This Is How Elon Musk Can Fix The Damage His Starlink Satellites Are Causing To Astronomy
Observations have been ruined; scientific satellites with the right-of-way have had to alter course. Here's a how-to guide to doing better.
www.forbes.com
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SpaceX’s Starlink program is destroying ground based astronomy
- Thread starter Typhon
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www.forbes.com
People worshipping Elon Musk with this weird cult of personality always weirded me out.
It's fucked up that we made NASA a private for-profit enterprise, effectively
I mean....I'll take the 7 billion people getting access to internet over how current astronomy is being studied.
Soon we can also have both because we will be studying astronomy from another planet, courtesy of Musk lol
Soon we can also have both because we will be studying astronomy from another planet, courtesy of Musk lol
Privatizing has always been a way for oligarchs to steal from the people.
The question is if it truly brings internet to the 3 billion who don't have it then it's a choice between making land based astronomy more difficult or damaging the environment by extending more cables through the oceans and land and building millions of more towers.
But that's if it does bring internet to those people
But that's if it does bring internet to those people
Isn't it somehow inevitable that the Earth Orbit will get too cluttered in the near future?
If it's not SpaceX, then it's another company.
I thin we will have to move the telescopes off-planet in the long run.
If it's not SpaceX, then it's another company.
I thin we will have to move the telescopes off-planet in the long run.
OP
OP
The problem is the sheer number SpaceX wants. About 42k. Plus the fact they're not covered in non reflective material
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This seems like a relative non-issue in the face of providing millions of poor and disenfranchised people access to the 21st century economy. Let's not forgot the ecological impact of running cables all over the place.
Aside from that it sounds like most of the concerns are on SpaceXs radar and are relatively easily addressed. Let's not lose our shit just because Elon's name is attached.
Aside from that it sounds like most of the concerns are on SpaceXs radar and are relatively easily addressed. Let's not lose our shit just because Elon's name is attached.
I'm definitely not a fan of Musk after all the stunts he's pulled lately, but as technology improves this seems like a foregone conclusion? It's probably better to move towards a future where we don't have to rely on ground based astronomy anyway. As technology improves, everything's gonna be wireless and global. How does that happen? Through satellites in the sky.
Because Elon Musk is obsessed with shiny space futurism over practicality or giving a single fucking thought to the repercussions of his actions
Fuck off with this. There are plenty of people in rural communities who don't have the same opportunities as others because of lack of high speed internet. And you wonder why middle America feels like their being abandoned.
Personally, I can't wait for this to become a reality.
Yes Elon has shown that he actually addresses problems with his products.
Can I sell you a bridge in Alaska?
NASA has always been largely private - most, if not nearly all of the components of their rockets, spacecrafts and other stuff are built and sometimes managed by private contractors (usually aerospace/military), even from the very beginning:
User Banned (2 Weeks): Inflammatory Generalizations and Hostility; Prior Bans for Hostility
You fuck off. They live in bumblefuck, and vote against any kind of social reforms, but expect everyone else to pay to run lines out to them. We're better off without them poisoning the internet even more.
Heh. "We trained an AI to alter our measurements until the gave us the results we wanted" doesn't fly super well in scientific fields.
Lol. It's funny how people can claim to be so righteous, while simultaneously dismissing millions of people simply because they are from "bumblefuck."
This is what the right does with immigrants. Seems you aren't better than that.
I forgot about measurements and was thinking solely about pictures. Thank you.
There's only so much painting them black will actually do - they will still generate heat and therefore be detectable, in fact doing so would only make them hotter (potentially to the extent of causing the electronics inside to fail) since that energy has to go somewhere, and there isn't an atmosphere to dissipate it. There's a reason why most of the stuff we put into space is reflective:
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't care because he think's he's going to usher in a new era of space travel, and that everyone will just be using space-telescopes instead.
Maybe, maybe not. This is one of those things where "You don't know what you don't know," thus it'll be difficult to know how useful the science will be in the future. For example: Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Will these Telescope-based discoveries eventually lead to something practical? Who knows?! Astronomy is great for testing the laws of physics in ways that are not possible on Earth, and this does lead to discoveries and confirmations of discoveries that can be useful. But you don't know till after the fact.
With that in mind: I'm not sure satellites -- or at least such a large array -- are really necessary to bring internet to rural areas. It's perhaps the most cost-effective with spaceX, but it in principle can be done in other ways. It's just an issue of getting companies and governments to be willing to invest in the infrastructure; most people don't want to pay the high cost.
Side note: The destruction of ground-based observation will put a number of small industries out of business. Meanwhile, investing in infrastructure on the ground will put more people to work. If you want to service the poor, SpaceX's plan might not be the most socially beneficial. It's main benefit seems to be that it'll happen quickly thanks to minimal construction and it being spear-headed by a single-company.
Imagine feeling abandoned because the policies you vote for are working exactly as they intended which is to say not for your community's benefit, and ignoring the other party that is willing to help you but you don't want it because they're also kinda sorta helping city folks, and you see those people as freeloaders and you don't want to give them "free stuff"
I wonder if it would even help. The moon is about as reflective as an iron skillet or asphalt iirc, but the light hitting it is so strong and has nothing to diffuse it that it looks bright.
Man, you are trash as hell.
People are not defined by where they live; they're defined by their beliefs and how they treat others.
There might be a slight correlation with specific areas, but yeah, sure, the good people living in those areas don't deserve opportunities because of the people around them?
Sure, but you can still be happy for the people who don't vote for those policies to get access to high speed internet for the first time.
Imagine being liberal living in these areas and feeling powerless to make any change in your local community because you're outnumbered and tell me you wouldn't be thankful for a private company finally giving you broadband internet when your government and fellow community members failed you.
Yes, let's destroy science from observatories on the ground while enriching private corporations under the guise of helping the poor.
Providing satellite internet is not a humanitarian mission, period. SpaceX and Musk just want to get paid.
Didn't his company try to SWAT a whistleblower about their conditions?
Sounds like the reasonable person who will accept public faults right here.
This is exactly his position.
And he claims that the next generation of Starlink satellites will be painted to reduce reflectivity. They seem to be treating the whole current batch of satellites like prototypes, for better or worse.
While technically true, there's good reason why JWST and the Thirty Meter Telescope were being built. We're mostly at the limit of what we're pretty sure can be found on reasonable timescales with the current telescopes. Maybe someone will have a stroke of luck and find something, but probably not.
While we're on the topic of ground-based astronomy, its important to remember that, even without Starlink, the Thirty Meter Telescope was already having to resort to being built on a Mauna Kea to be viable for the desired research and, well, that's a bit problematic...
Maybe we are better off not doing astronomical research from the ground.
no he's doing it for progress of humanity. you gotta believe. which is why so many of those 'help the poor' projects have worked out so well.
Theres a shit of satellite alreaydy orbiting Earth but those 122 more are already destroying astronomical observation? Not the other 4800?
OP
OP
I do feel for the dozen or so good people out there. The rest can fuck off and use their bootstraps to run the lines.
There are one dozen good people who live in the Midwest/South? Jesus Christ, dude. There are millions. Learn how numbers work.
Your point completely breaks down if you admit there are millions of good people there, so you wanna try addressing it? Dozens is hyperbole, but you clearly meant it to mean "not enough for me to give a shit", so fuck you.
Fuck you and your bigotry. I live in Bumblefuck USA, I vote straight dem every chance I can, and the best internet I can get is DSL 7Mbit up / 0.7Mbit down. I'd love for Elon's Starlink to finally give me a modern ISP option.
Grow up dude.