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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

#311

Post by aeternum »

ixfo wrote: post #230
serf wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most things in life are like this. Wind turbines are a great way to supply green energy, but building them takes a lot of energy. Reminder : we only have one sky. Things offer both positives and negatives, but a) generally those things are decided by local powers and authorities that can be influenced by local populations -- not corporations from specific countries that may or may not be far away and without local p…

This is an excellent summary of a lot of the kickback and risk for Elon. I think if Elon had gone to, say, the UN and tried to start a discussion about this stuff more generally to establish some ground rules for SpaceX and others, it would have been much better received. It would've given a forum to those affected - communities around the world and astronomers and other satellite operators - where none exists. Some…

So many ISPs have gone bankrupt trying to make fibre work. Not even Google with all its massive resources could make it economically viable in mid-size cities.

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

#313

Post by Dylan16807 »

someperson wrote: post #214
Topgamer7 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I wouldn't be surprised that the Starlink dish can melt snow. It's literally an antenna that shoots high energy microwaves into space over many hours. 100W of microwaves according to another comment here. By contrast your microwave oven might emitting 800W for a few minutes. Unlike the few watts of a Wifi router or phone, it emits high power electromagnetic radiation. It's definitely something you attach to your roof…

> It's definitely something you attach to your roof and pointed at the sky, not something you want to be sitting in front of for hours.

I could say the same thing about a light bulb, couldn't I?

It heats your skin slowly, and it can't get far enough into your eyes to hurt your retina or anything.

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

#314

Post by Dylan16807 »

state_less wrote: post #253
gpm wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what sort of battery you're on. The cheapest car Tesla sells (or at least that is displayed to me when I visit their site), for example, has a 54 kwh battery. It could run a 100 watt load for ~22 days between charges (not counting driving). Or to put it another way, if you charge every day, and you never turn the dish off, this would only drain 1/22nd of your range.

Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time. I am trying to keep power generation 100% solar rather than burn diesel/gas to charge batteries when I can. So 2.4kwh per day might require roughly 500 watts of additional solar panels in a sunny locale. More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle. I’m at 1400 watts of solar now. Anyhow,…

> Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time.

If you start running low you can stop letting it idle.

> More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle.

It can be a problem if you're off-grid and moving around, yeah.

For general off-grid use it's annoying but not a big deal to set up an extra panel or two.

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

#315

Post by CyanBird »

cartoonfoxes wrote: post #306
willis936 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they have empty space on payloads they also sell it for a (very reasonable) 1 million USD. https://youtu.be/DB1Aii8NoC0

At that price it makes me wonder if there's a market in vanity satellites for the wealthy.

In Planetes an old anime series of hard scifi which I loved there is an episode of exactly that, the protagonists need to recover a "space burial" coffin launched into deep space which accidentally after decades does a flyby of low earth orbit

So yeah, maybe, look forward to billionaires launching their dead bodies into space, after all that tesla car is still somewhere out there floating about heh

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

#316

Post by gizmo385 »

nordsieck wrote: post #310
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…

> Unfortunately it's also littering the sky with a shitload of eventual junk, and immediate astronomical blight. Starlink are the least likely satellites to create "eventual junk" since they orbit so low. The biggest criticism is probably that there are so many they present a visual hazard for astronomy

Did you respond to the wrong comment?

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

#317

Post by sand500 »

CyanBird wrote: post #315
cartoonfoxes wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that price it makes me wonder if there's a market in vanity satellites for the wealthy.

In Planetes an old anime series of hard scifi which I loved there is an episode of exactly that, the protagonists need to recover a "space burial" coffin launched into deep space which accidentally after decades does a flyby of low earth orbit So yeah, maybe, look forward to billionaires launching their dead bodies into space, after all that tesla car is still somewhere out there floating about heh

+1 Planetes is amazing. It is not available on streaming service in the US though. If someone has $100k lying around, they should aquire US distribution rights. Could probably make it back easily if it gets a million views an episode on YouTube.

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

#318

Post by elihu »

systemvoltage wrote: post #251
ogre_codes wrote: post #228

Starlink is SpaceX's way of guaranteeing SpaceX has a launch client. It increases the number of launches they make, and drives down the cost per launch, both for themselves and for their other customers. They are creating a business model which is both profitable and drives profits to their launch business. This is similar to the synergy Amazon's online store and AWS have with each other. If SpaceX has room on a laun…

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

What's different is that the entire commercial space launch business isn't very big. I think it's been somewhere in the ballpark of a couple dozen launches a year. SpaceX could conceivably satisfy it just by building one rocket and flying it over and over again. (Granted they don't have upper stage re-usability yet, and the Falcon 9 boosters have a limited lifespan, but they're working to get there with Starship.) So, if they want to have a viable business that involves a large fleet of reusable rockets they need to become their own customer to make sure the rockets don't just sit idle.

Maybe this sort of thing happens all the time with new companies in new markets. The space launch market though has been around for a long time. To me it seems unusual for an industry that's been around for half a century or so to not be big enough to absorb the excess capacity of a newcomer.

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

#319

Post by jiofih »

itsoktocry wrote: post #272
jiofih wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concerns like this are why I think he considered taking it private again. He can personally not give a fuck and decide to pull out of China anytime, but being a public company and “acting in shareholder’s interests” might get in the way of ethics...

Wait, are you implying Musk would move out of China, but the shareholders would want him to stay? You do realize he's done nothing but praise China right? Let alone that much of Tesla's funding would dry up if he "went private". The reality distortion field around musk is insane...

The parent comment was hypothetically China becoming hostile to Tesla. Under that condition yes, I think my comment stands.

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

#320

Post by Avamander »

swhalen wrote: post #29

These satellites have marred the night sky. There is more to life than broadband availability.

I don't think most Americans are in a position to criticize or even care about light pollution - the light pollution caused by your cities is way above that of a tiny bit of reflection by Starlink.
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