The big issue is the massive constellation of satellites is barely being used anywhere near capacity to justify such a big install.
5200 satellites just for 3 million customers is beyond pathetic. I know it’s not a fair comparison, but DIRECTV has 11 million subscribers with 12 satellites.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
PigeroniPepperoni on
Conflicts with astronomy but it was a godsend when I was on ocean research vessels.
simulated_copy on
I hate Starlink
And the clusterfu#k of space jumk in orbit
SgtMartinRiggs on
This is an interesting one because it directly conflicts with his supposed (ie bullshit) love for and knowledge of science and the cosmos.
Papageier on
Damn Elon Musk and his…
*shuffles deck, draws card*
…satellites!
Electrical-Risk445 on
There’s other megaconstellations out there (OneWeb and the Chinese one), wonder what their impact is.
maporita on
BBC editorializing the headline again. They are Starlink satellites. Musk just happens to be the CEO. We wouldn’t talk about “Jensen Huang’s graphics chips” for example.
BerkleyJ on
The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy which are likely being exaggerated. They are also easily overcome by using space-based telescopes which will become more and more common and affordable due to SpaceX.
Halting technological progress because of small inconveniences that can almost certainly be solved with the same technology is counter-productive. The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy.
JimThePea on
Trust Musk to be the one to push us over into Kessler Syndrome.
spap-oop on
Time to deploy the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
flounderpants on
I have reduced visibility of the sky due to the corporate space junk. I should be compensated for my loss
SeparateSpend1542 on
How does one man get to decide he gets to encircle the earth with his profit machines? This is Mr Burns blotting out the sun level villainy.
BIGGUS_dickus_sir on
Leon said he wants to put advertising projectors in orbit.
tech01x on
The British Broadcasting Company scaremongering over Starlink, when the British are co-owners of OneWeb, which has far brighter satellites. Hmmm… not to mention that the Chinese are launching their large constellation that is far brighter than either. Then Amazon is going to launch theirs too….
Simply, any real space observation is going to have to be done by satellite in 10-15 years, and to the naked eye, we wouldn’t be able to tell anyways except in particular circumstances at dawn or dusk.
BWWFC on
now the real prime importance to getting reliable travel/presence to *the beyond*, aka moon/mars. BOOM!
and really… the future of astronomy has *evolved* to removing the atmosphere, thus *Hubble and James Webb,*
PeteZappardi on
Let’s do a quick thought experiment. First, think of a car.
There are 6,000 Starlink satellites. I couldn’t find exact dimensions for them online, but let’s say they’re 3 car-lengths long when deployed. So we can normalize the size of Starlink to be equivalent to about 18,000 cars.
There are about 1.5 billion cars on the planet, spread out over the 30% of the planet’s surface that isn’t water.
Now, think about how many of those cars you can see from 300 miles above the Earth’s surface. (For reference, pictures from the ISS are in the ballpark of 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.)
Do you see any cars? If you were to drop something, what are the chance you think it’d hit a car? Based on that view, would you say that Earth is at risk of running out of room for cars? I doubt it. Even though the concentration of cars on land is on the order of 20,000,000 times greater than the concentration of Starlink satellites in orbit. And yet, people think Starlinks are overcrowding orbit.
Sure, satellites are moving faster, but the nice thing about orbits is that they are trackable and predictable, much more akin to train tracks than to the roads all those cars travel on.
monkeysuffrage on
Aren’t the best telescopes beyond starlink orbit?
jcooli09 on
Those things really should be brought down.
want-to-say-this on
Isn’t Amazon doing satellite internet too?
alpha53- on
This really sucks for peps into astrophotography.
emseewagz on
when you are staring out into the great vastness of the universe, searching for meaning and the origins of life, think of me
-Elon
Dzotshen on
Who greenlit this shit? Talk to them
xoxoxivy on
Guess Musk’s wet dream has always been to be a James Bond-style super-villain, and, I shit you not, he made it!
marmarama on
A minor issue, easily solvable for professional astronomers and sophisticated amateurs by image processing. The satellites move fast against the background and are fairly easy to subtract from the final data, where they appear in frame.
It’s a little extra work in terms of software and might require slightly longer exposure time, but nothing that’s going to destroy serious ground-based astronomy. It’s already extremely reliant on sophisticated image processing.
