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by Arthur Firstenberg
1. HOW MANY SATELLITES ARE BEING LAUNCHED INTO SPACE?
In 2019, at least eight companies and governments are competing to send up fleets of from 150 to 42,000 satellites each.
SpaceX, based in the United States, has plans for 42,000 satellites, is already launching 60 at a time, twice a month, and is developing a larger rocket that can launch 120 at a time. As soon as 420 satellites are in orbit, it plans to turn them on. That could be as early as February 2020.
OneWeb, based in the United Kingdom, has plans for 5,260 satellites and intends to launch 30 at a time every three to four weeks beginning in January 2020. As soon as 300 satellites are in orbit, in late 2020, it plans to turn them on.
Telesat, based in Canada, has plans for 512 satellites, and intends to begin service in 2021.
Amazon has plans for 3,236 satellites and intends to begin service as soon as 578 are in orbit.
Lynk has plans for “several thousand” satellites and intends to begin service in 2023.
Facebook has plans for thousands of satellites but has not disclosed its plans to the public.
Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, has plans for 640 satellites, to be deployed between 2022 and 2026.
Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., a Chinese state-owned company, has plans for 156 satellites, to be in place by 2022.
In addition to these satellite plans, Loon, a subsidiary of Google, has a contract to provide Internet to remote areas of the Amazon rainforest in Peru from stratospheric balloons.
2. WHERE WILL THE SATELLITES BE LOCATED?
Most will be located in the ionosphere, which is the lower part of the Earth’s magnetosphere. SpaceX’s satellites will orbit as low as 340 kilometers (210 miles) in altitude.
3. WHAT ARE ALL THESE SATELLITES FOR?
They are for 5G, the Internet of Things, and to provide high speed Internet to every square inch of the Earth. Because data travels faster in space than in fiber, all cell towers will transmit their signals to satellites, to be routed through space to their destinations.
The satellites will also be used to populate all remote areas on Earth with cell towers. Every satellite customer will purchase a small “user terminal” they they will mount on their house or their car, where it will function as a small cell or mobile base station for use by the public. SpaceX has already applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to sell 1,000,000 user terminals in the United States, and OneWeb has applied for 1,900,000.
The only exception is Lynk, whose satellites will be able to connect directly to cell phones, and will turn every cell phone on Earth into a satellite phone. “The artificial divide between satellites and terrestrial systems is about to end,” says Lynk.
4. WILL THESE SATELLITES USE 5G TECHNOLOGY?
Yes. They will use phased arrays, beam-forming technologies, and millimeter waves with frequencies from 10 GHz to 80 GHz, just like 5G antennas on earth.
5. WHAT WILL THIS DO TO THE EARTH?
The Earth’s electromagnetic envelope—the magnetosphere—will be massively polluted. Millions of pulsed, modulated digital signals covering 80 GHz of spectrum will be emitted day and night into the magnetosphere by tens of thousands of satellites, each emitting multiple laser-like beams directed at the surface of the Earth. This will have several kinds of effects: (a) the direct radiation arriving at the ground; (b) pollution of the global electrical circuit; and (c) alteration of the magnetosphere itself.
Direct radiation. In 2001, Ukrainian scientists warned against the use of millimeter waves by low-orbit communication satellites using phased array antennas. “Observed higher resonance frequencies of a living cell coincide with [these] frequencies,” they wrote. “The power densities and duration of radiation created by these satellites will significantly exceed (by ten or more orders of magnitude—such irradiation is possible over the course of a whole lifetime) the energetic doses inducing change in living cells… Negative consequences of this may be changes in cell structures and physiological processes, genetic changes, and alteration of psychophysiological conditions and behavior.”[1]
Effects on the magnetosphere. The Earth’s magnetosphere already bears the imprint of 50 and 60 Hz and their harmonics from power lines. This phenomenon, known as power-line harmonic radiation (PLHR), has been extensively studied.[2],[3] When power line radiation reaches the magnetosphere, it is amplified thousands of times and interacts with the Van Allen belts, draining them of electrons, which rain down over the earth, modifying the electrical properties of the atmosphere. Not only may this increase the frequency of thunderstorms,[4] but it may shift the values of the Schumann resonances to which all living things are attuned.[5] “Continued expansion of the electrical power system threatens the viability of all life on earth,” wrote Dr. Robert O. Becker in 1985.[6] Tens of thousands of satellites, located in the lower magnetosphere, will be an even greater threat to all life.
