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Deep space experts prove Elon Musk's Starlink is interfering in scientific work (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Scientists, looking deep into space, have long voiced their concerns that satellites are encroaching on their ability to study the cosmos.

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[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, a quick google makes me think a single cell tower and a single satellite are close to the same price.

All the satellites in question burn up within 10ish years due to their placement in orbit. In fact, a large number of SpaceX satellites already exploded due to mistakes during their deployment.

Cell towers don't burn up like that just sitting around.

I think it would take a lot more work and money to set up towers in the poor countries/areas infrastructure doesn’t exist/hard terrain/desolate areas/warzones/middle of the ocean/etc. But you’d have to weigh in the sacrificing space, which is invaluable to me personally.

Cool. We already have Hughesnet and have had it for decades.

[–] mob@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, I don't really see the issue with some satellites blowing up at first. So did some of the first space ships. That's just part of advancements.

If there wasn't the interference involved with the Starlink satellites, personally I'd prefer satellites over covering the earth in a grid of cell towers every 25ish miles tbh.

But sure, Hughesnet works fine. If you need service outside of a developed area, it should be capable enough.

I was looking more at a thought of what was more important, space exploration or easily accessible unlimited information for anyone, anywhere on earth. I keep choosing space, but I was hoping to get more of an interesting conversation I guess.

[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, I don’t really see the issue with some satellites blowing up at first.

You don't understand then. The Starlink satellites are designed to fall out of the sky, explicitly. They're at an extremely low orbit. The entire constellation will fall out of the sky on a regular basis.

That's the explicit design of Starlink. Its collossally stupid. The lower your orbit, the sooner you crash into Earth. Starlink has chosen one of the lowest orbits.

But sure, Hughesnet works fine. If you need service outside of a developed area, it should be capable enough.

Hughesnet's satellite is in contrast, in a 500+ year orbit. So they don't have to replace their satellite all the time. Also, there's only a few of them, its not like Starlink that has thousands of them.

By being lower in the sky, Starlink satellites have a limited range and only cover a small area. They need many, many,many satellites to even have hope, extending the costs and destroying the feasibility of the entire design.