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Starlink Is a Big Deal

sneak.berlin

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Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#171

Post by nexuist »

stillwater56 wrote: post #141
mch82 wrote: post #117

To me the article misses the bigger deal: SpaceX launched 60 satellites in a single launch & ~250 in ~8 months! Under 9000 satellites have ever been launched in 756 months, since 1957. That’s a launch rate increase from 12/month to over 31/month.

As someone with very little background (but a lot of interest) in space tech, could you share a little about what results that growth in launch rate will have?

Not OP but basic economics dictates that high demand = high supply (i.e. low prices). The entry barrier to launching a satellite is lower today than it ever has been before. Civilian entities from private companies to high school clubs have successfully launched cubesats from SpaceX rockets.

We will basically see what happened to computing happen to space. Remember the mainframes of the 70s that cost millions and only governments and megacorps could afford? Remember how those gave way to the personal computer, the laptop, and eventually the smartphone and tablet?

Now, it's pretty unlikely that every citizen in the country will get their own cubesat, but what is more likely is that if you are a normal private citizen who has an idea predicated on having a satellite overhead (think: localized aerial surveys, more accurate GPS, real time weather updates), you will be able to put together the capital needed to get that satellite launched.

Personally I'm excited to see the rise of satellite "cloud" services, like AWS, in which one satellite can use its sensors and cameras to serve hundreds of thousands of customers at once. How cool would it be to spend $20/mo to host a global satellite based chat service for you and your friends?

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#172

Post by davefp »

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.

I saw the L2 group go over my house tonight! It was fantastic.

All my previous experience has been viewing the ISS, and watching the Starlink satellites go over was a much different experience. Each was only visible for a handful of seconds, but they kept coming one after the other in a perfect line, each equidistant from the next.

I didn't stay out to watch them all go by but it was a fantastic experience that I'd recommend to anyone.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#173

Post by sneak »

TheWoolRug wrote: post #144

This author and many in the comments seem to have their bits and bytes mixed up.

What did I mix up? I believe I quoted all transfer figures in bits/s, as is custom.

Edit: oops, those Bs should be lowercase. Will update post soon. Thanks for the bug report!

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#174

Post by jdminhbg »

Teever wrote: post #125
monk_e_boy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder how Tesla will make use of Starlink. Such a huge data stream up and down will enable all sorts of interesting things. Maybe each car won't need a brain, maybe one huge brain will drive all cars. Sync all the cars up, make them act like a single giant distributed being.

What happens when the car goes into a tunnel?

You lose connectivity for sixty seconds.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#175

Post by rtkwe »

twic wrote: post #84
rsync wrote: post #34

"HFT firms will be the first customers, seeking a few-millisecond reduction in the transmission of realtime data between markets. Starlink has already said as much, and I think they rely on this as their first and primary source of revenue." I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are meas…

> I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are measuring cable lengths inside the datacenter. You're conflating optimisation of latency within a colo - how quickly can you send an order in response to seeing an event on that exchange - with latency between colos - how quickly can you send a…

The thing is people have already built most of those microwave tower paths here on earth and in addition SpaceX probably isn't going to set it up as a mesh where intra-Starlink traffic stays goes directly. And even if they do you have to go up then across (probably in a zig zag) then back down which will always be higher latency than the point to point microwave distance.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#176

Post by skissane »

sneak wrote: post #120
cambalache wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is correct, as someone looking for a remote job opportunity, 95+% of the "remote" job posts are still restringed to residents of specific countries/zones. Having good connectivity or being in the same time-zone matter very little.

I solved this by incorporating a company (b2b consulting) and spending time periodically in the cities my clients live/work in. Work onsite for a couple weeks, then go home and finish the project. If you’re remote, they shouldn’t care where you are. It’s just a sales issue, then, and can be overcome like any other sales objection.

> If you’re remote, they shouldn’t care where you are

It depends on whether you are an employee or contractor. For a contractor, it mostly shouldn't matter. (Some countries, especially countries with which the HQ country has difficult relations, may represent unacceptable risk even for a contractor.)

With an employee, the employer has to be registered to pay tax in the country; they need to familiarise themselves with the labour laws of the country to ensure they comply with them; they may need to make various arrangements with respect to benefits (insurance, retirement, etc); usually to do all this they need to have a legal entity set up in the country, which in turn also needs things like local bank accounts, directors appointed, accounting and auditing contracts, etc. For the first employee in a country, that can be a lot of overhead. If some manager wants to hire some random person in country X where there are currently no employees, it probably isn't worth it unless they plan to hire more people in country X, or that person is someone very special.

A workaround some places use is contract with some sort of agency who acts as the employee's legal employer and handles all those local legal/tax/benefits/etc issues. However, that adds overhead costs, and if a firm doesn't already have a relationship with such an agency, they probably aren't going to start one just because some manager wants to hire somebody in a country in which there is no legal entity.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#177

Post by rtkwe »

cperciva wrote: post #41
rsync wrote: post #34

"HFT firms will be the first customers, seeking a few-millisecond reduction in the transmission of realtime data between markets. Starlink has already said as much, and I think they rely on this as their first and primary source of revenue." I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are meas…

It might be if you're arbitraging markets against each other. Starlink orbits are at 340 km, i.e. 1.1 ms altitude; if you're sending data between London and New York, you can afford 2.2 ms of uplink/downlink if it allows your signals to travel at c instead of 0.7c.

Will Starlink actually transmit intra-Starlink traffic point to point like that is a big question.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#178

Post by rtkwe »

mhandley wrote: post #93
wmf wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consult the original source: http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/starlink-draft.pdf

These first satellites don't have the free-space lasers I modelled in that paper, but my simulations show they can still beat fibre on many paths without inter-satellite links, by relaying via groundstations: https://youtu.be/m05abdGSOxY Later satellites will have inter-satellite links, but probably not till near the end of this year, and most of the first phase will already be deployed by then.

In many places for HFT the comparison is against microwave links though not standard fiber.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#179

Post by martinald »

djannzjkzxn wrote: post #152
Havoc wrote: post #90

>access to the global network, intelligent and resourceful people located virtually anywhere can operate on substantially similar footing to anyone else Great article, but this part is just false. Africa is blanketed with internet access already - often way ahead of 1st world (I recall reading an article about Seattle getting LTE-A and thinking...wait...got that a year ago). It doesn't quite create the magic the auth…

Do you have any data on the true prevalence of cell data coverage in Africa? A coverage map would be cool, but an estimate of the % of people who live in a covered location would also be useful.

To take a random example I'm familiar with Uganda has 97%+ LTE-A population coverage, which is as good if not significantly better than the US.

External bandwidth costs are also coming down massively as loads of new submarine fiber cables are connecting africa.

However, even a basic smartphone will cost 400%+ of many people's monthly income. Penetration of feature phones is high though as they are so cheap.

Starlink imo will not be transformational for these places. It will be extremely useful for somewhat niche cases like rural broadband in the US, cruise ships and planes. It won't work well in cities or even suburban areas (20gigabit per sat is only 2,000HD video streams - which a small city of 100k will completely swamp).

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#180

Post by [deleted] »

coding123 wrote: post #170

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.

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