Starlink: Internet Access of the Future

[User 189]

This looks really fascinating! Does anybody plan on signing up for Starlink? It seems like a great solution for anybody living in remote conditions.

Starlink: Internet Access of the Future

For people who either have slow download and upload speeds or don’t even have internet access at all, Elon Musk is here to deliver something that will certainly interest you! It is also worth mentioning that governments wont be able to force Starlink to shutdown. As a result, people can...

forums.theblockheads.net

 

[Pumbaa]

Astronomers are very frustrated with Elon Musk’s satellites

Who will save the night sky?

www.vox.com

 

[Thomas Veil]

On the surface this sounds good, but Pumbaa’s link gives me pause. Thirty thousand satellites? In addition to everything that’s already up there? Sounds like a nightmare for NASA space navigation.

 

[SuperMatt]

On the surface this sounds good, but Pumbaa’s link gives me pause. Thirty thousand satellites? In addition to everything that’s already up there? Sounds like a nightmare for NASA space navigation.

I’ve got a friend from college who is an astronomer. She is pretty angry about the Starlink satellites.

 

[User 189]

Astronomers are very frustrated with Elon Musk’s satellites

Who will save the night sky?

www.vox.com

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Been a while since I checked into this, but last I checked it was pretty cost-prohibitive while not being substantially better than competitor satellite internet that is already available.

It seems there's a lot of Jobs' "fake it until you make it" philosophy going on right now with the addition of screwing your early adopters by making them subsidize your shortfalls thought making them unwilling and unpaid beta testers.

 

[User 189]

Been a while since I checked into this, but last I checked it was pretty cost-prohibitive while not being substantially better than competitor satellite internet that is already available.

It seems there's a lot of Jobs' "fake it until you make it" philosophy going on right now with the addition of screwing your early adopters by making them subsidize your shortfalls thought making them unwilling and unpaid beta testers.

The cost is expected to go down as time goes by.

 

[Pumbaa]

View attachment 7701

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

SpaceX's Dark Satellites Are Still Too Bright for Astronomers

The company’s attempts to dim the spacecraft in its megaconstellation fall short of eliminating disruptions to the world’s ground-based observatories

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

The cost is expected to go down as time goes by.

Yeah, as soon as they get more people to pay them high rates to be beta testers.

This is long overdue but the people who would benefit from it the most probably can't afford the high rates. They're not using it on their yacht.

 

[Herdfan]

Been a while since I checked into this, but last I checked it was pretty cost-prohibitive while not being substantially better than competitor satellite internet that is already available.

Simple physics should make it better. I had satellite internet from 1994 to 2003 (both 1-way and 2-way) and the Ping was horrible due to the 47,200 mile round trip for every page request or page load. Plus they had this thing they called the FAP (no not that kind) or Fair Access Policy. Basically data caps to keep kids downloading movies from killing the network for someone that just wants to check email or read news. I want to say back then they were 750M/day.

But this new system with the satellites only 300 miles above the surface, the Ping issue would be gone and with that many satellites, bandwidth shouldn't be a problem. That said, 5G should at some point eliminate most issues. You can put up towers a lot quicker and cheaper than launching satellites.

So we will see.