What the actual fuck.

[the_wub@mastodon.social]

@irina @sundogplanets Hmmm. So, thinking selfishly it could theoretically happen within my lifetime.

In the back of my mind is this kind of thing, as drawn to my attention some time ago by the esteemed professor themselves:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_gun

[c_dan4th@mstdn.social]

@sundogplanets Surely someone has done the math here: roughly 10^1.5 satellites per launch. Roughly 10^2 launches per year. Average satellite lifetime of (optimistically) 10^1 years… Is 10^6 satellites even possible? (never mind orbital intersections, etc.)

[tartley@fosstodon.org]

@Kierkegaanks @sundogplanets it's whatever is so ambitious that no investor can figure out it's unrealistic until it has successfully propped up the share price until the next one

[pamela1960@kolektiva.social]

@sundogplanets Countries need to start banning satellites above their near space, and either jamming them or destroying them if not moved.

[edelruth@mastodon.online]

@sundogplanets

🎶🎵 It's raining not-men-but-satellites 🎵🎶

[crystal_fish_caves@mstdn.party]

@sundogplanets rogue asteroids no longer need to fear being detected and intercepted, or have Bruce Willis land and destroy them. We will never see them coming through the cloud of billionaire supported space junk in the way.

Time travel must not be possible or someone would have come back to us 100 years ago and thwarted the system that lets some have BILLIONS while others live on the street.

[alphapuggle@infosec.exchange]

@sundogplanets I swear if we lose our night sky for *AI* I'm going to lose it

[alisonw@fedimon.uk]

@sundogplanets
You can't have effective data centres in space though!
https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/

[alisonw@hachyderm.io]

@irina @the_wub @sundogplanets
But we already know - what goes up *will* come down (and in an unknown and uncontrolled manner too).

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@sundogplanets

Where does the FCC get off in thinking it can make decisions that affect the entire planet and all humankind?

There's a tui in the tree outside loudly proclaiming "Ripe Plums".

@adambecker.bsky.social

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@kwayk42 @dougwade @sundogplanets
Giant silly putty katamaris ... in space!

[c_dan4th@mstdn.social]

@sundogplanets Just doing this math says there’s a maximum of 30,000 operational Starlinks at any given time unless they’re ramping up to way more launches/year, more satellites/launch, or less shitty satellites. None of these seems super likely.

[lcwheeler@ecoevo.social]

@c_dan4th @sundogplanets

[kwayk42@sechtor.social]

@ohmu @dougwade @sundogplanets

KATAMARI DAMACI

[azuaron@cyberpunk.lol]

@sundogplanets I am not an astronaut, but it was my understanding one of the biggest problems in space was radiating waste heat.

I am a computer engineer, and I definitely know one of the biggest problems of data centers is that they generate a lot of waste heat.

Sending ONE satellite into space to be a data center would be the stupidest idea I'd heard all week.

[kaito02@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets somebody stop this nonsense. This will irreversibly deprive our species of land astronomy and the chance of ever leaving this planet.

Maybe the reason why there aren't any aliens is because they all have Elons.

[edelruth@mastodon.online]

@isaackuo @sundogplanets @adambecker.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy

Less of a moron if he's just going for the money grab, and could not care less about the planet. Which is the version of Musk that my brain envisions.

[ericfielding@mastodon.social]

@BenjaminKlein @sundogplanets @adambecker.bsky.social The GPS satellites are in Medium Earth Orbit, far above LEO satellites.

[jered@metasocial.com]

@sundogplanets There must be something else going on. This cannot be what it seems.

Anyone with a modicum of experience knows the arguments in the FCC filing are garbage; beyond the enormous launch costs, space-grade solar is far more expensive than on the ground, and cooling is ghastly hard because you're in a vacuum.

Buzzword-based value pump for the merger? Jurisdiction shopping? Mental illness?

[c_dan4th@mstdn.social]

@AlisonW There’s a reason those of us who worry about on-board processing spend so much time getting our code super stripped down and do all the heavy lifting on ground systems. Sheesh!