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Main Presentation

We are very pleased to have Dr. Samantha Lawler presenting via zoom

Title:  ‘Astronomy vs. the Billionaire Space Race’

Summary: 

In February 2024, hundreds of pounds of potentially lethal debris from a SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk from a private astronaut mission fell on farmland near Regina, Saskatchewan.  Later in the year, a piece of a Starlink satellite was found in a lentil field near Swift Current.  Dr. Samantha Lawler of the University of Regina has been studying the proliferation of objects in orbit over the past few years, and was stunned to learn that space debris fell so close to her home, twice.  Come hear the story of SpaceX employees driving a rented U-Haul truck to an isolated farm to be greeted by an astronomer and a dozen of Saskatchewan’s finest local journalists, and what all of this means for international law, commercial satellites in Low Earth Orbit, atmospheric pollution, and the future of astronomy.

Bio:

Samantha Lawler is a professor of astronomy at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. She completed degrees at the California Institute of Technology, Wesleyan University, and the University of British Columbia, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Victoria and NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre.  She studies the orbital dynamics of Kuiper Belt objects as well as pollution from satellites.  She has been advocating for regulation of satellites as her research telescope data and her dark prairie skies have increasingly filled with bright satellites over the past several years, and recently helped to publicize two separate SpaceX debris falls that occurred in Saskatchewan.

Photo: Dr. Samantha Lawler

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After the break VP Chris Boar will give a quick report on his recent visit to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.