More annoying for amateurs doing naked eye astronomy with small telescopes, and single long exposure astrophotography.
Schlibbus on
Okay we get it, musk bad.
WTFvancouver on
When is he going to reveal his full Bond villan mode when he blocks out the sun
28 Comments
Elmo is such a prick.
The big issue is the massive constellation of satellites is barely being used anywhere near capacity to justify such a big install.
5200 satellites just for 3 million customers is beyond pathetic. I know it’s not a fair comparison, but DIRECTV has 11 million subscribers with 12 satellites.
[deleted]
Conflicts with astronomy but it was a godsend when I was on ocean research vessels.
I hate Starlink
And the clusterfu#k of space jumk in orbit
This is an interesting one because it directly conflicts with his supposed (ie bullshit) love for and knowledge of science and the cosmos.
Damn Elon Musk and his…
*shuffles deck, draws card*
…satellites!
There’s other megaconstellations out there (OneWeb and the Chinese one), wonder what their impact is.
BBC editorializing the headline again. They are Starlink satellites. Musk just happens to be the CEO. We wouldn’t talk about “Jensen Huang’s graphics chips” for example.
The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy which are likely being exaggerated. They are also easily overcome by using space-based telescopes which will become more and more common and affordable due to SpaceX.
Halting technological progress because of small inconveniences that can almost certainly be solved with the same technology is counter-productive. The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy.
Trust Musk to be the one to push us over into Kessler Syndrome.
Time to deploy the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
I have reduced visibility of the sky due to the corporate space junk. I should be compensated for my loss
How does one man get to decide he gets to encircle the earth with his profit machines? This is Mr Burns blotting out the sun level villainy.
Leon said he wants to put advertising projectors in orbit.
The British Broadcasting Company scaremongering over Starlink, when the British are co-owners of OneWeb, which has far brighter satellites. Hmmm… not to mention that the Chinese are launching their large constellation that is far brighter than either. Then Amazon is going to launch theirs too….
Simply, any real space observation is going to have to be done by satellite in 10-15 years, and to the naked eye, we wouldn’t be able to tell anyways except in particular circumstances at dawn or dusk.
now the real prime importance to getting reliable travel/presence to *the beyond*, aka moon/mars. BOOM!
and really… the future of astronomy has *evolved* to removing the atmosphere, thus *Hubble and James Webb,*
Let’s do a quick thought experiment. First, think of a car.
There are 6,000 Starlink satellites. I couldn’t find exact dimensions for them online, but let’s say they’re 3 car-lengths long when deployed. So we can normalize the size of Starlink to be equivalent to about 18,000 cars.
There are about 1.5 billion cars on the planet, spread out over the 30% of the planet’s surface that isn’t water.
Now, think about how many of those cars you can see from 300 miles above the Earth’s surface. (For reference, pictures from the ISS are in the ballpark of 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.)
Do you see any cars? If you were to drop something, what are the chance you think it’d hit a car? Based on that view, would you say that Earth is at risk of running out of room for cars? I doubt it. Even though the concentration of cars on land is on the order of 20,000,000 times greater than the concentration of Starlink satellites in orbit. And yet, people think Starlinks are overcrowding orbit.
Sure, satellites are moving faster, but the nice thing about orbits is that they are trackable and predictable, much more akin to train tracks than to the roads all those cars travel on.
Aren’t the best telescopes beyond starlink orbit?
Those things really should be brought down.
Isn’t Amazon doing satellite internet too?
This really sucks for peps into astrophotography.
when you are staring out into the great vastness of the universe, searching for meaning and the origins of life, think of me
-Elon
Who greenlit this shit? Talk to them
Guess Musk’s wet dream has always been to be a James Bond-style super-villain, and, I shit you not, he made it!
A minor issue, easily solvable for professional astronomers and sophisticated amateurs by image processing. The satellites move fast against the background and are fairly easy to subtract from the final data, where they appear in frame.
It’s a little extra work in terms of software and might require slightly longer exposure time, but nothing that’s going to destroy serious ground-based astronomy. It’s already extremely reliant on sophisticated image processing.
More annoying for amateurs doing naked eye astronomy with small telescopes, and single long exposure astrophotography.
Okay we get it, musk bad.
When is he going to reveal his full Bond villan mode when he blocks out the sun