4.7.95

Mobile phones put star secrets at risk 

By Bob Ward

MOBILE phones which use satellites to transmit conversations could seriously disrupt 
research into the formation of galaxies and the death of stars, a leading astronomer 
claimed yesterday.

Up to half of current radio astronomy research will be threatened by interference from 
phone conversations relayed from space on the same frequencies that scientists use to 
monitor readings from stars, said Dr James Cohen of the Nuffield Radio Astronomy 
Laboratories, Cheshire.He fears that telephone conversations will overprint weaker 
signals received from space by radio telescopes.

"It's like a professional photographer who, despite being equipped with the latest in 
modern cameras, finds that just as he presses the shutter, someone shines a torch into his lens."

Telecommunications companies are preparing to launch their first satellites next year, 
allowing communication from remote locations, currently inaccessible with the 
ground-based cellular mobile phones.

Mobile phone companies have already been granted permission to operate on the 1600 
megahertz frequency which astronomers use to record radio emissions from dying stars 
otherwise hidden by clouds of dust and gas.

The International Telecommunications Union will consider next autumn how to accommodate the needs of the astronomers.

"It's still a problem unresolved," a spokesman said.

Satellite-linked mobile phone handsets will cause interference within a 100-mile radius of the seven radio telescopes in Britain.

The orbiting satellites - circling within 10,000km of the Earth's surface - will cause problems for facilities across the world.

It is estimated that there wil be a million users of satellite-linked mobile phones by the end of the century.