I have the following update on the latest satellite light pollution mitigation efforts from my queries to one of the leads involved in monitoring the issue:
1. "CPS SatHub observing network is hard at work taking data of satellites to determine how well satellites with and without mitigation methods are working in terms of their threshold brightness."
2. "On the flat surfaces of their more Gen 2 mini satellites, SpaceX has placed Bragg mirrors (dialectric coatings or stickers) that are reflecting light away from the Earth. On the curved surfaces, SpaceX has painted them. There is almost enough data on Gen 2 minis to start the analysis and write a paper. All of the minis have these two mitigation measures and the V2s will most likely have them too."
3. "We have some but perhaps not enough data on the two Amazon Kuiper satellites, one with mitigation techniques and the other with none."
4. "We have some collaboration with OneWeb to verify certain of their satellites."
5. "The threshold brightness that we ask companies to strive for are no brighter than visual magnitude of about 7 (or 6.5) mag. So that covers the naked eye observations."
5. "Vera C. Rubin Observatory has been doing a lot of avoidance testing and developing streak removal mitigation software. As well as a few think tank companies and universities and astronomical agencies within some of the prominent space faring nations."
My impressions based on the above and prior queries:
A. Some satellites will launch intentionally without mitigation measures to act as comparos/controls with those that do so you may continue to see unmitigated models both visually and on imaging.
B. There isn't just yet enough data for final results/conclusions at the research/publication level but we're close.
C. A significant amount of the effort is directed towards radio astronomy/infrared observations and less so on optical astronomy, except at the Vera Rubin observatory where a primary mission is widefield imaging at the optical wavelengths.
D. It's difficult to get timely responses/updates but I'll try to stay on it.
Sat tuned...
