Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites!
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@macronencer @sundogplanets Wait, what's the image for?
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
@sundogplanets I'm trying to figure out with friends how many of the visible satellites in that image are Starlink. Maybe you could give a rough estimate?
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Bastards. Total failure of policy and regulatory enforcement.
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@sundogplanets I'm trying to figure out with friends how many of the visible satellites in that image are Starlink. Maybe you could give a rough estimate?
@sundogplanets We're pretty sure a majority must be Starlink, but is it more like ⅔ or 99% of those lines?
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@sundogplanets and for what?
I did some napkin math some time ago: all these satellites cost around 10-15B usd to deploy. This would be equivalent of 0.5 - 1 million cell towers at 10-20k usd (yeah that cheap).
There are currently 7 million cell towers worldwide most of which are old and under-performing. With 1 million NEW cell towers with economies of scale we could have probably covered the same actual reach with better latency, access and affordability.Low orbit internet is a joke.
Yeah, but a single EMP can't take out a million cell towers because the cell towers have the mass to have slightly decent insulation.
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@macronencer Ohh, right, yeah, that argument. I had forgotten about it.
Yeah, it's bollocks. Ukraine still has Internet infrastructure. It's not as hard to destroy internet connectivity in a war precisely because of the distributive nature of routable networks.
In other words, Starlink is completely unnecessary. Ukraine's gonna be fine... at least internet wise.
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
@sundogplanets
I don't even know what service those satellites are intended to provide. We've already got cell phone towers everywhere, thank you very much. -
Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
@sundogplanets This is why there shouldn't be any billionaires. If Musk didn't have so much darn money, he couldn't waste it on a useless polluting constellation of satellites like this.
What a mess.
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@sundogplanets BUT ELNO PROMISED... sorry I had a hard time typing that without laughing.
ELNO! If it's a typo or intentional, either way, I love it.
Maybe best pronounced in a cockney accent 'Elno
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ELNO! If it's a typo or intentional, either way, I love it.
Maybe best pronounced in a cockney accent 'Elno
@w_b @sundogplanets Oh its intentional, I dont want to besmirch Elmo's name, hes doing good things for the children everywhere. Elno on the other hand...
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Ok. Maybe stupid question, but why is regulation left to the FCC? I get that they should regulate the radio frequencies, but their orbits?
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
@sundogplanets I'm really interested in (and started investing in) https://ast-science.com/ , their model is to use satellites that can communicate with normal 5G etc. It will destroy Starlink, and they're planning on using ~200 satellites
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Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit)
Don't worry, SpaceX said they'd get their satellites below magnitude 7! (They have not https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2025MNRAS.544L..15M/PUB_PDF)
Don't worry, they won't actually start Kessler Syndrome! https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
Don't worry, they won't actually launch a million AI data centres into orbit!! https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
This is the fucking worst I-told-you-so https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
@sundogplanets And just so you can doomscroll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
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@sundogplanets I'm really interested in (and started investing in) https://ast-science.com/ , their model is to use satellites that can communicate with normal 5G etc. It will destroy Starlink, and they're planning on using ~200 satellites
@amfernee With tennis-court sized satellites that are brighter than the brightest stars in the sky. I hate them.
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@amfernee With tennis-court sized satellites that are brighter than the brightest stars in the sky. I hate them.
@amfernee They will also completely destroy radio astronomy, and are using amateur radio bands. They're pretty awful overall. Please don't invest in them.
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@amfernee They will also completely destroy radio astronomy, and are using amateur radio bands. They're pretty awful overall. Please don't invest in them.
@sundogplanets oof. well, do we hate them.. more or less than Starlink?
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@sundogplanets oof. well, do we hate them.. more or less than Starlink?
@amfernee They won't replace starlink, they aren't providing internet service. They are completely redundant with cell towers. They also are not even trying to get their satellites fainter, because they say it's impossible. And they will provide a huge debris cross-section, so also pretty bad for Kessler Syndrome. So, I hate them more.
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@amfernee They won't replace starlink, they aren't providing internet service. They are completely redundant with cell towers. They also are not even trying to get their satellites fainter, because they say it's impossible. And they will provide a huge debris cross-section, so also pretty bad for Kessler Syndrome. So, I hate them more.
@amfernee I wrote this op-ed about them (and other satellite constellations) a couple years ago for Nature: https://rdcu.be/drQOU
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@amfernee I wrote this op-ed about them (and other satellite constellations) a couple years ago for Nature: https://rdcu.be/drQOU
@sundogplanets I'll read, thanks for sharing!
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@sundogplanets I'll read, thanks for sharing!
@amfernee Thank you for reading!