Effects on the global electrical circuit. A current of electricity flows at all times through the ionosphere, down to the Earth in fair weather, through the Earth, and back up to the ionosphere in thunderstorms. This global circuit, studied today by atmospheric physicists, was first described in the fourth century B.C. in the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine: “The pure Yang forms the heaven, and the turbid Yin forms the earth. The Qi of the earth ascends and turns into clouds, while the Qi of the heaven descends and turns into rain.” At National Central University in Taiwan, and at Shangai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fujian Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and elsewhere in China, scientists are confirming that the substance called Qi that flows from sky to Earth and circulates through our meridians, giving us life and health, is electricity.[7]
The ionosphere is charged to an average of 300,000 volts at all times and
PLANETARY EMERGENCY
The Earth needs your help. Now.
Many are the assaults on our planet. The oceans—Jacques Cousteau said it already in 1970—are dying. The majestic wilderness is no more. The very oxygen we breathe is being converted to carbon dioxide.
Others are wrestling with those problems, and they are not going to be solved overnight. But there is one that must be: we must leave space alone.
On March 29, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission gave its approval to SpaceX’s plan to launch an unprecedented 4,425 satellites into low orbit around the Earth. And that’s only the beginning. SpaceX has applied to the FCC to increase the number of satellites to 42,000 in order to provide “ultrafast, lag-free Internet” to every square inch of the earth. 5G from space. The name of SpaceX’s project is “Starlink.” As of May 2022, Starlink already has about 2,500 operating satellites in low-earth orbit.
The global electrical circuit, which sustains all life, is about to be seriously disturbed unless we act.
Recent History
In 1997, in my first book, Microwaving Our Planet, in the last chapter, titled “The Danger from Satellites,” I wrote: “The proliferation of satellites we are about to witness—unless this world wakes up soon—is mind boggling, and nobody seems to have considered that popping thousands of them up there like so much confetti might have consequences for our atmosphere and our climate.” I wrote about the expected ozone loss; the destruction of the Van Allen belts; global warming from the addition of water vapor to the stratosphere; toxic wastes; groundwater pollution; space junk; microwave radiation; and the vandalism of the night sky. My 1997 book is posted here, courtesy of the Spanish website AVAATE, one of the best websites on this issue: www.avaate.org/IMG/doc/Microwaving_Our_Planet_firstenberg.doc
A year later the radiation problem asserted itself. On September 23, 1998, the world’s first satellite phones became operational. Service was provided by 66 satellites in low orbit around the Earth, launched by the Iridium Corporation. They unleashed a new kind of rain that turned the sky red and emptied it of birds for a couple of weeks.
A six-nation telephone survey was done of electrically sensitive people, support groups, and nurses and physicians serving this population. The results: 86% of electrically sensitive people and a majority of patients and support group members became ill on Wednesday, September 23 exactly, with typical symptoms of electrical illness including headaches, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, nosebleeds, heart palpitations, asthma attacks, ringing in the ears, etc. Follow-ups revealed that some of these people were acutely ill for up to three weeks. Some were so sick they weren’t sure they would live. In the United States the national death rate rose by 4% to 5% for two weeks. During those two weeks, very few birds were seen in the sky and thousands of homing pigeons failed to return home in pigeon races throughout much of the country. This was all documented in No Place to Hide, Vol. 2, No. 1, Feb. 1999, pp. 3-4.
The second satellite service, Globalstar, began commercial service on Monday, February 28, 2000. Widespread reports of nausea, headaches, leg pain, respiratory problems, depression, and lack of energy began on Friday, February 25, the previous business day, and came from people both with and without electrical sensitivity. See No Place To Hide, Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2000, p. 18.
