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I have a genuine question, are we handing SpaceX a monopoly by allowing them to launch these satellites, or will competing companies be able to launch similar services? Will space be too cluttered for competition? (I'm guessing space is really big and that we can have _a lot_ of small satellites up there.)
I have a genuine question, are we handing SpaceX a monopoly by allowing them to launch these satellites, or will competing companies be able to launch similar services? Will space be too cluttered for competition? (I'm guessing space is really big and that we can have _a lot_ of small satellites up there.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)
And we inhale it all. (Yes, I know it's insignificant; all things start insignificantly.)
Who's gonna clean after SpaceX' now? It's amazing that I'll get a $1,000 fine if I drop a small piece of garbage here in Irvine, but SpaceX can go away polluting the sky indefinitely without any responsibilities!
Your litter in comparison would be a totally different kind of problem, and evidently, it is a problem at human scale. That's why there are fines.
Is it possible to predict a geomagnetic storm, before launching?
Fun site to track this stuff: https://www.spaceweather.com/
I have a genuine question, are we handing SpaceX a monopoly by allowing them to launch these satellites, or will competing companies be able to launch similar services? Will space be too cluttered for competition? (I'm guessing space is really big and that we can have _a lot_ of small satellites up there.)
I have a genuine question, are we handing SpaceX a monopoly by allowing them to launch these satellites, or will competing companies be able to launch similar services? Will space be too cluttered for competition? (I'm guessing space is really big and that we can have _a lot_ of small satellites up there.)
There will be other reusable orbital launch systems (although it looks like #2 will also probably be SpaceX, heh) but until that time everyone else is priced out of doing what SpaceX is doing.
It's got some analogs with TSMC and the latest process size microprocessors. Nobody else is prevented from doing it as well... it's just that they figured it out first and nobody else has developed equivalent technology yet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you read the article, SpaceX specifically designed the process to avoid orbiting junk.
Yup, spacex stuff is all LEO. Without input it all crashes into the atmosphere in a few years (3 I believe)
40 sats makes up about 2% of the current fleet - so a rounding error in cost and time. The important part of this news is how those 40 sats deorbit and leave no junk either in orbit or on earth.
An entire launch worth of satellites is not a "rounding error." The carbon impact of just one launch is pretty obscene.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
An entire launch worth of satellites is not a "rounding error." The carbon impact of just one launch is pretty obscene.
A Falcon 9 caries just a bit more fuel than a fully loaded 777. Which is big, to be sure, but still a drop in the bucket just in terms of transportation.