Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites!

[mdc@mstdn.ca]

@sundogplanets

I've been seeing more posts trying to downplay Kessler Syndrome lately. Hard to tell how much of that is coming from SpaceX/Musk fans or corporate PR bots

[kusuriya@masto.hackers.town]

@sundogplanets BUT ELNO PROMISED... sorry I had a hard time typing that without laughing.

[wraptile@fosstodon.org]

@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.

[jappel@wandering.shop]

@sundogplanets Offered in the spirit of encouragement: even the most cursory look at the financial goings-on in the AI space indicate that it's going to come crashing down, because the math simply doesn't work. And that collapse is almost certainly going to happen before anyone gets close to launching datacenters. If you get a chance Ed Zitron has a refreshingly frank assessment of the financial side of things.

[sundogplanets@mastodon.social]

@wraptile This is excellent napkin math that I hadn't even thought to work out, thanks!

[phranck@oldbytes.space]

@sundogplanets @qwertziop This is horrible.

[ranx@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets since Kessler Syndrome seems inevitabile, the sooner the better? Positive effects: a) Starlink and probably all other companies, who's business is abusing LEO, go bankrupt; b) the FCC will have decades to think about how stupid they were; c) all those people subscribing to satellite internet because it's cool will learn what's the meaning of DO NOT FEED THE BEAST just for a little extra bandwidth. By the way, this morning I spotted the first Starlink antenna in town ;(

[scaletheory@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets

Kessler Syndrome

"NASA space debris expert Don Kessler observed that, once past a certain critical mass, the total amount of space debris will keep on increasing."

Sounds as if it's a chemical reaction creating matter not free will of idiots.

[crazyeddie@mastodon.social]

@jesterchen @sundogplanets "the hype will finally come to a screeching halt"

HAH!!!

[crazyeddie@mastodon.social]

@mdc @sundogplanets same same

[wiesodennblos@hessen.social]

@sundogplanets the "data centers in orbit" is the part that is not happening. Maybe the idea was advertised to justify spaceX investment in xAI and keep the circular money flows busy.

[brokar@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets @wraptile

Well, you can also spy with the satellites. Can't do that with a cell tower (not that effective) and destroying one satellite does nothing to the system.

I really wish China would launch their own 10.000 satellites and program them on a collision course with the Starlink ones, forcing all of them to enter the atmosphere and burn out.

I would personally thank Xi for making astronomy possible again

[wraptile@fosstodon.org]

@Brokar @sundogplanets yup it's a war machine disguised as a commercial product because the commerce math just doesn't math.

[kierkegaanks@beige.party]

@sundogplanets in my defense i didn’t think anybody was radically stupid enough to actually put a million datacenters in orbit and that elmo was scamming shareholders as per usual

[jackemled@furry.engineer]

@sundogplanets The satellites seem to be dark at some parts of their trails. Are they spinning‽ So their antennas just aren't aimed at Earth half of the time‽ I thought they couldn't be any stupider.

[screwturn@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets
If it weren't for the various categories of pollution and risk here, I would be 100% behind Sam and others blowing investor's fortunes on silly parlor games.

Like sure, go put a data center in orbit where a service call to replace a pump will cost a million bucks, and sure, expose your computers to radiation, and please, by all means find out the hard way that space is cold, but has very low specific heat capacity. Be my guest, play stupid games.

But sadly, the pollution costs

[benhm3@saint-paul.us]

@sundogplanets

When Prof. Lawler swears, we are in trouble.
#ListenToExperts

[castanea_jo@ni.hil.ist]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/116477011532548038

Cowboy Bebop was a dystopia and we don't have nearly their technological acumen (it was magic). I think often the people planning, enabling, building, launching these satellites have bad brain syndrome

[terribletowelie@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets

[endlessmason@hachyderm.io]

@jesterchen @sundogplanets
Literally the main problem is the "bright side"