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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

#281
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink satellites are flying in low Earth orbit with the natural decay and reentry time no more than 5 years. I see this same argument repeated in every Starlink discussion thread.

Junk is junk, even if it's "just" 5 years.

Its not 'junk'. The sats are all under control, do active avoidance of SpaceX works with other sat providers (ESA, NASA and so on) to avoid crashes.

Each sat is designed at end of live to have enough fuel on board to deorbit itself safely.

The 5 year self drop is only relevant in case a sat a has a failure. In such a case it is in a known orbit and can be avoided.

The US and soon Europe are actively tracking object and multiple companies are working on it. Europe is also working on a laser to measure with high accurate move dead objects.

The first garbage truck missions are already planned for dead objects.

Space junk is a problem and need to be taken seriously. But people need to seriously stop with the panic and bringing up Kessler syndrome in every single discussion as some sort of thread for global civilisation that is imminent.

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

#282
post #54
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?

I imagine China will apply pressure to the company/officers. If that fails, they will track RF emissions and disappear users. If that fails, they will start RF jamming. If that fails, accidents in space. More interesting than China though are regional communications shutdowns. Will India be able to turn off communications in Kashmir? Will various countries be able to turn off the internet on national school entrance…

how easy is it to track these types of RF emissions? Its highly directional right?

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

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this special to Amazon and SpaceX? Literally every vertical integrated company does what you said. That's the definition of vertical integration.

Vertically integrating space logistics with space products is pretty cool.

Definitely!

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

#284
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's absolutely no heater inside it, as this great disassembly/destruction shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo

Depends on your definition of a heater, certainly there's no separate heating module but here's[0] a SpaceX team member saying it has 'self heating capabilities' in their reddit ama. [0]- https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn/we_are_the...

700+ chip count makes some heat.

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

#285
post #206
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.

They have occasional landing failures (one this year, two last year), and still do launch expendably every once in a blue moon, so they'll likely need to build a new one every once in a while until the end of the program is in sight. (It looks like they have very few customers anymore that insist on a new-build booster -- the fussiest had been the US government, but at this point, NASA is accepting reused boosters fo…

I forget what its called, but if something is gonna fail... its most likely to fail on the maiden launch (or like first 100 miles for cars)

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this special to Amazon and SpaceX? Literally every vertical integrated company does what you said. That's the definition of vertical integration.

A vertically integrated company owns increasing amounts of production of their end product. Apple is vertically integrated, they have products where they make the CPU, the device, the OS, and retail the devices. But ultimately they only sell the end products. If Apple were to start selling CPUs, you could argue that they had a similar model, but they don't (and won't because their CPUs are a competitive advantage). W…

Flywheel integration is probably a better term. I.e. not vertically integrating for the supply of your current product, but in such a way that demand for both is increased.

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

#287
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have occasional landing failures (one this year, two last year), and still do launch expendably every once in a blue moon, so they'll likely need to build a new one every once in a while until the end of the program is in sight. (It looks like they have very few customers anymore that insist on a new-build booster -- the fussiest had been the US government, but at this point, NASA is accepting reused boosters fo…

I forget what its called, but if something is gonna fail... its most likely to fail on the maiden launch (or like first 100 miles for cars)

Bathtub Curve, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

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

#288
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A vertically integrated company owns increasing amounts of production of their end product. Apple is vertically integrated, they have products where they make the CPU, the device, the OS, and retail the devices. But ultimately they only sell the end products. If Apple were to start selling CPUs, you could argue that they had a similar model, but they don't (and won't because their CPUs are a competitive advantage). W…

Flywheel integration is probably a better term. I.e. not vertically integrating for the supply of your current product, but in such a way that demand for both is increased.

Ive heard fly wheel in regards to tech company strategy 3 times in a month, was there a conference I wasnt invited to?

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By pressuring Tesla. One thing making me nervous with Tesla's China business is that it will become too big for Tesla to let it fail, at which point Tesla (and every other Musk company) will be beholden to the CCP.

Maybe it will be moot since CCP might likely fund, steal, push for - whatever it takes - their own internal 'ip' & supply. Maybe batteries are difficult though.

That likelihood has a silver lining: it will be accelerating the transition away from fossil fuel-powered cars.

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

#290
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A vertically integrated company owns increasing amounts of production of their end product. Apple is vertically integrated, they have products where they make the CPU, the device, the OS, and retail the devices. But ultimately they only sell the end products. If Apple were to start selling CPUs, you could argue that they had a similar model, but they don't (and won't because their CPUs are a competitive advantage). W…

Flywheel integration is probably a better term. I.e. not vertically integrating for the supply of your current product, but in such a way that demand for both is increased.

Like this term a lot.
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