12/28/2025 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
Imagine driving along a dark country road when an oncoming vehicle suddenly switches on high-beam headlights, momentarily overwhelming your night vision. For astronomers and others who study the night sky, the increasing number of bright communication satellites and orbital debris produces similar effects that interfere with observations and diminish the experience of otherwise dark skies.
Aerospace engineer and astronomer Siegfried Eggl is working to advance awareness of the problem and find solutions. Earlier this month, he gave an invited talk on the subject at a workshop hosted by the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria. His presentation was on behalf of the Zero Debris Community, an international consortium of 200 entities including satellite constellation operators such as Amazon LEO and Eutelsat OneWeb.
Eggl is a chapter lead in the Zero Debris Technical Booklet, which aims to identify key technologies that foster sustainability in the new space economy. The first issue of the Zero Debris Technical Booklet was released about a year ago. It seeks to reduce space debris to zero by 2030. But it also addresses the interference debris creates to space observation and the and promotes efforts to prevent pollution in space as well as Earth’s upper atmosphere.
“Speaking in front of UN delegates and representatives of the biggest constellation operators, such as SpaceX, Amazon LEO, Planet Labs and AST Space Mobile, was humbling,” Eggl said. “These conversations that bring academia, government and industry together on a global scale are vital to solving the problem.”
In his talk, Eggl listed efforts spearheaded by countries such as space sustainability initiatives in the U.S, EU, U.K. and Switzerland as well as on the international level, such as the International Astronomical Union Centre for Dark and Quiet Skies, the European Union Space ACT and the Zero Debris Community efforts.
“The Zero Debris Community believes that most of the current challenges can be solved with the right technologies and incentives to implement them. “
Eggl said while the IAU has provided some guidance, the absence of UN sanctioned, globally accepted standards for maintaining a dark and radio quiet sky has led to a patchwork of agreements. This situation makes licensing difficult for both current and emerging stakeholders.
“Many Industry partners are taking action, but some are still unaware of the problem or just don’t know how to get started. This is something we are actively working on to improve, because there are many existing brightness mitigation strategies that we know are working.”
He stressed that communication between astronomers and the space industry is crucial to developing solutions. Experience also shows that international standards and well informed national regulatory frameworks are most effective in motivating companies to be good stewards of the night sky.
Eggl has positions in both the Departments of Aerospace Engineering and Astronomy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.