WOW what a rollercoaster looking at my email and texts this morning.

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

WOW what a rollercoaster looking at my email and texts this morning. First piece of context: I am staying in an (incredibly nice) sheep shearer's hut (actually bigger than my house) in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and THIS is what the sunrise looks like right now. Wow.

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

I have an email from my collaborator saying he just re-ran the CRASH Clock code, and we are now under 3 days for the first time ever! Good work on bringing us that much closer to Kessler Syndrome, everybody. Special congrats to SpaceX on that one. Hope you take full credit when it starts!

https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/ (Website hasn't been updated yet, but here's info on what the CRASH Clock tells us about how close we are to Kessler Syndrome)

[401matthall@mastodon.xyz]

@sundogplanets

I don't think I ever _really_ grokked that a huge amount of currently in-use equipment has to be moved constantly to avoid it being destroyed and creating a cascade (I know, I know that's literally the definition of Kessler Syndrome.)

I think it's the _active_ part of the monitoring and responding that escaped me before.

So... Equipment that could keep station _sooo_ much longer if it didn't have to wobble all the damn time ends it's lifespan earlier than it should?

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

I have another email from @planet4589.bsky.social saying that he's already put the brand new proposed AI data center megaconstellation on his website https://planet4589.org/space/con/conlist.html

That's now 3 new AI data center megaconstellations proposed in the last month or so, one of which has a million satellites (thanks, SpaceX. You suck.)

Thanks to many hours from many astronomers, the response to SpaceX's response to AAS's petition to deny is ready for approval, has to be submitted by Monday.

[davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets

Rename it Musk-Kessler Syndrome?

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

And it appears that Reflect Orbital missed the deadline to respond to the nearly 2000 comments and petitions to deny that were submitted to the FCC!!!! Thank you to everyone who wrote in!!

This is amazing. It unfortunately probably doesn't mean that they will stop the process of launching, the FCC will still consider it, and may approve it. But at least I don't have to help write a new response by like... Tuesday. Fuck you, FCC, this process is awful and stupid.

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@sundogplanets It would be really, really awesome if they decided it just wasn't worth the hassle because of all those woke people.

[davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social]

@aud @sundogplanets

I'm not a scientist, but I think I've got this right:

A) data centres guzzle large amounts of drinking water

B) large amounts of water are not easily available in earth orbit

C) the large amounts of water are used for cooling

D) space is a vacuum, insulating data centres from radiating heat, and keeping them warm as toast, which is a bad thing for computers

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

And last but not least, HOLY SHIT the stars were fucking incredible last night!!!! (No auroras visible from here but the stars were so good who cares)

(Lots of satellites, of course. Sigh.)

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

And lastly, Kia Ora, Tekapo!! Excited to give a talk for you later today. (It's at 4pm, not 6am, this website is wrong) https://happeningnext.com/event/astronomy-vs-the-billionaire-space-race-eid3a0dhdn6jl
Last scheduled talk of the #ProfSamLectureTour

Now time to (politely and carefully) wander around an active sheep farm! Happy equinox!

[callmedawn@tech.lgbt]

@sundogplanets I love seeing that I'm not the only one whose brain always comes up with "solstice" even though I know perfectly well what the difference between that and equinox is.

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

@callmedawn You didn't know it's the solstice down here in the southern hemisphere?

HAHA just kidding, I messed up and I will fix it. Thank you.

[mycrowgirl@flipping.rocks]

@sundogplanets it’s full of STARS 🤩

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

@401matthall I'm honestly not sure if the fuel is the primary limitation on working lifetime. But it certainly means they can't dodge forever, and dodging more often requires more fuel, which either requires bigger tanks (and more $$$) or shorter operating lifetimes.