Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space • Hacker News Board

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#121

Post by goodcanadian » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

mdszy wrote: post #102

iguy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is this true? Sure if you want coverage of Siberia you may need your own, but doesn't every orbit cross the equator? I would have thought plenty of satellites cross Ethiopia every hour, although perhaps not bothering to run all their cameras without a customer?

Geostationary orbits won't necessarily cross the equator.

Yes, they will. The only place you can put a geostationary satellite is on the equator. In theory, they stay in position above the selected point on the equator. In practice, they aren't perfectly stationary, and they will move around the designated point, which will, of necessity, cross the equator.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#122

Post by mdszy » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

goodcanadian wrote: post #121

mdszy wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geostationary orbits won't necessarily cross the equator.

Yes, they will. The only place you can put a geostationary satellite is on the equator. In theory, they stay in position above the selected point on the equator. In practice, they aren't perfectly stationary, and they will move around the designated point, which will, of necessity, cross the equator.

for the practical purposes outlined in the context of this thread, they do not cross the equator

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#123

Post by froops » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:37 PM UTC

blackearl wrote: post #19

ajmurmann wrote: post #16

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

China is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.

At least the intent is transparent. "we're here to help ourselves, but it will help you too" is a lot less suspicious than "we're here because we care..."

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#124

Post by trianglem » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC

corporate_shi11 wrote: post #116

trianglem wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this why countries with democracies in North America, Europe, East Asia, South East Asia and South Asia have see such decades long explosive growth?

Actually most developed Democracies have economies that are relatively decoupled from their governments and their politics. Corporations operate relatively autonomously, and it is corporations which fuel the explosive growth we observe. On the other hand, developing countries often have bloated bureaucracies and corrupt governments that are heavily involved in the private sector and corporate activity. The difficulti…

You said democracies which is what I was referring to. If anything corporations only really exist in countries with democracies.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#125

Post by taobility » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:50 PM UTC

privateprofile wrote: post #97

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #83

Sub-Saharan Africa feels like a missed opportunity now for Europe and the US. While the US and EU has been focused on donating aid, or through NGOs merely shipping Africans into Europe without much of a plan and then shrugging their shoulders when problems arise, China has been making deals there and investing an utterly staggering amount on an on-going basis into its development and future prosperity. Some will proc…

>> Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!" That's being "proclaimed" in that case because there's increasing and obvious evidence of that country's government using debt being to control governments, political decisions and societies: - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lank... - https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/re... - https://www.abc.net.au/new…

Is there any western medias pro China? Or another questions, did you get any good words from those media about Trump?

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#126

Post by alphakappa » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:54 PM UTC

chirau wrote: post #48

rburhum wrote: post #42

I am very familiar with the purchasing process of satellites by LATAM countries. Basically the Chinese or the French (i.e. Airbus) come in and offer you a satellite that ranges between 180M-380M USD in price depending on what you want. The price includes a building with a ground station, the launch, and some basic training. If you negotiate correctly, the full telemetry is send only to you and you process it all loca…

Why do these countries need satellites anyway, what exactly are they using them for?

The same reasons any country needs satellites. Telecommunications, resource monitoring, science, weather... Sorry, but unless you believe that satellites are superfluous in general, why are you asking if these countries need satellites? Are they something only rich/western countries need? Or should other countries simply be dependent on the countries that already build/launch them?

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#127

Post by threeseed » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

taobility wrote: post #125

privateprofile wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!" That's being "proclaimed" in that case because there's increasing and obvious evidence of that country's government using debt being to control governments, political decisions and societies: - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lank... - https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/re... - https://www.abc.net.au/new…

Is there any western medias pro China? Or another questions, did you get any good words from those media about Trump?

Yes when China does something worth being positive about.

But it's a bit hard when they trap poor countries in debt, detain millions of Muslims in death camps and try and bully their way into every situation e.g. South China Sea, Hong Kong.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#128

Post by alphakappa » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 8:00 PM UTC

Almost every time there is a story about a non western country launching rockets or satellites, the trolls come out commenting on how these countries need to be focusing on poverty instead of launching satellites. As if science isn’t a way to improving the lot of people. As if science isn’t a way to motivate a new generation of kids. As if all the communications, weather monitoring, and resource management that satellites make possible aren’t ways to improve the place. As if national pride amounts for nothing. As if countries can only focus on one thing at a time. As if western countries fixed all of their social and economic problems before working on technological advances.

Racism has many forms, and this is one. Learn to recognize it and move away from it.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#129

Post by threeseed » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

bilbo0s wrote: post #100

tines wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!", which is shortsighted, lacking in self-awareness and playing into the "everyone that isn't us is the boogeyman" narrative the West likes to maintain. Exactly. There aren't many Uighurs in Africa, so Africa should be fine.

Do you know what Uighurs are? I mean, I guess China doesn't so much mind them when they are in Africa. Thousands of miles away. But they're all muslim.

Pretty sure it was a joke.

And China doesn't care about who they are dealing with in Africa or anywhere else. As long as you have money, are willing to ignore China's human rights abuses and aren't a threat to the stability of the Chinese governing structures you're all good.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#130

Post by threeseed » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC

throw_m239339 wrote: post #106

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #83

Sub-Saharan Africa feels like a missed opportunity now for Europe and the US. While the US and EU has been focused on donating aid, or through NGOs merely shipping Africans into Europe without much of a plan and then shrugging their shoulders when problems arise, China has been making deals there and investing an utterly staggering amount on an on-going basis into its development and future prosperity. Some will proc…

> While the US and EU has been focused on donating aid, or through NGOs merely shipping Africans into Europe without much of a plan and then shrugging their shoulders when problems arise, China has been making deals there and investing an utterly staggering amount on an on-going basis into its development and future prosperity. If these really cared about Africa, they would have stopped subsidizing their agriculture.…

Aid is also a way to keep these people from dying.

And we can be critical of what China is doing is now as well as critical of all of the colonial misadventures over the years.