Iridium, which had gone bankrupt in the summer of 1999, was resurrected by a contract with the United States Armed Forces. On March 30, 2001, commercial service resumed. Again the sky turned red. Again came reports of nausea, flu-like illness and feelings of oppression. But the events that made the news were catastrophic losses of race horse foals that were reported throughout the United States and as far away as Peru. On June 5, 2001, Iridium added data and Internet to its satellite phone service. Again came widespread reports of nausea, flu-like illness and oppression, and this time also hoarseness. See No Place To Hide, Vol 3, No. 2, Nov. 2001, p. 15.
Additional details are provided in chapter 17 of my new book, The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life (AGB Press, 2017).
Between 2001 and 2019, our skies did not essentially change. Iridium and Globalstar, operating 66 and 40 satellites respectively, were still the only providers of satellite phones. The amount of data raining on us all from space was still dominated by those two fleets. The predicted fleets of thousands of satellites had not materialized. But they are doing so now. Everything we know and love is at stake—not just hawks and geese, pigeons and race horses, not just the human race, but life itself. This is a mortal threat not just to our children and grandchildren, but to all of us.
The Details
The biggest planned fleet of satellites is the Starlink constellation being launched by Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX. But there are about 150 other companies competing with Starlink, several of which are already launching satellites. The number of satellites proposed to be operated by all of these companies totals, incredibly, more than 442,000. Almost all are proposed to be orbited at altitudes ranging from 210 to 700 miles in altitude. They will all operate at millimeter wave frequencies and they will all be phased arrays. Each satellite will have thousands of antenna elements that will aim focused, steerable beams at any desired point on the surface of the earth. The effective radiated power of each beam from each of the satellites can range up to 5,000,000 watts, depending on its altitude and how many simultaneous customers it is serving. The satellites will communicate both with individual users and with gateway earth stations, of which there will be several hundred just in the United States for just the Starlink constellation.
One of the other companies planning a megaconstellation is the UK’s OneWeb. Its founder and Executive Chairman is Greg Wyler. To build and launch its constellation of 7,088
by Arthur Firstenberg
view as PDF: in English en français in italiano
How much radiation does a cell phone emit, compared to what exists in nature?
If Neil Armstrong had brought a cell phone to the moon in 1969, it would have appeared from earth to be the brightest object in the universe in the microwave spectrum. In the daytime, the sun would have been brighter, but at night, the cell phone would have outshone every star.
There is a reason cell phones are outlawed in Green Bank, West Virginia: even a single cell phone, even from miles away, would blind the radio astronomers there and make it impossible for them to see the stars. Astronomers measure radio waves in units called janskys. A typical star shines at 10 to 100 janskys. The Sun shines at about 500,000 janskys. When you hold a cell phone against your head, you are pumping energy at the rate of about 100,000,000,000,000 janskys into your brain.[1]
How does that compare to radiation from a cell tower?
Suppose there is a 2,000-watt cell tower two blocks from your house. The part of your brain next to a cell phone is absorbing up to one hundred thousand times as much radiation from the phone as it is from the tower.[2]
Are the FCC’s exposure limits the same for cell phones and cell towers?
No. Cell phones are exempt from the limits imposed on cell towers. The FCC measures exposure in milliwatts per square centimeter. Depending on frequency, the FCC’s limit for whole body exposure to radiation from distant sources is about one milliwatt per square centimeter (1 mW/cm2). The limit for partial body exposure to a cell phone is approximately 20 mW/cm2 (for the brain), which assumes the phone is held at least one and a half centimeters away from your head. It is 50 mW/cm2 (for the hands, wrists and ears). If you hold the phone flush against your head, like most people do, or tightly between your head and your shoulder, the exposure to the brain can approach 50 mW/cm2 also.[3]
Who set the exposure limits?
A radar scientist named Herman Schwan who was brought to the United States from Germany after World War II as part of Project Paperclip. He made some assumptions about the rate at which the human body is capable of getting rid of heat, and on that basis he estimated that the body could safely absorb an amount of radiation equal to 100 mW/cm2. His assumptions were soon proven wrong, since experimental animals died within minutes when exposed to that much radiation. So over the years, the safe level was reduced first to 10 mW/cm2 and later to the current limit of 1 mW/cm2.
