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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

#151

Post by rjzzleep »

mulcahey wrote: post #135
rjzzleep wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Couldn't find names That's kinda sad, isn't it?

Per this article Mark Juncosa has lead the development of the satellites https://qz.com/1627570/how-autonomous-are-spacexs-starlink-s...

From what I see he's been working at SpaceX since he graduated college. I don't see where his satcom knowledge comes from, which is arguable the most interesting part of Starlink. Not the vehicle design.

It's really unfortunate that this company unlike most companies treats all the brain drain as an ego trip.

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

#152

Post by unoti »

easton wrote: post #105
dillondoyle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would there be potential AWS synergies that make any sense? Besides having the money to basically give it away for free, that could be a big value add if so. idk maybe enabling the blanketing of the earth in ever expanding ring/echo surveillance. or a cdn though uploading huge video files to a satellite hard drive might not make any sense or actually save any MS given the inherent satellite -> earth delay.

There was always the hypothesis that servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth, but given the maintenance and power requirements I don’t think that’d be very doable. A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives.

> ...servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth... A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives.

But doing it all solid state with RAM + SSD could totally make sense, especially if you cache only the highest access items in space... Something like this could also make sense to do custom silicon/ASICs to keep the power and weight requirements down.

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

#153

Post by martin8412 »

ShockedUnicorn wrote: post #110

For the people talking about space pollution and problems for astronomers. Yes, it is definitely an issue, but this constellation is also a way for many people to have access to education and information that will help them and their community. If you're curious about both the positives and negatives of Starlink I highly recommend the mini documentary "Is this the END of Astronomy?" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…

Many people? You mean people in rural US/Canada and Australia. The rest of the world already has been options in most places.

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

#154

Post by shantara »

Robotbeat wrote: post #88
MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos is in it only because he too has a rocket company. If he wanted to be in the business of feeding on the scraps of others he'd release his own terrestrial internet service.

That’s why Elon’s in it with Starlink. From Elon’s perspective, if Starlink merely breaks even, it will be more than worth it as it has drastically increased launch demand, enabling high flight rate reusable rockets.

Not just increased launch demand, Starlink launches serve SpaceX as a testbed for reusability and refurbishment techniques they want to experiment on themselves without risking customer hardware.

For example, they intentionally swap hardware components between reflown boosters to better understand their behavior after multiple reuses, to the point they have individual modules that have flown more times than the current maximum number of reuses of any booster as a whole (currently at 9).

Another example, they've stopped having static fires for flight proven boosters first for Starlink, then for customer payloads too, unless the customer explicitly requests it.

It's unbelievable that "flight proven booster" turned out to be really what it says on the tin, and not just a piece of marketing speak.

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

#155

Post by martin8412 »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #41
Roritharr wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the USG would consider the shooting down of Starlink Satellites as an act of war after SpaceX refuses to comply with chinese regulations. It's probably all moot as China would probably simply halt Tesla Sales, as they are not bound by the logics of legality.

I don't think anyone has the ability to shoot down enough Starlink satellites to make a difference. Musk's biggest risk in China is the CCP confiscating the Tesla factory in Shanghai.

China most probably have the resources for that if they want to

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

#156

Post by martin8412 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #93
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.

They won't.. It's a product that's only remotely viable in remote locations. So Australia, Canada and US. Most of the rest of the world has no need for it

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

#157

Post by p2t2p »

elihu wrote: post #143
Magodo wrote: post #4

I'm keen to see Starlink deals with government censorship requests. Can a country even effectively enforce their requests? How will China enforce the Great Firewall for instance?

> How will China enforce the Great Firewall for instance? By filing legal complaints through the ITU (which is a UN agency), probably. I expect some international treaties probably come into play. Basically, China complains to the UN, the UN tells the US they can't provide Internet service in China unless they follow China's rules, and then the FCC tells SpaceX that if they don't comply the FCC will shut them down. O…

That's, easy, just like they do it in Russia - jail time and fines for having Space X antenna.

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

#158

Post by kristofferR »

Topgamer7 wrote: post #96
iso1210 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There's absolutely no heater inside it, as this great disassembly/destruction shows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo

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

#159

Post by vermontdevil »

mabbo wrote: post #136

Worth also pointing out: That's the 9th flight of Booster 1051. And it had a perfect landing. The goal of this design of Falcon 9 is to handle 10 flights with minimum refurbishment. Right now, it looks like they're within a couple months of achieving that goal for the first time, with booster 1049 close as well, at 8 flights. SpaceX is soon going to reach a point that they don't need to build more Falcon 9 boosters.

Saw from one of the Space reporters on Twitter that this booster will do an April launch of another Starlink mission.

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

#160

Post by genericone »

cbozeman wrote: post #102
tidepod12 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple points: 1) 1200 is a small percentage of the tens of thousands of satellites that the full system, plus the other similar systems will eventually consist of. 2) Being able to go outside and point out a satellite has absolutely no relevance on the satellite's impact on professional astronomy. 3) It did not "seem to have worked". SpaceX experimented with reducing the reflectivity of their satellites, but only…

Yeah, and what's going to advance humanity as a whole more significantly, I wonder... high-speed Internet access for the entire planet... or professional astronomers not being able to see into space as easily as they did 20 years ago? or... Or... OR... Launching massive powerful telescopes into space using SpaceX rockets for professional astronomers to use?

Their livelihoods are under attack, they're going to fight it regardless of the upside of starlink.
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