“A bill to establish a Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section declares the purpose of the Act to increase participation and collaboration between federal agencies and the private sector to research, develop, and deploy voluntary mitigation techniques protecting the integrity of federally funded scientific research observing the sky and celestial bodies.
This section directs the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology to convene a gaps analysis workshop with the NOAA Office of Space Commerce and the National Science Foundation and, subject to availability of appropriations, award a competitive grant to an eligible entity (i.e., nonprofit organization, federal laboratory, institution of higher education, Native entity, federally funded observatory, or consortium thereof) not later than one year after enactment to establish and operate a Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies. The Center's objectives include (1) developing and disseminating best practices with the satellite industry and astronomical community to limit optical and radio interference with federally funded scientific activities (i.e., sky or celestial observations using radio or optical methods); (2) identifying or adapting U.S. facilities for interference testing; (3) conducting transdisciplinary research, development, and demonstration projects to track, model, characterize, and minimize such interference (including reductions in satellite optical/radio impacts, quantification methods, consistency with domestic/international efforts, and astronomer mitigation techniques); (4) publishing results in a public repository; (5) developing voluntary guidelines and best practices; and (6) other goals identified in the workshop. In establishing the Center and its objectives, the Under Secretary must consult specified federal agencies (i.e., State, FAA, FCC, NASA, NOAA, NSF, NTIA, Office of Space Commerce) and private entities (i.e., satellite operators, space situational awareness providers, nonprofits, federal labs/national observatories, institutions of higher education, Native entities).