Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you factor in the fuel to get to where it needs to be?
Propellant is very cheap.
Yeah but it is still mass and volume that might reduce available payload?
How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
71–80 of 197 posts
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#72I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
> To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought.
Growth! Growth no matter the cost! Why would anyone question the need for always faster internet connections everywhere? /s
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, these are capitalistic solutions looking for problems. It's the whole startup mentality. Let's just throw a bunch of shit in space and see if it ends up being useful for anything. This idea of connecting the world is as false as the other hundred millions times that's been sold.
If you paid attention, "this time" and also the "other hundred million times" are true, not false. We're massively more connected than ever before. Homeless people in the third world have phones now. They should be able to get on the internet too.
Starlink is not there to bring Internet in places that don't have it. It's here to bring fast Internet in places that already have slow Internet.
The question is: how fast an Internet connection do we need? Do we really need to swipe 4k videos on social network, or to download 50G of docker containers for every build? I don't think so.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, these are capitalistic solutions looking for problems. It's the whole startup mentality. Let's just throw a bunch of shit in space and see if it ends up being useful for anything. This idea of connecting the world is as false as the other hundred millions times that's been sold.
Useful for anything? Starlink useful to its 2.7 million subscribers. And it's already profitable. As of last year, SpaceX makes more in subscription fees than it costs to build and launch the satellites. The economics will only become more favorable when SpaceX improves their launch capabilities with Starship.
> The economics will only become more favorable when SpaceX improves their launch capabilities with Starship.
Until we start making them pay for the environmental impact, that is.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#75I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
> How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? Very hard, especially when the towns are much more dispersed than a km apart.
Yeah, no one is going to "run a wire" out to Umiat, Alaska.
In places like that it's satellite or nothing.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
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SpaceX single handedly made my whole family excited about space exploration. My mother watches every launch and landing, keeps track of Starlink satellites passing by and runs out with her phone camera every time they are visible. She even started to learn English because she wanted to understand what they're saying on the live streams. I am fixing some production bug at 4 AM and suddenly she's texting me like "you'r…
NasaSpaceFlight, an independent space news group, has done wonders. They go the extra mile to explain everything, answer viewers questions, and even brought students' experiments to the 2nd Superheavy launch. They cover all space companies
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#77I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
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That's nice.
No one put you in charge of this.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#78I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
> To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Growth! Growth no matter the cost! Why would anyone question the need for always faster internet connections everywhere? /s
Let us know when you switch back to a 300 bps audio modem.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#79I know it's a blessing for people who live out in the sticks to have internet.... but is that really such a large use-case to justify entire fleets of these things? How hard is it to run km of wire from the nearest town? To me, these were built for the sole purpose of surveillance, and internet is an afterthought. Edit: yes yes it's expensive, but the easiest solution the world came up with was for some guy to invest…
In many cases, the issue isn't cost to run but cost to maintain. Consider South Africa, where the largest threat to installation deployment is inability to police the entire deployment coupled with massive wealth inequality... People just dig the cables out of the ground for the copper. Cellular radio has ameliorated the issue some (harder to steal the repeater antenna out of the back yard of a shotgun-owning residen…
That specific problem should go away as more lines get replaced with fiber, which has minimal scrap value compared to copper.
Re: How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you paid attention, "this time" and also the "other hundred million times" are true, not false. We're massively more connected than ever before. Homeless people in the third world have phones now. They should be able to get on the internet too.
Starlink is not there to bring Internet in places that don't have it. It's here to bring fast Internet in places that already have slow Internet. The question is: how fast an Internet connection do we need? Do we really need to swipe 4k videos on social network, or to download 50G of docker containers for every build? I don't think so.
Is there some maximum level of development you want? And what is that level, and why?
Where do you want to draw the line? The wheel, fire, hand tools, struggling to survive in the middle ages, slow internet, fast internet?
I say there is no line.