Starlink

   / Starlink #41  
The plan is for 40,000 Starlink satellites. Since Sputnik, humans have launched 9,000 satellites. 5,000 are still in orbit, 2,000 are still operating. While I appreciate getting internet access to remote places, I have to think there is a better and cheaper way to do it. The satellites are visible with the naked eye and already are interfering with astronomers. Several of the Starlinks have stopped working and are already space junk. I personally don't want to see my beautiful night sky taken over by satellites that will be orbiting junk after a few years. Hope there is a better answer.

I am a fan of Musk, and SpaceX. Love how they land their rockets back on the launchpad. Makes a ton more sense than NASA's way of dropping them in the ocean. But launching 40,000 satellites for internet access may not be worth it in the long run.

This should be great for many areas of the country. While now they can launch 60 at each launch they are planning to launch 400 at a time with a larger rocket. I did not know about Elon Mush until I saw they could reuse their rockets. Now I am a fan of Elon Musk many talents.
 
   / Starlink #42  
The plan is for 40,000 Starlink satellites. Since Sputnik, humans have launched 9,000 satellites. 5,000 are still in orbit, 2,000 are still operating. While I appreciate getting internet access to remote places, I have to think there is a better and cheaper way to do it. The satellites are visible with the naked eye and already are interfering with astronomers. Several of the Starlinks have stopped working and are already space junk. I personally don't want to see my beautiful night sky taken over by satellites that will be orbiting junk after a few years. Hope there is a better answer.

I am a fan of Musk, and SpaceX. Love how they land their rockets back on the launchpad. Makes a ton more sense than NASA's way of dropping them in the ocean. But launching 40,000 satellites for internet access may not be worth it in the long run.

Elon has tweeted a few days ago that the reflected sunlight problem has been solved. This twinkle comes from the side of the comsat with the phased array antennas that have to be pointed at the surface of the Earth during the entire orbit in order to establish and maintain a communication link with the ground. And the solar panels reflect sunlight in a mirror-like way (specular reflection). This reflected sunlight happens twice per orbit for about 5 minutes each when the comsat passes through the penumbra of the Earth's shadow.

Elon's engineers have come up with an easy fix for the first problem--a thin black foam sunshade that covers the entire side of the comsat with the antennas and that is highly transparent to microwaves in the 7-30 GHz range. And the reflection from the solar panels is mitigated by rotating the comsat slightly around the Z-axis of the satellite ( the axis perpendicular to the plane of the antennas and which points toward the center of the Earth) so that specularly reflected sunlight is directed away from the surface of the Earth.

I'm pretty sure that a few of the Starlink comsats launched last Wednesday have the black foam sunshade and that the comsat rotation maneuver will be tested soon. Elon has tweeted that all 60 of the comsats in the 9th launch will have the sunshades.
 
   / Starlink #43  
Thin black film is not a cloaking device. It might make them less likely to reflect Sunlight, but it doesn't make them invisible or keep them from blocking views beyond them with telescopes. Or keep stuff from crashing into them. Or keep them from crashing into our barns/sheds/houses ....

He can't even keep his cars from crashing into other stuff.
 
   / Starlink
  • Thread Starter
#44  

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has shared more details about when in 2020 we can expect the companyç—´ Starlink low-latency, high-bandwidth satellite internet service to actually be available to customers. He said on Twitter that a private beta for Starlink would begin in around three months, with a public beta to kick off roughly three months after that.

The initial beta test will apply to those located in å¡—igh latitudes, Musk added. To date, SpaceX has said that Starlink service will initially be made available to customers in Canada and in the northern United States in 2020, with additional service expansion to follow to other parts of the world throughout 2021. On Twitter in response to a question about whether Germany counts as å¡—igh latitude, Musk said that it does, indicating beta service at least may be available in more markets than the U.S. and Canada ahead of next year.


The article is confusing so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It refers to "private beta", "public beta", and "initial beta". So what do those mean? I assumed "private beta" (3 months) means testing by SpaceX and/or other experts and "public beta" (6 months) means testing by John Q. Public and "initial beta" means the same as "private beta"? :confused2::confused3:
 
   / Starlink
  • Thread Starter
#45  
This should be great for many areas of the country. While now they can launch 60 at each launch they are planning to launch 400 at a time with a larger rocket. I did not know about Elon Mush until I saw they could reuse their rockets. Now I am a fan of Elon Musk many talents.

The guy is a genius but hopefully a Starlink subscription will cost less than a Tesla. :)
 
   / Starlink
  • Thread Starter
#46  
   / Starlink #47  
Sunday SpaceX plans to launch first Starlink satellites testing 'VisorSat' to block sun. A set of darkened shades that can be deployed to keep the sun from glinting off the bright parts of each satellite that threatens to interfere with the observations of astronomers and other scientists.

SpaceX to launch first Starlink satellites testing 'VisorSat' to block sun - CNET

It was a fast fix and hope it works out well. I know the Air Force is excited over Starlink to go live for some reason.
 
   / Starlink #48  
That's always been the problem with HSI in rural areas, everyone wants it but no one wants to pay for it. You can bet this will be no different.
 
   / Starlink #49  
That's always been the problem with HSI in rural areas, everyone wants it but no one wants to pay for it. You can bet this will be no different.

It will be different. Vastly so. One grouping of satellites offers basic coverage vastly exceeding that of the current infrastructure, which has yet to be fully deployed. < and probably never will be.
 
   / Starlink #50  
Time will tell I guess. You would have thought someone putting that much money into a project would have a sense of how long it would take to make his money back. I don't suspect we will know how vastly different it is until it happens. If it's affected by weather like all other satellites then that may be a real problem for people that need a reliable connection. I'm a little biased since I install fiber for a living. As long as you can keep the idiots from cutting it it is as reliable as anything and lightning fast.
 
 
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