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

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#141

Post by faizshah » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 11:18 PM UTC

filleduchaos wrote: post #135

faizshah wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's based on this data on mobile services cost: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/ipb/ I included the data from 2011 because it includes mobile services cost whereas the other is newer but on data costs. Not sure what your point is at all other than to be pedantic and obfuscate the general point to be honest. The point being that african telecom costs are some of the highest in the world and this would be one us…

My point is that "it's too expensive for Africans (from an unspecified country, because of course the entire continent of 1.3 billion people has the same socioeconomic status everywhere) to call people in the next village (and it being the next village is somehow relevant because mobile call rates are tied to literal physical distance, obviously)" is exactly the kind of poverty porn nonsense that Westerners lap up ab…

> "it's too expensive for Africans to call people in the next village"

What's the point of using quotes if you're not quoting...

What was actually said: "I dunno how true this is but my african friends have told me that telecom in africa is extremely expensive and calling someone the next village over can have huge charges.

Again this is second hand info and I don't know much about African politics but telecom is clearly one important reason."

If we consider saying "in the midwest fiber optic internet is extremely expensive" to be poverty porn then I suppose I'm guilty...

They were Cameroonian btw...

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#142

Post by nexuist » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 2:21 AM UTC

LatteLazy wrote: post #15

I mean no disrespect to Ethiopia but no, China launched it. This is important because the ability to put an object in space is a huge achievement with geopolitical consequences. If you can put an object into space (even low earth orbit) you can put one in Time Square or the Kremlin and no one can stop you. That's why it's a big deal when a country first launches a satellite... Sorry to be the arsehole here. But it sh…

It would be interesting to see what the geopolitical consequences would be of another nation "helping" a smaller nation become ICBM capable. I know that this was basically the premise of the late Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, but in all those instances the Soviet Union and United States owned all their missiles - their individual satellite states didn't have the ability to launch them.

But if, say, China were to give away ICBM technology to an ally, for "national security" reasons, so that they could claim plausible deniability...

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#143

Post by rburhum » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 3:18 AM 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?

Bolivia bought a communication satellite from the chinese to provide TV and Internet to the entire country - which is mostly rural areas that are difficult to reach (think the Andes). The other countries use multi-spectral and radar-based satellites to do several things like:

- territorial planning (e.g. cadastre and zoning)

- agricultural yield improvements (irrigation and disease detection, crop classification, etc)

- forest fire detection

- illegal mining, illegal deforestation or illegal plantation detection

- pre-disaster planning and post-disaster recovery

and other military activities. the use cases depend a lot on the type of satellite they own

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#144

Post by kilroy123 » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 8:55 AM UTC

wiremine wrote: post #133

kilroy123 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually going there in a exactly a month from now. I'll be staying there for ~5 weeks. Any advice on what to see or go do?

Here's a few things, in no particular order: Some of my favorite spots in Addis: 1. National Museum of Ethiopia - Lucy and other early humans 2. Mount Entoto 3. Ethnological Museum - Haili Selassie's palace is here 4. Shiro Meda - street vendors. Take a Ethiopian friend to get the best deals. 5. Yod Abyssinian Traditional Restaurant - Traditional music and dancing. Worth going at least once. 6. Addis Ababa Golf Club…

Awesome! Thank you so much for this list. I can't wait.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#145

Post by LatteLazy » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 11:09 AM UTC

nexuist wrote: post #142

LatteLazy wrote: post #15

I mean no disrespect to Ethiopia but no, China launched it. This is important because the ability to put an object in space is a huge achievement with geopolitical consequences. If you can put an object into space (even low earth orbit) you can put one in Time Square or the Kremlin and no one can stop you. That's why it's a big deal when a country first launches a satellite... Sorry to be the arsehole here. But it sh…

It would be interesting to see what the geopolitical consequences would be of another nation "helping" a smaller nation become ICBM capable. I know that this was basically the premise of the late Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, but in all those instances the Soviet Union and United States owned all their missiles - their individual satellite states didn't have the ability to launch them. But if, say, China wer…

Right now, Iran has a working ICBM but no nukes and North Korea has working nuked but no ICBM. The nightmare scenario is that they swap kit so both has both. That would make them both untouchable. Nk is crazy enough, they'd demand cash (and fuel and food) not to just press the button and likely get it.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#146

Post by iguy » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 12:55 PM UTC

elil17 wrote: post #110

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?

I’m by no means an expert on satellite orbit selection, but from my experience as a consumer the quality and frequency of imagery for an area has to do with a variety of factors - how often the overhead pass occurs in daytime vs. nighttime, how much data capacity they will devote to downloading the imagery, and what angle they point the sensor at. Here’s a real world coverage map from a European earth observation mis…

Thanks, nice to see a map. But all those lines which stop at the mediterranean coast... those satellites surely cross north africa at almost the same time of day, it's just not marked because they are turned off? As you say, perhaps limited by daily bandwidth (or perhaps power?)... but that sounds like a commercial consideration.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#147

Post by iguy » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 1:00 PM UTC

mdszy wrote: post #122

goodcanadian wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

For the purpose of Africa vs Europe, they can't really be positioned to have a better view of Europe than of Africa.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#148

Post by throw_m239339 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 7:56 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #130

throw_m239339 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Aid is a way to keep these people in servitude and dependent of the west, and it's actually killing their agriculture, that and the west subsidizing their own agriculture. Africa need foreign investment, not foreign aid.

> 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.

No, you can't, it's hypocrisy. Whatever you think China is doing, European did 1000% worse by dehumanizing africans for profit.