would not be confined to the narrow beam from the orbiting antenna to the earth rectenna, or to the assigned portion of the radio spectrum. BASIC CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORKSHOP The effects on astronomy discussed below must be understood in the general context of how astronomical research is conducted. Participants at the workshop continually emphasized that virtually all of our knowledge about the Universe outside of the Solar System has been obtained by studying the electromagnetic emissions of celestial objects. Because the most distant objects are also the faintest, all branches of astronomy have attempted to develop the most sensitive detectors possible. Because these detectors are so sensitive, they are limited by interference due to other sources of radiation. The effect of the SPS would be to substantially increase the amount of man-made interfering radiation. This would further limit the astronomer’s ability to observe faint objects and thus the size of the measurable Universe. The primary effect on optical astronomy is attributed to increased sky brightness. The increase in sky brightness comes from sunlight which would be reflected from the SPS solar cell blanket. The amount of light scattered from a satellite is measured by its diffuse albedo, which is simply the amount of scattered light expressed as a percentage of the total incident light. Using the lowest estimates of light scattering for the conceptual SPS design, an albedo of 4 percent, each satellite would be as bright as the planet Venus at its brightest. This would make the satellites the third brightest objects in the sky, only the sun and the moon being brighter. The magnitude of the effect is a function of SPS design parameters. Any increase in the brightness of the sky results in a proportional reduction in the effective aperture of a telescope when it is being used on
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