What the actual fuck.

[zakalwe@plasmatrap.com]

@ppulfer@mastodon.ie @sundogplanets@mastodon.social Um, no. Not really.

Granted, in an orbit with the right inclination, you can get continuous sunlight, and that sunlight is several times more intense than at ground level. So power can be relatively abundant.

However, a ground-based datacenter can use conductive and convective cooling, both of which can be highly efficient at removing heat even at only moderate temperatures. In space the only mechanism you have, in the end, is radiative cooling... and the physics of black-body radiation are such that a datacenter satellite that hasn't yet fried every semiconductor within it simply isn't hot enough to efficiently radiate as much heat as it's going to generate.

Relatively low-power communications satellites are one thing. We've proven that works. We've proven we can cool astronomical instruments to their optimal working temperatures, though it sometimes takes some very clever solutions. But datacenters in satellites? That's madness.

[weezmgk@mastodon.social]

@sahak do you know what happens when there's too many satellites in orbit? Short answer: much fewer satellites in orbit. Gewgle Kessler Syndrome @sundogplanets

[zakalwe@plasmatrap.com]

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai @sundogplanets@mastodon.social Hint: Ask yourself why datacenters use massive bundles of wired or fiber connections internally rather than WiFi.

[weezmgk@mastodon.social]

@ppulfer #cough Kessler Syndrome @sundogplanets

[michael_w_busch@mastodon.online]

@zgryphon @sundogplanets

The radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev developed a scale describing hypothetical aliens by the amount of energy they used as a guide for what SETI searches could and could not find.

A "Kardashev II" level would involve using the entire energy output of the Sun by dismantling planets and turning them into solar panels.

Which has no resemblance to this particular bit of vaporware.

[fiend_unpleasant@mastodon.social]

@CStamp @sundogplanets They don't. Anyone can shoot anything into space if they can afford it. No one governs space. What he needs is permission to use the air waves. The section is highlighted in the attached image.

I am not defending him (I think he is a giant child molesting, aspie supremacist, queef) I just thought that in this current era of disinfo someone should step in an clear up things.

[borisschapira@framapiaf.org]

@sundogplanets this is by far the stupidest thing I've heard in this dystopian mess Elon and friends are plunging us in.

[brood@mas.to]

@sundogplanets
holy fuck. * groan *

[cstamp@mastodon.social]

@fiend_unpleasant @sundogplanets that doesn’t mean it’s not wrong. They are possibly damaging our atmosphere, they ARE ruining our night sky, they are increasing risk of damage to people when they fall out of the sky, they are risking damage to flights beyond our atmosphere…

That one government has the right to speak for all of us is crap.

[iamlayer8@mastodon.social]

@Pepijn
Which step exactly is the one where #magicHappens?

@sundogplanets

[fiend_unpleasant@mastodon.social]

@jackemled @sundogplanets Oh we CAN do this and yes the FCC in the USA & the equivalents in other countries would be VERY mad.

I'm not far enough in my ham radio journey to help much in the procurement of Ka band equipment but I figure with enough hours of watching https://www.youtube.com/@saveitforparts someone should be able to figure out how to get the good stuff cheap.

[2rad0@defcon.social]

@sundogplanets

I don't know if that can be profitable, they have to convince a lot of suckers to pay a premium price for an inferior non-wired internet connection. Each node is deorbited every 5 years or so, so that's 200,000 nodes being turned into a dumpster fire and crashing back to earth each year. say each costs $1,000, then it's a billion in overhead they throw away just to repopulate the mesh hardware every 5 years, ignoring the even more critical launch, operations, and insurance costs, I suspect hardware costs are well over $1,000 per node, but I can't find any real numbers to base this on.

The bigger problem though is why TF are phone companies even entertaining the idea of participating in the creation of a new competitor that could easily turn into a monopoly and crush them?

[iamlayer8@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets
My only thought: externalities

[legit_spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al]

@Kiloku @sundogplanets The Kardashev scale is meaningless drivel. It's just some dude making shit up in the 1960s to get government funding from the Soviets. Anyone who references the scale like it's meaningful, ESPECIALLY in an official filing, is not a serious person.

All of these tech idiots need to be bullied aggressively until they go away. We need to locate that idiot from Pretoria's childhood bullies and get some historical data to kick things off.

[kaievans@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets I kind of think the project is cool as fuck and makes a ton of sense. Fuck that guy obviously

[emily_s@mastodon.me.uk]

@sundogplanets 30x more satellites than objects that we are currently tracking in orbit? (Including debris from stuff that blew or was blown up)

One company?

Well that's fucking ridiculous.

[fiend_unpleasant@mastodon.social]

@CStamp @sundogplanets I'm sorry I thought calling Elon Musk a giant child molesting, aspie supremacist, queef would have conveyed that I think he is wrong to do this.

It's important to be factual when we are trying to stop shit heads from doing shit head things so they can't argue back.

How do you think they could damage the atmosphere? And again the US government has jurisdiction over the Ka band in the US, not space. Anyone could decide they hate the new satellites and shoot them down.

[oisin@mastodon.ie]

@sundogplanets WHAT on earth are they going on about, they are like 12 year old boys

[r4d10_411310p47hy@freeradical.zone]

@sundogplanets Not to mention this is a terrible idea. Hard drives don't last that long and now we are gonna have to launch data recovery teams every time an orbiting RAID array goes down? Not practical at all. How is it these people get to say they are pragmatists and their plans are constantly more and more asinine.

[los0220@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets At this point I'm quite sure they're deliberately trying to cause a Kessler syndrome, so we could never escape the hell billionaires are going to lay upon us.