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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

#601
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.

How is Elon Musk going to poison our atmosphere?

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

#602

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.

Change is inevitable. I love seeing artificial objects in space, because it shows that we, humanity, are finally getting there. Elon doesn't own space, he just happens to be the one who is currently best at making it reachable. There is plenty of space for everyone else, and others will get there, eventually. I could eat myself up with envy over the money he's making from it... or be glad that it's at least someone g…

I wonder what you mean by "moving humanity forward". Just technological advancements without other considerations? In my opinion it should at least require reducing human suffering, and if ao he has done more harm than good

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

#603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How is Elon Musk going to poison our atmosphere?

The Starlink satellites burn up in the atmosphere as they end their useful life. The metals that the satellites are made up of don't vanish in the thin air up there. They burn and just hang up there. Now, whether or not this is an impending disaster is for you to decide, but that's the theory of it.

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

#604

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 is a military project, but they dont say that in public.

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

#605

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.

One person?

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

#606
post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't governments try making it? The US has tons of spy satellites, why not make some for the folks paying taxes? Why do we have to sell our firstborns (data) to Google for maps etc?

Can't speak to the world as a whole but the US has we spent 50 years gutting most government functions that aren't part of the police/military/surveillance apparatus (and many of those as well). SpaceX itself is an example of the primary mechanism of this: Diverting funding to private, no-bid contracts that remove both market forces and democratic oversight from those services while also ballooning their costs

Medicare, social security and the interest on the debt are the 3 top federal spending categories

Social welfare is the top local spending category in many local/state governments

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

#607

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.

Agreed - I'd consider this public pollution caused by extremely greedy billionaires ruining the planet. They could only amass money because they did not care about social responsibilities prior to do so; any contrary statement made by them to this is only lies, lies and more lies. Unfortunately you need a government that cares for the whole; in the USA oligarchs rule, so the general public are treated as paying slave…

"I'd consider this public pollution caused by extremely greedy billionaires ruining the planet."

This is such a weird framing, as if Starlink was a frivolous project for some rich person's fun.

There is genuine demand for orbital ISP from people, including people in poorer countries whom a better connectivity may help improve their incomes and lives, where an alternative is basically impossible (you won't get optic fibre in the Himalayas or Papua or the Andes anytime soon, if ever).

20 million people are now using Starlink and that number will almost certainly grow to maybe ten times as many, eventually. Ukraine uses Starlink to defend itself from being devoured by an aggressor. Sailors and other people in far away places use Starlink to keep in touch with their families.

Did you know that before Starlink, the South Pole Base had just 2x256 kB connection for everyone?

I get the "pollution" angle, but not the "hey, one guy is ruining the planet" angle. At the very least, all the customers are complicit, and I would add all the governments that don't seem to be able to build terrestrial connections for their own population.

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

#608

How much does this cost? Something tells me we could have covered the planet in fibre for the price of these Starlink satellites.

And: What are the externalities of this? The current 10700 satellites are expected to have a lifespan of about five years. So, averaging these burning up in the upper atmosphere there will be one deorbit ever four hour.

If I were to ask my relevant government regulator if I were allowed to burn the equivalent of a few electric cars every day without capturing/scrubbing the pollution they would laugh me out of the room.

But ”in space” nobody can hold you accountable, so burning an order of magnitude more like this is somehow on the table.

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

#609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Didn't we just see that wired drones are the current peak over wireless, and Russia is at this moment jamming satellite drone control...

You are right about drones, but Starlink etc is still used a lot by forward deployments of troops. Afaik it has revolutionised the ability to contact these deployments. But I'm not an army guy

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

#610

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 feel that way about street advertising, beautiful European cities with historical buildings all around and suddenly a big screen/panel asking you to buy whatever.
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