It's also time to take down the satellites. The planned low orbit constellations leave no space on earth for people to hide or be free. National security or not, i truly hope there is a space war that will render the orbital space a dangerous zone for any army to operate. I'm fine with communication through terrestial cables only.
This is a really interesting take that I've started thinking more about recently. On one hand, the data collected by new satellites has been groundbreaking for many industries, but on the other it feels a bit intrusive.
I've worked on mapping projects that benefitted from ~3in resolution aerial imagery. When you study images with that level of detail, it's amazing what you can learn about an area. But having that amount of data collected on a regular basis would surely raise privacy concerns among citizens and governments alike.
Is it legal to use a hypothetical device to point a low powered laser at those cameras to wash out the images? I don't think so, but I'm curious as to what laws this would break.
Big fine from the FAA for blinding airline pilots. The FAA regulates American space flight, so expect them to use the same regulations to punish you. When China blinds US surveillance satellites, it ends up on the news.
I remember a Scientific American "Amateur Scientist" article back in 1969 or 1970 that should have been titled "high school kids build death ray" (our high school had them bound by the year). It was a CO2 laser that involved blowing glass. Several watts. Infrared, which makes it rather dangerous as you might notice it from your hand burning (Danger! Do not look into laser with remaining eye!). For infrared, regular mirrors won't work. I seem to remember the article said that glass shatters immediately when placed in the beam.
To track the satellites, you need to check their orbital elements:
some explosion with a lot of debris will be enough to begin a chain reaction.
But hopefully also terrestial lasers that can zap them out. Sabotage any attempt to build constellations like starlink
