difficult or impossible to launch missions to space without them being struck by debris.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), there are over 750,000 pieces of space debris orbiting Earth. And that was in 2019.
“What will hurt the most is not losing access to other planets, it’s losing the Hubble telescope. It could eventually become just a piece of debris,” Donald Kessler, former NASA Senior Scientist for Orbital Debris Research, warned in 2019. “It’s our scientific curiosity that’s at risk.”