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SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

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Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#91

Post by Thorondor »

missedthecue wrote: post #49
dcgoss wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not space junk. When they’re ready to be decommissioned or they fail, the thrusters turn off and the whole thing descends into the atmosphere and burns up.

I wonder how much rare earth material will get incinerated over the next few decades with thousands of these things burning up annually. Hope we figure out space mining quick.

Rare earth elements actually aren't that rare. For example, neodymium makes up over 30 ppm of Earth's crust. That's more common than lead, cobalt, tin, thorium, tungsten, molybdenum, and quite a few other elements with large-scale industrial applications.

The difficult part of producing rare-earth elements is separating them from everything else. Tiny pieces of spacecraft dust scattered over a large area don't make very high grade ore...

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#92

Post by robbiet480 »

iso1210 wrote: post #90
alextheparrot wrote: post #46

My mother was raving about the service the other day. Speeds are 10-15x faster, she’s having an easier time with her online community college course and her job KPI is up by double digit percents [1]. She was worried that IT wouldn’t be OK with it when I said it was satellite (They’d been burned too many times), but the IT guy was incredibly excited because he’s also waiting to get Starlink. Looking forward to the se…

Any issues with snow etc?

Dishy will actually intentionally heat up to melt snow. I’ve seen YouTube videos of it melting a good amount of snow per hour and service remaining stable.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#93

Post by BurningFrog »

ctdonath wrote: post #35

While watching today’s launch, occurred to me the ratio of paying-client launches to Starlink launches is [whatever it is]. Profit margins on paid launches must be high, maybe amazing, to support so many Starlink launches.

Starlink should make tons of money soon.

These launch costs are investments.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#94

Post by Robotbeat »

echopom wrote: post #50

I'm really concerned about the alarms raised by Scientific in regards to "Space Pollution".[0] Elon Musk has been dodging the question for the past years and never gave a clear answer about it aside of "Umbrella" joke... Some astronomers are suggesting that with multiple space telecom companies ( US + EU + China ) it would potentially mean we would never be able to see space in plain sight ever. At least not without…

I don’t see how anyone who has read broadly on this topic could say with a straight face that SpaceX has been just dodging this.

SpaceX has done more to mitigate visibility of their satellites than any satellite maker/operator in history, with the possible exception of classified payloads. They installed sunshades that reduce the visibility of the satellites when fully deployed (in operational orbit) to below the visibility limit in almost all conditions. You have to have exceptionally good timing, eyesight, and dark skies to catch recent Starlink satellites once operational now. But a satellite like ISS is so bright and obvious, you can even sometimes see it in the daytime. (ISS is as bright as all new operational Starlink satellites combined.)

Read this article to see the significant changes they’ve made: https://www.spacex.com/updates/starlink-update-04-28-2020/in...

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#95

Post by iso1210 »

gbrown wrote: post #81
rklaehn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX has put in a lot of effort to reduce the visual pollution aspect of starlink. See https://twitter.com/ralfvandebergh/status/136999054076322611... for how the visibility of Starlink sats has changed over time. For professional earth based astronomy, it is possible to remove the streaks digitally. But of course there is a slight impact. But what is the alternative? Just stop development of low earth orbit foreve…

Mirror size is the issue - until we can easily manufacture huge, incredibly precise mirrors in-situ, space based will never replace ground based astronomy.

There aren't many telescopes with a >8m diameter mirror, and it looks like the largest single mirror is 8.2m

Starship's payload is 8m.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#96

Post by Topgamer7 »

iso1210 wrote: post #90
alextheparrot wrote: post #46

My mother was raving about the service the other day. Speeds are 10-15x faster, she’s having an easier time with her online community college course and her job KPI is up by double digit percents [1]. She was worried that IT wouldn’t be OK with it when I said it was satellite (They’d been burned too many times), but the IT guy was incredibly excited because he’s also waiting to get Starlink. Looking forward to the se…

Any issues with snow etc?

I was thinking it might generate enough heat to keep it warm. But the comments in this thread appear to think it has a heater inside of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSq6xB591M

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#97

Post by Robotbeat »

gbrown wrote: post #81
rklaehn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX has put in a lot of effort to reduce the visual pollution aspect of starlink. See https://twitter.com/ralfvandebergh/status/136999054076322611... for how the visibility of Starlink sats has changed over time. For professional earth based astronomy, it is possible to remove the streaks digitally. But of course there is a slight impact. But what is the alternative? Just stop development of low earth orbit foreve…

Mirror size is the issue - until we can easily manufacture huge, incredibly precise mirrors in-situ, space based will never replace ground based astronomy.

It’s not manufacture. It’s assembly. And I think astronauts are faster and cheaper than robots for in space assembly. Or they will be once Starship is operational. NASA did a ton of work in EVA orbital assembly with Shuttle (and still chooses to do exterior work on ISS via EVA and not purely robotically) but it was always like 10 or 100 times too expensive. Starship ought to change that. In addition to its 8m diameter payload bay.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#98

Post by cbozeman »

hwc wrote: post #78
rklaehn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX has put in a lot of effort to reduce the visual pollution aspect of starlink. See https://twitter.com/ralfvandebergh/status/136999054076322611... for how the visibility of Starlink sats has changed over time. For professional earth based astronomy, it is possible to remove the streaks digitally. But of course there is a slight impact. But what is the alternative? Just stop development of low earth orbit foreve…

Maybe SpaceX should make it up to the scientific community by promising to (at no charge) put 100T of satellite telescopes in a high orbit every year once Starship is functional.

I don't know why you're being downvoted... maybe it's the "no charge" aspect of your post, but SpaceX offering to send up research telescopes for at-cost-of-launch, or maybe a little over, would be a great philanthropic endeavor.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#99

Post by jhayward »

immmmmm wrote: post #51
jonplackett wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they had to apply for a license to do it, and it was granted.

by whom? the FCC. i live in switzerland, does USA own LEO?

Under the International Treaty for Outer Space, each signatory nation is responsible for regulating that activity of those operating from within their territory. Switzerland signed the treat in 1967 [1]

So that's all as it should be, and Switzerland agrees that the mechanism of regulation is the operant one.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty#Responsibil...

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#100

Post by jiveturkey »

dillondoyle wrote: post #77
rklaehn wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any major space power (Russia, China, India) will be able to dictate the conditions of Starlink operations. Basically: dear SpaceX, please switch off your sats over our territory, or we will do it for you.

talk about space debris - blowing up that many satellites would be insane.

you only have to jam it
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