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SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

arstechnica.com

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Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I read this comment and thought, "This has to be bullshit." But lo and behold, the core satellite 'constellation' is only 24 satellites[1]. That's mega impressive. https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/at...

Look up the connection between Einstein's general relativity and GPS accuracy for more fun. Especially early on in its deployment.

That's actually a myth, since the GPS satellites all experience a similar relativistic time skew.

http://www.alternativephysics.org/book/GPSmythology.htm

"The presence of Special and General Relativity effects has no bearing on the accuracy of GPS operation. In summary, it wouldn’t matter whether clocks aboard GPS satellites ran faster or slower than Earth’s clocks or even changed their speed each day. Just so long as the satellites’ clocks remained synchronised with each other and the time-difference relative Earth’s clocks didn’t become too large, GPS receivers would continue to calculate their correct position."

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#262
post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Can we get free clean drinking water first? That is more of a problem than free internet.

That is a much, much, much harder problem to solve. You essentially have to fix politics before you can fix water. Information access gives people the ability to fix their politics. Then they can fix their water themselves.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#263
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt it. Elon's made his fortune by replacing existing products with superior alternatives. He's said in every case that driving cost down is one of the most important parts of creating something people want. Why do you think he wouldn't do the same here? He knows everyone hates existing telecoms. He's trying to create a better alternative.

> He knows everyone hates existing telecoms. Not true everywhere. I'm paying < $40/month for a 100 MBit connection and I don't hate my telecom.

Which telecom provider?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was; the fridge outputs quite a bit of heat, good for raising seedlings on top of. But I would imagine the expenses involved in this stuff wouldn't make it sensible for a fridge (I don't think they draw that much power anyway). I just had never heard you could harness this, it's cool. Edit: Bit late to the party, 1821. Bit of catching up to do.

Okay, then that means you're ventilating the output heat poorly. If there is a significant difference in temperature between the coils and the room, you're spending more power than you need to when you pump heat out of the fridge. Adding fins or fans would save you more power than you could ever recover.

Such a bloody engineers thing to say.

I just bought this house and put the fridge in the only position it can go. If I can harness quantum pugs and whatnot, its worth asking.

Well, before I muddied the water.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#265

Will this high number of low-altitude satellites cause a tracking and collision nightmare for the world's space agencies? Sorry, I recently finished "Seveneves" and I have space debris anxiety right now.

Dead satellites and debris in low altitude orbits will experience orbital decay and burn up in the atmosphere within a few years. High-altitude objects (e.g, at GEO) are more of a concern.

Unless some debris from that gets pushed into higher orbits, then collides with something else and the process repeats.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was; the fridge outputs quite a bit of heat, good for raising seedlings on top of. But I would imagine the expenses involved in this stuff wouldn't make it sensible for a fridge (I don't think they draw that much power anyway). I just had never heard you could harness this, it's cool. Edit: Bit late to the party, 1821. Bit of catching up to do.

Okay, then that means you're ventilating the output heat poorly. If there is a significant difference in temperature between the coils and the room, you're spending more power than you need to when you pump heat out of the fridge. Adding fins or fans would save you more power than you could ever recover.

I'm keen to pursue this, it's in an enclosed space.

We can go from there.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

Breitbart is far from a fringe community. Just because you didn't see it growing dramatically over the past few years it doesn't mean they have a small audience.

Just because they're numerous doesn't mean they're not a lunatic fringe.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was; the fridge outputs quite a bit of heat, good for raising seedlings on top of. But I would imagine the expenses involved in this stuff wouldn't make it sensible for a fridge (I don't think they draw that much power anyway). I just had never heard you could harness this, it's cool. Edit: Bit late to the party, 1821. Bit of catching up to do.

Okay, then that means you're ventilating the output heat poorly. If there is a significant difference in temperature between the coils and the room, you're spending more power than you need to when you pump heat out of the fridge. Adding fins or fans would save you more power than you could ever recover.

There is a small pane of shattered glass, and rain drips from a partially torn shutter nearby. A hammer is close.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right: Knowledge shouldn't be the end goal, but I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Consider that for many people on Earth, getting access to the internet takes them from the knowledge shared amongst the members of their community to the collective knowledge of world. That's quite a leap, and I'd argue that having to read flat-earther nonsense once in a while is a price…

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right: Knowledge shouldn't be the end goal, but I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Consider that for many people on Earth, getting access to the internet takes them from the knowledge shared amongst the members of their community to the collective knowledge of world. That's quite a leap, and I'd argue that having to read flat-earther nonsense once in a while is a price…

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

Oy, give it a break. Not everything is about this election, and you can't just blame the internet for it.

Yes, the internet allows people to be mis-informed if they don't care for being informed. Still, not being connected at all is basically equivalent to not being able to connect meaningfully with modern civilization. I literally don't know anyone who isn't connected to the internet. It's simply a prerequisite for modernity.

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