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

zdnet.com

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

#531

Post by holoduke »

digitaltrees wrote: post #379

I have started to see what I think are star link satellites at night on walks with my kids. It actually makes me sad to see that on person owns the night sky and is changing the literal stars my kids will grow up with. It feels different when it’s the government that theoretically represents people but when it’s one person that feels truly depressing.

Russia and China are coming as well. Expect all big countries have hundreds of thousands of low orbit sats. It required in order to be a powerful military nation. Without it a country is doomed.

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

#532

Post by ben_w »

Oarch wrote: post #496
digitaltrees wrote: post #379

I have started to see what I think are star link satellites at night on walks with my kids. It actually makes me sad to see that on person owns the night sky and is changing the literal stars my kids will grow up with. It feels different when it’s the government that theoretically represents people but when it’s one person that feels truly depressing.

I wonder if (this part specifically) is a solvable problem? Is it their altitude that causes them to shine? Perhaps finally a commercial use for Vantablack?

Their brightness is a mixture of a lot of things, including the huge PV arrays and the angle they have with the sun when they cross the terminator between night and day.

Starlink have already put a lot of effort into their satellites being much less bright than most satellites, including tilting their PV away from earth during the terminator crossing, so from what I've read you'll mainly see them while they're being deployed and while de-orbiting.

(Part of my still-expanding draft blog post about space data centres is to work out how bright a million much larger objects would look. If they were in the orbit with the most sun, that's a terminator-following sun-synchronous orbit, which is maximum brightness).

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

#533

Post by throwaway132448 »

sidcool wrote: post #284

I understand no one here likes Elon. But does it mean we find justifications for our collective bias in everything his companies do?

Why do you put the onus on everyone else to make excuses? It sounds very entitled.

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

#534

Post by holoduke »

petterroea wrote: post #446
consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

Starlink has its uses, but I really don't understand those who get starlink while living in built-up areas. Starlink is just a re-skin of the "Wireless optic" thing a lot of ISPs are pushing because they would prefer not having to lay cables and instead have everyone use 5g routers. Of course, the service isn't comparable, but regular people don't necessarily know it. Fiberoptic is still king, and probably will be fo…

For war it is. Drones and other unmanned aircraft are the future of warfare. That's the whole reason why every country now heavily invests in low orbit sats. It's not about consumers. Also not for spacex. Defence contracts are zillion times more worth. Once you are in you reach the end level as a business.

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

#535

Post by teamonkey »

Oarch wrote: post #496
digitaltrees wrote: post #379

I have started to see what I think are star link satellites at night on walks with my kids. It actually makes me sad to see that on person owns the night sky and is changing the literal stars my kids will grow up with. It feels different when it’s the government that theoretically represents people but when it’s one person that feels truly depressing.

I wonder if (this part specifically) is a solvable problem? Is it their altitude that causes them to shine? Perhaps finally a commercial use for Vantablack?

Anything up there needs to reflect as much as possible to avoid building up heat. That which it can’t reflect is absorbed and needs to be emitted as efficiently as possible. Vantablack would likely make it absorb heat readily and glow in the near-IR.

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

#536

Post by ben_w »

small_model wrote: post #527
digitaltrees wrote: post #379

I have started to see what I think are star link satellites at night on walks with my kids. It actually makes me sad to see that on person owns the night sky and is changing the literal stars my kids will grow up with. It feels different when it’s the government that theoretically represents people but when it’s one person that feels truly depressing.

[flagged]

> 'My kids had to see a power line going through the country side'

A lot of people get upset about such things, even those are rather more important than just adding to the world's existing widespread internet access.

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

#537

Post by boelboel »

defrost wrote: post #520
jraby3 wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did and it used to take a lot of planning, using paper maps, getting lost etc. Just like once people didn't use electricity or vaccines or indoor plumbing. For all its minuses the internet makes these long trips 10x easier.

Hardly, and not by a factor of ten - at best it allows for digital mapping and (unreliably) replaces an ePirb. What it does do, for sure, is encourage people with no proper grounding in multi day off road adventuring to have a go and die through lack of prior experience and skills.

Similar things happen in hiking, people who shouldn't be there get encouraged by by how accessible information is to do things whereas before (most) people got info from someone knowledgeable.

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

#538

Post by small_model »

N_Lens wrote: post #292

Fiber is just getting cheaper and cheaper, more resilient, and is faster too. Plus it has no value like copper so thieves dont steal it. I don’t think it’s wise to pollute all of low earth orbit with Musk’s satellites, that area belongs to all of us collectively.

[flagged]

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

#539

Post by Marha01 »

Lomlioto wrote: post #484
tticvs wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hope for what? For less starving people? For less child abuse? For less climate change? I look up at the night sky and i want to see stars and the endlessness of the universe and don't want to be reminded that Elon Musk will poisen our atmosphere.

> For less starving people? For less child abuse? For less climate change?

Yes. The only way to truly solve these issues is technological progress.

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

#540

Post by small_model »

croes wrote: post #365
tarpitt wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say what you will, but it's staying above cloud providers.

Not for long because it needs replacement constantly. Must be the most unsustainable way to provide internet

They launch them all the time, similar to telcos digging up copper to replace fibre or upgrading infra as new tech improves.
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