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SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

arstechnica.com

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Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#171

Post by cma »

Reedx wrote: post #113
notthemessiah wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also lucked out on inheriting fortunes from his parents diamond mines. But, there are lots of people who inherit fortunes and do nothing with it. There are lots of people with drive and intelligence comparable to Elon Musk who don't have the privilege necessary to accomplish anything. Seems we're still a long way away from a meritocracy.

Maybe you're thinking of someone else? “You get really tired of hot dogs and oranges after awhile,” he said. “And of course pasta and a green pepper and a big thing of sauce. And that can go pretty far, too. “So it’s like, ‘Oh, okay, if I can live for a dollar a day then at least from a food cost standpoint, well it’s pretty easy to earn like $30 in a month anyway, so I’ll probably be okay.’ “ This isn’t the only exa…

His father was a seed investor in Zip2.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#172

Post by bumby »

aquadrop wrote: post #155
bumby wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's exactly the point. It's a disagreement about what gets priority to get optimized. The problem is exacerbated when there are multiple giant sinks for resources (e.g., colonizing Mars, combating climate change). In a world of limited resources, some things have to get sidelined.

I think colonizing Mars is pretty small sink compared to climate change and many others. With how SpaceX going, I think for the first stage it's comparable to something like one modern Olympic games event cost.

>first stage it's comparable to something like one modern Olympic games event cost.

To continue on with the steelmanning, the first stage is probably a drop in a bucket compared to the entire effort. How much freight do you think it would take to colonize a planet with a population large enough to be relatively self-sufficient? Just the payload cost would be huge and that's just to park it (not to assemble, maintain etc.) I think the steelman argument would be to focus on things immediately needed, like healthcare, before space adventurism.

Edit: to put a finer point on it, the commercial space industry is essentially subsidized by the government precisely because it's not currently economical. In other words, if the government wasn't a customer there would be no commercial space industry. There's nothing inherently wrong with this because it's how high-risk industries often get started (e.g., the airlines), but the fact that it is subsidized by the government points to the fact that it is (currently) inherently uneconomical

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#173

Post by Koshkin »

staunch wrote: post #63
juanbyrge wrote: post #9

If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.

Imagine what we could do if it was possible to identify and fund a thousand Elon Musks with hundreds of millions each? He's eliminating gas vehicles, improving solar adoption, fixing rural internet, improving space science, making life interplanetary, etc. It may be that Elon Musk types are extremely rare but I doubt they're as nearly as rare as most people think and we only need a thousand out of billions. The thing…

> a thousand Elon Musks

This may well be his next project.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#174

Post by google234123 »

tw04 wrote: post #22
politelemon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $600 / mo for internet via mobile hotspot (LTE). I'm not familiar with that area but my mind boggles at this amount. What kind of speeds do you get? Are that ISP able to offer a cheaper deal of some sort, eg 12 months? Why is it so much!? Wishing you well, I hope you get Starlink soon in your area, or any alternatives.

I would assume it's so expensive due to data usage. Anything over LTE I've seen has ridiculously low data caps. I think as part of this funding the FCC should have a mandatory requirement of no data caps, or a cap of something more reasonable like 10TB a month that increases 5TB every X number years.

1TB sounds more reasonable than 10. 10 is way over the top

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#175

Post by cromwellian »

qz2 wrote: post #114
bumby wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We spent $700 billion a year on the defense budget, and $7 trillion on wars, $1 billion on inspiring stunts like moon landings or mars landings once a generation, are not really a waste That's because they are framed as a more immediate existential threat. Humans are present biased and don't like to spend lots of money on low-probability events until they are unavoidable (see: attitudes towards pandemic preparation…

Actually we don’t fix stuff as a species until people start dying. How long it takes is how much bad PR is involved. Avoiding that bad PR instead of solving the problem is an art that we have become better at than solving problems.

Yup. Paul Krugman once said something to the effect that the human race would benefit from an Alien Invasion, because the way things are going, we don't invest in the planet, we don't unify and put aside petty grievances and selfishness, until there's a unified enemy.

If an actual high probability ELE asteroid collision was detected, people would get their shit together real quick. Or maybe not, the COVID crisis has shattered my faith. I'm sure a bunch of people would claim the asteroid prediction is a NASA scam to install socialism or something.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#176

Post by stetrain »

nikolay wrote: post #124
stetrain wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those darn radio waves! Hold on I gotta take this call on my iPhone.

Well, I may want to go to a refuge without any electronics.

If you find a spot on Earth with no radio waves let us know.

AM goes pretty far, even amateur radio can travel across continents in the right atmospheric conditions.

GPS

Satellite TV

Every other civilian and military Comsat since we started launching things.

Starlink isn’t the problem if you are worried about being “irradiated”, the nuclear fusion reactor at the center of our solar system is likely of greater concern.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#177

Post by qz2 »

cromwellian wrote: post #175
qz2 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually we don’t fix stuff as a species until people start dying. How long it takes is how much bad PR is involved. Avoiding that bad PR instead of solving the problem is an art that we have become better at than solving problems.

Yup. Paul Krugman once said something to the effect that the human race would benefit from an Alien Invasion, because the way things are going, we don't invest in the planet, we don't unify and put aside petty grievances and selfishness, until there's a unified enemy. If an actual high probability ELE asteroid collision was detected, people would get their shit together real quick. Or maybe not, the COVID crisis has…

I share your cynicism. I'm not sure that's a comfortable position though but it's better to live in fear than ignorance I suspect.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#179

Post by FrojoS »

spullara wrote: post #135

Once you buy Starlink does it work from anywhere or does it have to remain where you buy it?

Currently (beta) it only works at the registered address (30mile radius I believe). However, this is certainly not a technological limitation, since SpaceX has demonstrate use in airplanes already.

Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states

#180

Post by FrojoS »

grecy wrote: post #164
spullara wrote: post #135

Once you buy Starlink does it work from anywhere or does it have to remain where you buy it?

Currently the beta is geo-locked to within about 35 miles of there address you signed up for it. Elon has said multiple times it will work perfectly well on a yacht crossing the pacific, a moving train, etc., so we have to assume the "stay in one place" restriction will go away. Country borders will be interesting though, I assume many want to tightly control how you communicate with sats.

With the current satellites it can’t work in the middle of the ocean due to a lack of ground stations.
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