What the actual fuck.

[tony@toot.hoyle.me.uk]

@sundogplanets That's something like 17,000 falcon 9 launches... they did 606 last year.

[pleaseclap@techhub.social]

@sundogplanets Imagine being familiar with the Kardashev scale but unfamiliar with Kessler syndrome

[patrick@retro.social]

@jakebrake There's a German comic "Elon & Jeff on Mars" that goes like this (https://www.carlsen.de/hardcover/elon-jeff-mars/978-3-551-80572-0)

[betterifyouneil@mastodon.social]

Elmo is too mouthy... They had to cut him loose.

[javierg@mstdn.social]

@sundogplanets
Seems they're (intentionally?) confusing Kardashiev and Kessler

[desperadoduck@digitalcourage.social]

@sundogplanets if they speak of datacenters - I imagine them to be much larger than starlink satellites and they would need a lot of energy. I guess they will have huge solar panels.

This is bat-shit crazy if true.

[seconduniverse@autistics.life]

@Chancerubbage @sundogplanets @Barbramon1 Most importantly, there are far too many of them already.

[zakalwe@plasmatrap.com]

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social It's utterly batshit insane.

[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?