Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

reneweuropegroup.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 500 posts

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#111

Post by ginko »

emilburzo wrote: post #103
PicassoCTs wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A crowd that is ideological resistant to reality in quite a entertaining fashion. Just remember the Boing 737 Max, which was never explored under this focus. Why does European airbus thrive, while us aircraft industry declined? Both are heavily state subsidized, so it is not that. There is something dysfunctional in us business culture, that extracts value first, and then runs without creating something for the value…

> Why does European airbus thrive, while us aircraft industry declined? The documentary "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing"[1] goes into this topic, and I believe the wiki page[2] summary captures it nicely: > "There were many decades when Boeing did extraordinary things by focusing on excellence and safety and ingenuity. Those three virtues were seen as the key to profit. It could work, and beautifully. And then the…

I've heard one theory that the merger with McDonnell Douglas swept the bean-counters from there into executive positions ruining the engineering focus at Boeing.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#112

Post by peterfirefly »

voytec wrote: post #87
peterfirefly wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever sells in Czechia, Croatia or Bulgaria tends to be a) more expensive than in Germany and b) less good. I'm shocked that that is still the case. I remember recurrent news stories years ago on German TV about that exact thing, except with Poland. Poles who lived close to the border shopped food in Germany for that very reason. I don't understand why food would be more expensive in countries with lower wages.…

There's a similar situation between Czechia and Poland currently. Folks from .cz travel to .pl to buy food, cigarettes, medicine and even coal. I have no comparison of goods quality, but Poland is cheaper for Czechs.

Cross-border shopping used to be a big thing for Danes as well but mostly for soft drinks, alcohol, candy, and petrol. They all used to be a lot cheaper in Germany but that was because of our taxes in Denmark. It was our own bloody fault.

There are Danish supermarkets right across the border in Germany for the locals because things are still a bit cheaper there but most of us no longer bother driving all the way to Germany with a trailer on the car just to buy stuff. It used to be common to do that a couple of times a year.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#113

Post by sofixa »

inglor_cz wrote: post #88
sofixa wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 hundr…

"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." Do you realize that even here on HN, the percentage of people who know at least one of those names is likely to be in low single digits? Compared to Google or Meta or Apple or Microsoft, t…

> Do you realize that even here on HN, the percentage of people who know at least one of those names is likely to be in low single digits?

And that's fine because those companies are serving the French market first? I don't expect French people to know about Zelle or Konbini payments.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#114

Post by microtonal »

tpmx wrote: post #48
Havoc wrote: post #3

2027 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? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_Next

If the timeframe is 2027, why not Ariane 5 or 6? Ariane 6 is supposed to have its maiden flight in 2023. Ariane 5 is already in use.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#115

Post by inglor_cz »

touisteur wrote: post #106
sschueller wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just not the case. Look at companies like AMSL which no one comes even close. It is likely that every device you own has a microchip made with a machine by AMSL. Is it sexy? Is there a narcissistic tweeting CEO? No, but there is inovasion at the highest level. The mRNA vaccine also came out of the "EU". What the EU has little off and what you are probably complaining about it throwing money at a hundred thing…

And even there, if you look at the sheer amount of R&D projects funded by the EU... Anyone serious can't say the EU doesn't invest massively in R&D. Interestingly enough, most of what I see funded and successfully becoming products are incremental development (increasing wireless bandwidth for specific apps or constraints, improving industrial productivity or getting to next gen for any tech) and few moonshots. I wor…

This kind of incremental development has been criticized a lot, precisely because it discourages scientists from trying anything audacious. Developing a slightly more efficient telegraph line every year still does not beat inventing e-mail.

Whenever you introduce large bureaucracy into any process, risk mitigation becomes the main goal of the most important actors, at the cost of all the previous goals.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#116

Post by culturestate »

fweimer wrote: post #65

I think IRIS² is actually an extension of the EU's GOVSATCOM initiative: https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-space-policy/... This means it's for government use, and is not really comparable to commercial end user services.

The release specifically addresses commercial use:

> 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, including over isolated regions where terrestrial and broadband connection remain scarce.

As does the page you linked:

> The system will also allow mass-market applications including mobile and fixed broadband satellite access, satellite trunking for B2B services, satellite access for transportation, reinforced networks by satellite and satellite broadband and cloud-based services.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#117

Post by peterfirefly »

Ambolia wrote: post #102
inglor_cz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Most europeans countries have worse demographics than Japan if you don't count migrants.

And even worse if you count them. The age distribution is not nearly as important as the skills distribution.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#118

Post by wcoenen »

jevgeni wrote: post #52
RedShift1 wrote: post #30

I don't like putting more junk into LEO than we absolutely have to because it disrupts our space telescopes (which the EU has also invested over 1 billion euro in). I much rather have the funding go to improving land based internet infrastructure.

Land based internet infrastructure doesn't solve the problem described in the article. Specifically: > It will secure the Union’s sovereignty and autonomy by guaranteeing fewer dependencies on third-country infrastructure, and the provision of secured telecommunications services for EU governments in critical scenarios where terrestrial networks are absent or disrupted, as observed, for instance, in the unfolding war…

In a large enough war, space infrastructure would actually be very vulnerable. Imagine a cloud of a few tons of shrapnel, spread around in an orbit that intersects all the 550km orbits of the Starlink constellation. This shrapnel cloud could be deployed with a single launch.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#119

Post by inglor_cz »

Ambolia wrote: post #102
inglor_cz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Most europeans countries have worse demographics than Japan if you don't count migrants.

True, but we were speaking about Germany's ability to pull economic growth specifically.

Italy won't be saving European economic growth anytime soon, possibly ever, even though I actually love Italy.

Re: IRIS²: The EU’s Response to Musk’s Starlink

#120

Post by Vespasian »

inglor_cz wrote: post #42
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it's because the moon has no immediate benefit besides

Star-Link and reusable rockets now have tremendous military uses which are being demonstrated in Ukraine.

Monetary concerns will take a back seat to that.

Post reply on HN