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SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

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Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#121

They’ll need this for their orbital data centers (aka Starmind) https://www.spacex.com/spacexai/starmind Elon really needs to drop some cash on Iain Bank’s family, if he’s going to keep stealing ideas/names for his empire.

I've read the entire series of Culture novels and don't recall seeing "starmind" as a term anywhere. Mind, yes, but used in a somewhat different context, as the minds are both sentient conversational AI entities with equal or greater intellect to a meat-based human or alien, and also semi-godlike AI powers (a single Mind has the capacity to have a 1:1 conversation with all of the residents of an Orbital if it wants to).

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#122
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of places without fiber, e.g. all the ships/jets etc. there's a lot of low-density areas, there's islands with no internet or VERY expensive internet

Ships and jets are different segments from residential. Planes are definitely a textbook use case for satellite internet, but just like airlines are in a race-to-the-bottom for everything from in-flight snacks to legroom, they're not going to spring for premier high-quality internet service, they're just going to scrape by with the bare minimum. The market potential is not spectacularly impressive. Meanwhile, for res…

Airlines are already springing for Starlink and can’t charge their customers for it.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#123

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome I wonder what spacex will be worth when launching satellites is impossible for a couple hundred years.

It won't be centuries.

starlink satellites are in low orbits and will deorbit in a few years at most if bricked; to stay in orbit, they use ion thrusters to counter drag from the very uppermost reaches of the atmosphere.

https://ai-solutions.com/newsroom/why-starlink-is-lowering-s...

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#124
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop trying to make Kessler syndrome a thing - it was never a thing, it isn’t a thing, it will never be a thing. It is just pearl clutching by those too afraid of modern life. Gravity wasn’t a documentary.

a new hot take spotted : newtonian physics isn't a thing. let's see how well the freeways work once we stop cleaning up after the accidents.

I see you haven’t read the paper. How long do you think Kessler syndrome is projected to take? How long do you think natural clearing of debris at Starlink’s altitudes is?

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#125

They’ll need this for their orbital data centers (aka Starmind) https://www.spacex.com/spacexai/starmind Elon really needs to drop some cash on Iain Bank’s family, if he’s going to keep stealing ideas/names for his empire.

I've read the entire series of Culture novels and don't recall seeing "starmind" as a term anywhere. Mind, yes, but used in a somewhat different context, as the minds are both sentient conversational AI entities with equal or greater intellect to a meat-based human or alien, and also semi-godlike AI powers (a single Mind has the capacity to have a 1:1 conversation with all of the residents of an Orbital if it wants t…

Ok, Walrus.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#126
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any proof that starlink satellites are worse than the tons of space debris that enter the atmosphere every day?

The satellites aren't worse. It is the rockets that are worse. On the way up they emit various things into the stratosphere, which is about the worst place you can emit stuff when it comes to affecting the atmosphere. It has not been a major problem so far because in its entire history humanity has only launched around 35000 rockets that have reached the stratosphere. Ramp that rate up significantly and it comes some…

You may want to compare the emissions of all rockets annually to the emissions of jet planes daily and reconsider your position.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I bought a cabin, which had the equivalent of pretty good DSL. I got starlink and immediately cancelled it when 2gbps fiber arrived 9mo later. Fiber is rolling out faster than a lot of people think.

Would fiber have come so fast without starlink as a threat though

What's the reasoning? That people won't switch away from the more expensive, slower, less reliable service if you get there a bit later?

Starlink isn't wildly expensive, nor is it unreliable or slow, but it loses the comparisons.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#128
post #99

How could this not end poorly? I cant think of one realistic scenario where there world benefits.

You can’t imagine the number of lives saved with cellular access everywhere and Internet broadband where it has never been?

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would fiber have come so fast without starlink as a threat though

What's the reasoning? That people won't switch away from the more expensive, slower, less reliable service if you get there a bit later? Starlink isn't wildly expensive, nor is it unreliable or slow, but it loses the comparisons.

When a telco provides poor quality service somewhere, people have no choice but to pay them as price takers. When there are options, telcos have to provide better service to win your business. Telcos with monopolies have always been rent-seekers. It happens time and time again that some newcomer comes up, and just the hint of competition gets Verizon/Spectrum/etc to suddenly build new tech and dig some trenches.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#130

I spent last weekend under some of the darkest sky you'll find in the eastern US. Miles from cell service. I had a starlink portable with me and it was nice to get some service and stay in touch, but to watch the sky is to see satellites everywhere. I've spent a dozen or so weeklong stretches in the last few years completely off grid, only connection being bringing up the inReach once a day. At this point I actually…

Your comment was interesting. i just read somewhere about spacex slowly destroying our dark night skies due to their satellite constellations. Thoughts?

It’s just that, while so much of the sky is static, it’s impossible to gaze at without your attention being grabbed by the moving flick of light, it takes active effort to ignore it. So it’s a totally different experience stargazing now vs 20 years ago.
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