Starlink Is a Big Deal • Hacker News Board

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#161

Post by CrazyStat » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:31 AM UTC

sprash wrote: post #114

modeless wrote: post #16

Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.

Oh that's great. Now I can better aim my Elon-Sattelite-fryer device. I already collected 25 old microwave ovens which I plan to operate as phased array to produce a collimated beam of microwaves directed at the satellites to fry their electronics. I might have a better chance If know the exact frequency their receivers are tuned to. Does anybody know more? The reckless littering of our precious LEO must end here!

Frying perfectly good satellites so they can't be maneuvered or deorbited sounds like a great way to recklessly litter LEO.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#162

Post by shantara » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:34 AM UTC

mrfusion wrote: post #81

I don’t understand how you can make functional satellites so small? That they can launch 60 at once. Usually a launch just has one satellite.

Starlink satellites aren't small cubesats, each one weighs approximately 227kg. They can launch 60 on a single F9 because the satellites have flat panel design for maximum stackability and take full advantage of the size of the payload fairing.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#163

Post by danielheath » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #10

> "Hundreds of cities and dozens of countries, fine for living but previously entirely unsuitable for a place of business, will blink from red to green on the map once Starlink goes live." this reads like a marketing piece rather than actual analysis. Throughput of a single satellite is 20Gbps. The finished constellation if I recall correctly is supposed to be about 12k satellites. So about ~250.000Gbps. So assuming…

They don't have to serve the whole city to generate a benefit - they just have to offer competition so that the incumbents can't abuse their monopoly position.

Because they can reallocate satellite time to a new region quite cheaply, they could have approximately zero customers while forcing ISPs around the globe to behave sensibly.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#164

Post by cold_fact » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:43 AM UTC

ogre_codes wrote: post #133

What this article didn't mention is the potential for this to significantly disrupt commercial internet monopolies in regional markets. If service is $45/ month for 100GB, a lot of people will drop Comcast in a hurry.

fuck xfinity. AT&T fiber at my apartment is 300+ mbps up for half the price of comcast's 75+ i've been using last 6 years

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#165

Post by gitgud » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:43 AM UTC

> Billions of people, blocked from accessing the Internet due to lack of infrastructure or local greed or fraud related to same, are presently kept from participating in the global knowledge economy. Starlink will remedy this, to some extent.

Isn't covering the world in a blanket of satellites from a single company the epitome of a global Monopoly?

I'm worried about such a future controlled by SpaceX...

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#166

Post by kahnjw » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:47 AM UTC

>Connectivity will be the great equalizer in the future.

These words could have come from an article about: the internet, mobile phones, telephones, morse code

With minor modification also: automobiles, the printing press, the steel plow, airplanes, the cotton gin, antibiotics, etc.

None of them were true equalizers, they were incremental steps forward at best.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#167

Post by apatters » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:50 AM UTC

Is the optimism about being able to bypass censorship really valid? SpaceX may be resistant to the censorship demands of some governments, but a lot of other things need to happen to get someone online.

To begin with you need to acquire Starlink's receiver, which probably makes it inaccessible to North Koreans for example, and difficult to acquire for citizens of any country that has efficient import controls.

Then you have to use it without being detected. I have no idea whether that is easy or hard -- can you put the receiver in a covert location? Can the government drive a van around your neighborhood and detect signals going to and from the receiver, or triangulate it in some other way?

If it bypasses existing censorship infrastructure in a given country and Starlink refuses to comply with censorship, you can guarantee that country will make it illegal, and in some cases introduce some scary penalties for using it (i.e. prison).

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#168

Post by nexuist » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:53 AM UTC

kahnjw wrote: post #166

>Connectivity will be the great equalizer in the future. These words could have come from an article about: the internet, mobile phones, telephones, morse code With minor modification also: automobiles, the printing press, the steel plow, airplanes, the cotton gin, antibiotics, etc. None of them were true equalizers, they were incremental steps forward at best.

They are not equalizers, they are amplifiers. The steel plow fed a man, the cotton gin clothed him, antibiotics cured his cough and an airplane took him from his old country to a new one where he learned how to drive so he could deliver the morning paper.

The goal should never be to lower the ceiling. The goal is to raise the floor.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#169

Post by kbaker » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:58 AM UTC

fao_ wrote: post #159

gbear605 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of people in this country have data caps of under 20GB/month, so 4GB/month is hardly a low outlier.

Are you going to serve that up without a citation?

I'll allow it... According to this 2018 article even a lot of "Unlimited" plans are actually around a 20 GB/month cap before they start throttling speeds. [0]

- Verizon’s Beyond Unlimited plan is capped at 22GB of high-speed 4G LTE data per month, while the Above Unlimited is curbed at 75GB.

- AT&T caps both unlimited plans at 22GB of data per billing cycle, after which it may slow your speeds down

- Sprint will throttle your speeds if you exceed more than 50GB of data in a month but, as you can see, your speeds are throttled from the get-go for most things anyway.

- T-Mobile One includes 50GB of high-speed 4G LTE data. Once you go above that, as with other carriers, T-Mobile can drop this to slower speeds.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/13/unlimited-data-plan-caps-ver...

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#170

Post by coding123 » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 3:01 AM UTC

Honestly I hope someone figures out how to shoot these down. I feel like the planet isn't getting a say. In fact only a few people are getting a say that this network should even exist. Astronomy is dead. A dark sky with just stars, yeah dead.