Starlink Generation 2 Mini Satellites: Photometric Characterization

2023/06/11 by Anthony Mallama, Richard E. Cole, Mallama, Anthony +12 · 2 voices · 3 citations
Engineering · #Satellite Communication Systems #Space Satellite Systems and Control #Spacecraft Design and Technology #astro-ph.IM

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2306.06657

openalex publication_date 2023/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Starlink Generation 2 Mini satellites are fainter than Gen 1 spacecraft despite their larger size. The mean of apparent magnitudes for satellites in brightness mitigation mode is 7.06 +/- 0.10. When these magnitudes are adjusted to a uniform distance of 1,000 km that mean is 7.87 +/- 0.09. The brightness mitigation mode reduces distance-adjusted satellite luminosity by a factor of 12 relative to spacecraft that are not mitigated.

Cited by

• Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU
• Towards a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design
• Starlink [wikipedia]

Discussions

• Starlink v2 reached the brightness reduction target recommended by astronomers [hn, 122 points, 76 comments]
• No it says there’s still work to be done. Which there is And they’re continuing to do so arxiv.org/pdf/2306.06657 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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• Visual Brightness Characteristics of Starlink Generation 1 Satellites