Rescuing astronomy from its satellite megaconstellation crisis

In the late 1800s, long enough ago that it’s almost been forgotten, research astronomy faced an existential crisis brought on by the lighting of cities in the early industrial age. Such electric lighting created strong sky brightness (now called light pollution), which forced research-grade astronomical observatories to move from cities to remote, “dark sky” sites. Today, both the public and astronomers take it as natural that, despite the significant costs of doing so, all serious research telescopes are in remote locations.