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.
-realPresidentNixon- on
God, is this guy capable of *not* being a douchebag for just a single day? Christ…
*Edit: I see the “Elon can do no wrong” crowd found this comment. Have some respect for yourselves and stop worshipping a man who doesn’t even know you exist.*
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.
kiwinoob99 on
who cares about some dumb amateurs astronomers. professionals use the Hubble or James webb
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.
snarkhunter on
*What doesn’t Elon want us to see??*
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.
kahnindustries on
Ask musk to chuck a massive telescope up above star link for the Astro science nerds, easy fix
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?
dontlikeyouinthatway on
musk is responsible for maybe 1% of what is up there. people think the US’ secrets are on the ground….
jcooli09 on
Those things really should be brought down.
gorays21 on
The whole universe is rooting for Harris, so Musk decided to block it.
25 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.
God, is this guy capable of *not* being a douchebag for just a single day? Christ…
*Edit: I see the “Elon can do no wrong” crowd found this comment. Have some respect for yourselves and stop worshipping a man who doesn’t even know you exist.*
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.
who cares about some dumb amateurs astronomers. professionals use the Hubble or James webb
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.
*What doesn’t Elon want us to see??*
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.
Ask musk to chuck a massive telescope up above star link for the Astro science nerds, easy fix
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?
musk is responsible for maybe 1% of what is up there. people think the US’ secrets are on the ground….
Those things really should be brought down.
The whole universe is rooting for Harris, so Musk decided to block it.