Why is the brain exempt from those limits?
Because those limits would make cell phones impractical. And because new assumptions were made about how much heat the brain could safely absorb, and the rate at which the body could dissipate that heat. It was decided that the brain could be safely heated by up to 1° C (1.8° F).
Have these assumptions proven correct?
No. A 1° C rise in temperature is usually considered a fever. And although the brain as a whole is heated less than 1° C by a cell phone, the absorption is not uniform. DNA, for example, resonantly absorbs microwave radiation. In experiments done at the Food and Drug Administration during the 1980s, DNA absorbed 400 times as much radiation as expected.[4] Research done at the Max Planck Institute in Germany in 2006 found that brain synapses may be resonantly heated by up to 100° C while the brain as a whole is heated by only 1° C.[5]
I don’t get a headache from my cell phone. Can it be that bad?
Because brain tissue has no pain receptors, we don’t feel the injury. Even a headache doesn’t tell you what’s happening inside your head. Neurosurgen Leif Salford and his colleagues in Sweden found that a single two-hour exposure to a cell phone permanently destroys up to two percent of a rat’s brain cells.[6] Superficially the rats are fine, but two percent of their brain is gone. The experiments gave similar results even when the exposure level was reduced a hundredfold. And in experiments on the blood-brain barrier, they reduced the exposure level ten thousandfold and found that damage to the blood-brain barrier was worse when the exposure level was reduced.[7]
That means that holding the phone away from your head does not protect you. It means that if you use a Bluetooth headset, which emits only 2.5 milliwatts, you are doing more damage to yourself than if you hold the phone to your head. The blood-brain barrier keeps bacteria, virusus, and toxic chemicals out of your brain and maintains the brain at constant pressure. Too much intracranial pressure can lead to a stroke.
How fast does the damage to the blood-brain barrier happen?
Leakage of the blood-brain barrier is detectable within two minutes of exposure and probably begins within seconds.
What do the stroke statistics tell us?
The incidence of stroke overall is steady or declining but it is rising in adults younger than 50,[8] and shockingly so in very young adults. A Danish study published in 2016 examined the rate of strokes in people aged 15 to 30. The annual number of strokes in that age group in Denmark rose 50 percent between 1994 and 2012, and the annual number of transient ischemic attacks (mini-strokes) in that age group tripled.[9]
I’m confused. Which is safer, low power or high power?
Neither. The higher the power, the more heat. The lower the power, the more leakage of the blood-brain barrier. The higher the power, the more your metabolism is disturbed.[10] The lower the power, the more calcium leaks out of your
REVIEWS OF THE INVISIBLE RAINBOW:
by Miriam Lindbeck, in EcoDwell, the newsletter of the International Institute for Building Biology and Ecology, Oct./Nov.2017: http://cellphonetaskforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eco-octnov2017.pdf
by Marg Friesen, in Eco Journal, the newsletter of the Manitoba Eco-Network, Fall 2017: http://cellphonetaskforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Eco_Journal-Oct.-2017-Online-Copy.pdf
by Alasdair Philips, in Caduceus, a magazine for mind, body, spirit and environment, Issue 98, Spring 2018: http://cellphonetaskforce.org/the-invisible-rainbow-review-by-alasdair-philips
by Jennifer Wood, for Environmentalists Against War, May 19, 2018: http://cellphonetaskforce.org/the-invisible-rainbow-review-by-jennifer-wood
Guidance to governments, legislators, environmental organizations, schools, and religious, political and community leaders.
English français italiano svenska 日本語
Newly Revised and Expanded: RADIO WAVE PACKET What You Need to Know about Wireless Technology
English français italiano norsk Nederlands svenska 日本語
Available Now!
