As Elon Musk’s Starlink continues to launch an internet network of thousands of satellites into the atmosphere, the environmental implications are unknown without a formal review, experts warn.

The Starlink system aims to provide high-speed Internet access worldwide, particularly in areas where it is unreliable or non-existent, such as rural areas, according to the company.

Although the benefits of increased access are undeniable, the speed at which commercial satellites are propelled into the atmosphere – without studying the environmental impact – is prompting some experts to call for intervention.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a group of 100 space researchers from universities, research observatories and space institutes asked the government agency to suspend new satellite launches in order to allow for an environmental assessment.

“We should look before we leap,” the researchers warn in the letter.

Although long-term impacts remain unknown, researchers said what is evident is that more satellites and more launches lead to more harmful gases and metals in the atmosphere.

ABC News has contacted Starlink for comment.

Since Space according to researchers, skyrocket.

“The new space race is accelerating: some experts estimate that 58,000 additional satellites will be launched by 2030,” the researchers said in the October 24 letter.

“Other plans have been proposed to launch 500,000 satellites to create new mega-constellations that would power the satellite Internet,” the researchers said.

The letter calls on the FCC to suspend new satellite launches until the agency can conduct environmental assessments, saying domestic and international regulators must develop an “unprecedented system of cooperation” to share space in orbit low earth.

“Until thorough coordination is in place, we should not let commercial interests determine the rules,” the researchers said, apparently highlighting Musk’s aerospace prowess.

The sky may seem limitless when looking from Earth, but the researchers said in the letter that orbital space and the scattering spectrum are not infinite.

A May 2021 study published in Nature found that connections between Earth and space environments “are not adequately addressed” and that debris from untracked satellites will lead to potentially dangerous “on-orbit collisions.”

A Starlink satellite has a lifespan of about five years before being deorbited, according to the company. When the technology is no longer usable, it is destroyed by re-entering the atmosphere.

The company maintains that this process means “no orbital debris is created and no part of the satellite reaches the ground.” However, due to a lack of environmental monitoring, researchers say, what does or does not remain in the atmosphere has not been confirmed.

Sierra Solter-Hunt, American physicist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iceland published a paper in 2023 that warned of “conductive particles” from burnt-out satellites lingering in the atmosphere.

Satellites are largely constructed of aluminum, a superconductor used to block, distort or shield magnetic fields, according to Hunt, who says the debris could disrupt Earth’s magnetic field.

Pollution caused by satellites re-entering the atmosphere can also damage our ozone layer, according to a June 2024 study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The study determined that satellite re-entry in 2022 caused a 29.5% increase in aluminum in the atmosphere above natural levels, resulting in the injection of approximately 17 tonnes of aluminum. aluminum oxides in the mesosphere.

In the letter to Julie Kearney, head of the Federal Communications Commission’s space office, the researchers call on the agency to take timely action regarding new satellite launches.

“We are in a short window of time where we can avoid dirtying space and our atmosphere rather than spending decades cleaning it up,” the researchers said, adding: “The new space race has not no need to create huge space junk.”