2.4 billions is not enough for such a project given the EU overhead in cost. Espacially since the deadline is 2027, so 2030 with delays really, that means 350 millions a year for paying satellite design, build them, send them to space.
IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
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Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I certainly do believe that there will be initiatives , but I am really curious about their results . One of the necessities is cheap access to the orbit, and I just cannot see the national behemoth space agencies developing economic, reusable rockets. The traditional rocket industry in the US was unable to do that either.
I think it's similar to the sub-5 minute mile in the sense that once something is shown as possible, others will achieve it as well.
It is also possible to land on the Moon, we know that. But no one else tried for more than 50 years.
The barriers to becoming an agile space company are formidable. When looking at SpaceX, we forget how many space startups from that period are now defunct and forgotten. John Carmack founded one, too; it is gone.
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Europe bashing on HN is so lame. A German start-up developed a working mRNA vaccine the same time an American start-up developed a stupid blood test fraud. You wouldn't hear the end of it if it was the other way round. What big tech came out of the US the past decade? The juicer? If it's about Europe, every quibble is used for sweeping blows, when it's about the US, the failures are all swept under the rug.
Lets think what came out of the US - social media, big data, adtech, EVs, cloud computing, XaaS, machine learning, military advances.
I'm honestly not sure if this is supposed to be pro or anti USA
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#44Does it annoy anyone else that the title says "Musk's Starlink"?
Yes, it was his idea and he is the main driving force and owns half of the company, but any project like this is a collaborative effort between tens of thousands of people.
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#45[flagged]
> Meh, the EU (where I live) is an ossified behemoth whose VIPs (Germany and France) don't really understand or appreciate tech and cannot innovate their way out of a paper bag.
It's telling that you're lumping France and Germany together that you don't know what you're talking about. France has come an extremely long way in the past few years, with pretty good mobile and fibre coverage (there are villages with hundreds of people with proud signs "Commune fibrée"), and vast government digital services. The last time i had to interact with a government office physically was to file the (online prepared) form for ID and passport, where it's purely done for verification purposes. There's a government SSO which gives access to all government services online, for free.
There's also a very healthy startup culture and scene (check the FrenchTech's Next40).
> Entire huge countries such as France and Italy produce basically nothing of value when it comes to tech
Insulting to companies such as Doctolib (revolutionised health appointments, a single platform to book one, send your documents if needed, have ones online, etc.), Back Market, fintechs such as Qonto and Swile, Ornikar, etc. etc. Real world companies solving actual problems and widely used in France and starting to export (Back Market have an EU wide presence, Ornikar are in a couple of Western EU markets, etc.).
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#46There is always bashing if there is something about the EU and its national projects, not always deserved. However sometimes I wished HN showed more of local projects. For example: has there been a post about the European AI? https://www.aleph-alpha.com/
Maybe because it's always in response to, and generally a failed copy costing billions to Europeans because of bureaucrats?
Or maybe it's because HN crowd parrot the same groupthink like reddit? /s
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#47[flagged]
> and if it wasn't for a few outliers in Scandinavia and the Baltics, it would be negligible I agree that Estonia is doing great and a role model in many ways, but the by far biggest EU software company is still German: SAP Also, have a look at the very successful ELISE AI initiative: https://www.elise-ai.eu/
SAP legitimately seems to be to be one of the least innovative software companies out there. Are they doing anything even mildly interesting? And it's not like they've found some global optimum - they just benefit from having been around so long that trillions of dollars now depend on them. Not due to any other merit though.
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#482027 seems quite ambitious. Curious what launch vehicles they're planning to use.
Perhaps eventually Ariane Next/SALTO, with an architecture very similar to Falcon 9?
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#49> This future satellite constellation infrastructure will allow for synergies with private sector to develop commercial services and provide with high-speed internet and communication in all EU territory. Satellite internet isn’t great for speed. Europe is also so densely populated that full 4g coverage is totally doable. I think satellite internet is cool, but it doesn’t serve a real need and I expect this project t…
>Europe is also so densely populated that full 4g coverage is totally doable
Whenever this is brought up a lot of Germans will reply that the 5G/4G situation in Germany is hopeless and only Elon Musk can save them. But looking at the 5G/4G coverage in Denmark and the rest of the Nordic countries it becomes obvious that the problem is Germany and not 5G/4G.
Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink
#50There is always bashing if there is something about the EU and its national projects, not always deserved. However sometimes I wished HN showed more of local projects. For example: has there been a post about the European AI? https://www.aleph-alpha.com/
Maybe because it's always in response to, and generally a failed copy costing billions to Europeans because of bureaucrats?
or we need a European chip manufacturer, so we take the most pathetic legacy brand around, and give it billions to build chips from the old generation. Oh, hi Intel!