THE INVISIBLE RAINBOW A History of Electricity and Life
by Arthur Firstenberg paperback $24.95 available from Chelsea Green Publishing
Also available in: Deutsch Español Français Italiano Norsk Русский български 日本語 한국어 (vol. 1) 한국어 (vol. 2)
“I found it to be a mystery unfolding and could not put it down. This book is very, very important.
– Sandy Ross, Ph.D. President, Health and Habitat, Inc.
“As a medical doctor I found it hard to put down.”
– Bradley Johnson, M.D. Amen Center, San Francisco
“Just as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring warned the mid-twentieth century about the dangers of indiscriminate chemical and pesticide use, Arthur Firstenberg’s Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life provides a comprehensive analysis of the perils of electricity’s proliferation and exposure to its electromagnetic radiation.”
– Kate Showers, Ph.D., University of Sussex
Electricity is at once the spark of life and the undoing of it. To what extent is our present environmental crisis a result of this contradiction? Where, exactly, did the modern epidemics of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease come from, and why are they out of control? Just how dangerous are computers and cell phones? This groundbreaking book supplies the answers to these and other questions. It is a must-read that begins in the year 1746 and explains what has gone wrong and what must change if we are to survive. A breaker of taboos and an antidote to two centuries of denial, this book is uplifting. An entertaining tale and a resource for researchers, it is a road map to how we came to be where we are, and a window to a possible, necessary, more alive future.
OUR MISSION The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog) advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.
ASSOCIAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL CIELO SCURO contro FCC E SPACEX
Il 29 dicembre 2022, l’International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) ha citato in giudizio la Commissione Federale per le Comunicazioni degli Stati Uniti per la decisione di approvare la richiesta di SpaceX di installare altri 30.000 satelliti in orbita bassa, oltre ai 12.000 già approvati e in procinto di riempire i nostri cieli. Il caso è il n. 22-1337, presentato alla Corte d’Appello degli Stati Uniti per il Circuito del Distretto di Columbia, e non è ancora stato deciso dalla corte.
Le fotografie a lunga esposizione del cielo scattate dagli astronomi hanno già questo aspetto:
La foto qui sopra è stata scattata da un astronomo amatoriale in una località periferica dell’Australia occidentale. Le tracce circolari sono stelle. Le tracce diritte, molto più luminose, sono tutti satelliti, tranne una traccia che è una meteora.
Di seguito è riportata un’esposizione di 77 minuti scattata dall’astronomo Dave Thanatos a Salisbury, in Inghilterra. In questo luogo più buio, le tracce circolari delle stelle sono più luminose delle tracce rettilinee delle meteore e dei satelliti che, tuttavia, riempiono l’intera cornice della fotografia. In questa immagine ci sono solo 10 meteore. Tutte le altre tracce rettilinee sono satelliti. E come ha detto l’astronomo scozzese Andy Lawrence, autore principale di “The Case for Space Environmentalism“(Il Caso per Ambientalismo nello Spazio), “Buona fortuna nel capire la differenza!”.
La fisica del plasma americana Sierra Solter ha implorato la FCC di “salvare il nostro cielo notturno… Per favore, per favore, non portatemi via le stelle. Sentire che il mio luogo di conforto e di calma – il cielo stellato – viene portato via e dato ai miliardari è soffocante”.
Il 18 dicembre 2023, la signora Solter ha pubblicato un articolo scientifico in cui espone i suoi timori per il nostro pianeta. Ognuno dei 42.000 satelliti Starlink previsti, ha scritto, ha una durata di vita progettata di soli 5 anni, dopo di che sarà de-orbitato, bruciato nell’atmosfera e sostituito. L’autrice ha calcolato che questo richiederà 23 satelliti al giorno, ciascuno delle dimensioni di un SUV o di un camion, per essere bruciati nell’atmosfera per sempre, lasciando che un’enorme quantità di sostanze chimiche tossiche e di polvere metallica si accumuli nell’aria che respiriamo e nella ionosfera.
