101–110 of 136 posts
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It should also be possible to de-orbit obsolete satellites faster if they can at end-of-life deploy a "sail" that will cause more drag.
And then we have to consider what’s the effect of all those vapourised metals on the atmosphere
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/fac...
Just paint the satellites black?
You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette. The benefits of satellites seem worth the cost, at least in the foreseeable future.
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Consider a shaped charge. It seems wild to me that you can direct an explosion with various shapes of the explosive. Perhaps a similar idea can apply to the blackbody radiation - get it to radiate mostly away from the satellite. Also, the black part will be pointed at the Earth, not the Sun.
Not sure what geometry you're thinking of. Whatever idea it is, you're stuck dealing with Kirchoff's law, which says optical emissivity and absorptivity are the same number at any given wavelength. I.e., you can't create "one-way trap doors" for heat flow—that would be a Maxwell's demon. Stacking multiple surfaces isn't a way to circumvent this. If it's just an asymmetric shape, with different material surfaces point…
PS I haven't done thermo in nearly 50 years!
I wonder what uncontacted tribes think about starlink
In some way this reminds me of living in SF back in 2015, and all the arguments over the towers going up in soma. “No one wants the Manhattanization of the city” was accepted fact on both sides. Yet that wasn’t an obvious fact to me at all, and I could never find an argument in support of this ‘fact’.
Can someone enlighten me here?
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Not sure what geometry you're thinking of. Whatever idea it is, you're stuck dealing with Kirchoff's law, which says optical emissivity and absorptivity are the same number at any given wavelength. I.e., you can't create "one-way trap doors" for heat flow—that would be a Maxwell's demon. Stacking multiple surfaces isn't a way to circumvent this. If it's just an asymmetric shape, with different material surfaces point…
Kirchoff's law doesn't say which direction it emits in. As shaped charges can alter the direction of where the blast wave goes, I suspect an analogous behavior of a heat shield can direct where the emissions go. I.e. as you say, an asymmetric shape. PS I haven't done thermo in nearly 50 years!
That's: a cavity that's a thin wedge in between two slightly angled plates, where the interior surface coating is partly emissive, and partly infrared-reflective—it can reflect the thermal radiation it emits. That means specular reflections, following geometric optics, so it works like a horn for light—beams it out the sides in a narrow cone.
(.pdf) https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/71aee1e9-3...
At no point does the article enlighten me of the actual ‘problem’. The photo is beautiful. The ability to even capture this signifies technological advancement, which I think wonderful. In some way this reminds me of living in SF back in 2015, and all the arguments over the towers going up in soma. “No one wants the Manhattanization of the city” was accepted fact on both sides. Yet that wasn’t an obvious fact to me a…
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>Unpopular opinion: global internet access is more important than pretty pictures of the sky. You're right about one thing - It is an unpopular opinion. You're wrong about global internet access being more important than being able to take "pretty pictures" of the night sky. Global internet access has become a tool for homogenizing opinion. It has become the most useful tool for propagandists and others who would pus…
I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about for the most part, but the fact is it’s not economically viable for ISPs or even governments to build fibre out to most rural areas. Satellite internet has been a game changer for people living in these areas. The people who grow your food deserve to be able to video chat with their family and stream videos at resolutions higher than 480p without constant buffering.
That's part of what the hell I'm going on about.
Satellite internet is a game-changer but like I said, the internet in general has become a useful tool for propagandists to promote whatever message they need to disseminate in order to gain or maintain control of public opinion, allowing then to gain power or to remain in power.
I totally agree that people who grow food, though they don't grow much of mine since I have a fully functional garden/orchard, should be able to chat with friends or family and stream videos if that's what floats their boats.
Part of my family lives in a highly rural area where bandwidth was an issue for them in their lives and jobs. They had to use expensive line-of-sight internet services that frequently suffered during weather events making it difficult for them to stay online during a workday. Their cell service out there was dicey and complicated by the fact that they live in a metal sided house that they built themselves so there were lots of times that they had to step outside to get a signal to use their phones. They have upgraded to starlink now I think and they have fewer issues.
Another family member loves online gaming and has twice bought a home in a rural area with very limited internet access options. Each time before they bought I have reminded them to check the availability of internet access for the properties. Each time I got to listen to them gripe that the only option out there was thru Hughes-Net or some other expensive provider with severely limited bandwidth.
I understand the issue about rural broadband access a little more than you gave credit for.