Questo sta già accadendo, ha scritto l’autrice, e dovrebbe essere fermato se teniamo alle nostre vite. “Dall’inizio dell’industria spaziale, circa 20.000 tonnellate di materiale sono state demolite durante il rientro… Si tratta di una quantità di materiale 100 miliardi di volte superiore alla massa delle fasce di Van Allen”. Ha stimato che se 42.000 satelliti Starlink vengono dispiegati e regolarmente demoliti – per non parlare dei 1.000.000 di satelliti pianificati da altre aziende e governi – “ogni secondo l’industria spaziale aggiunge alla ionosfera una quantità di materiale conduttivo circa 2.000 volte superiore alla massa delle fasce di Van Allen”.
“A differenza dei meteoriti, che sono piccoli e contengono solo tracce di alluminio, questi relitti di navicelle spaziali sono enormi e sono costituiti interamente da alluminio e altri materiali esotici altamente conduttivi”, ha spiegato l’autrice in un articolo del 16 aprile 2024 sul Guardian.
Gran parte della polvere metallica si depositerà nella ionosfera dove, secondo l’autrice, potrebbe agire come scudo magnetico, riducendo l’ampiezza del campo magnetico terrestre nello spazio. Se ciò accadesse, l’atmosfera stessa potrebbe essere distrutta, perché il campo magnetico terrestre – la magnetosfera – è ciò che devia il vento solare e impedisce che porti via l’atmosfera della Terra, come ha detto Teresa Pulterova in un’intervista a Space.com.
Tra gli altri astronomi coinvolti nel contenzioso davanti alla FCC e ora alla Corte d’Appello ci sono Meredith Rawls dell’Osservatorio Vera C. Rubin in Cile; Gary Hunt di Action Against Satellite Light Pollution nel Regno Unito; Samantha Lawler dell’Università di Regina in Canada; Graeme Cuffy di Port of Spain, Trinidad e Tobago; Mark Phillips, presidente della Società Astronomica di Edimburgo; Roberto Trotta dell’Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology di Londra; Carrie Nugent, professore associato di fisica computazionale e scienze planetarie presso l’Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts; e Cameron Nelson di Tenzing Startup Consultants in Virginia.
Nell’appello vengono citati anche altri problemi. Ad esempio, l’alluminio bruciato produce ossido di alluminio, che distrugge l’ozono e contribuisce al cambiamento climatico. Lo stesso vale per il vapore acqueo, la fuliggine e gli ossidi di azoto presenti negli scarichi dei razzi
Cameron Nelson ha dichiarato alla FCC che “gli esseri umani, per non parlare di tutte le altre forme di vita animale e vegetale, non hanno dato il loro consenso affinché SpaceX invii i segnali che propone nei nostri corpi e ci alteri irrevocabilmente”.
La BroadBand International Legal Action Network (BBILAN) ha menzionato le “radiazioni RF/EMF delle stazioni di base e di terra collegate” nei commenti inviati alla FCC. Le stazioni di terra Starlink, chiamate anche Gateway, sono molto più potenti delle antenne paraboliche Starlink installate nelle case. I 2,6 milioni di parabole Starlink (a marzo 2024) inviano ciascuna un segnale alla rete mobile di satelliti che le sovrasta. Tutto questo traffico è coordinato nello spazio da migliaia di laser che collegano i satelliti tra loro e a terra dai Gateway, che ritrasmettono le migliaia di segnali in una vasta area geografica da e verso i satelliti. Ecco come appare un Gateway con 5 antenne (“radome”):
Alcuni Gateway hanno fino a 40 radome. Ciascuna di queste cupole pesa 1750 chilogrammi. Ciascuna punta un fascio stretto verso i satelliti in movimento. Secondo i documenti depositati da SpaceX presso la FCC, ogni raggio può avere una potenza irradiata effettiva di oltre 1.000.000 di watt e può puntare fino a 25 gradi sopra l’orizzonte. Se siete un uccello, non volete volare vicino a un gateway Starlink. E se siete umani, non volete nemmeno vivere vicino a un gateway Starlink. Quando un satellite punta il suo fascio di migliaia di segnali verso un gateway, il fascio ha un diametro di circa 10 miglia quando raggiunge la Terra.
Robin è un’abbonata che vive in una zona remota
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