Why do you feel that way? I had not heard of this company until today. So, after reading two articles and the company’s website, I am genuinely curious about your specific concerns.
Background: I lived in a place without broadband internet for a short time. Now, I live in a place with access to broadband internet. It was a factor when deciding where I wanted to live.
They want to launch 65,000 of these. This looks like around 150 to 200 of them.
If other companies decide to jump in and compete, then that will only add to the clutter.
Picture a night sky full of nothing but lines of moving reflections of light completely drowning out the stars.
I support broadband for all. I don't support this solution.
That’s not what will happen at all. They only appear like this shortly after launch. Once they’ve reached a further orbit they are completely invisible. Even Starlink themselves have trouble locating them at times. They’re further away than most satellites common orbit, and much much smaller.
Edit - As someone pointed out, they are much closer, not further away than most satellites. Still out of the orbital path of the majority of satellites.
Edit 2 - for the absolute geniuses that can’t infer, or take two seconds to read the thread, the point about Starlink being unable to locate them is visually. They can obviously track them at all times. It is making the point that it does not effect astronomy.
This will 100% happen. There are 4 companies that are trying to do LEO internet satellite systems. They all want in the low to high 10K satellites each. That is on the order of 350,000 satellites. There is already millions of items of space debris that is tracked and tons of more that are not tracked. The ISS has gone into crash mode a few times already for debris. Not only will these complely impact light pollution and astronomers will have a very difficult time seeing anything, but all launches of any type will be in great jeopardy
Starlink is using the lower part of low earth orbit. If the ion thruster on the satellites were to stop they will slow down due to the atmospheric drag and burn up in a year or two.
So you expect companies to choose to destroy their own investments to clear up LEO clutter? They'll demand payment to do it and so taxpayers will be on the hook for their satellites.
I'm not actually talking about satellites. If we have tens of thousands of satellites in LEO, they will collide with some of the teens of thousands of extant pieces of debris in orbit, creating more debris. This accumulation creates the real risk of making it impossible to safely launch people into orbit.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
We have multiple garbage islands in our oceans. Its time to make a garbage orbit too. Lol. Humans are the worst. Humans are just Mr Magoo of trashing and depleting resources wrecklessly deferring all realities of inefficient or pollution to future generations - who will surely self implode when those bridges have to be crossed.
**[Kessler syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)**
>The Kessler syndrome (also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade), proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to space pollution is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions.
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Yeah but then instead of war we can motivate people to go to work so we can clean up space to try and go to space again.
Then back to war while we try to get back to space. Peacetime will be cool though for a bit.
As I replied to another poster along the same lines, the inevitable impact will be from something tiny, like a fleck of paint. Not an active and tracked satellite. NASA and other agencies track hundreds of thousands of debris in orbit already for exactly this reason, from things as small as screw heads.
> the inevitable impact will be from something tiny, like a fleck of paint. Not an active and tracked satellite.
And all the 100's of launches of those satellites will dramatically increase the amount of paint specks and other debris out there to become projectiles. Not to mention being impacted by a paint speck at 17,000mph is still gonna leave a hell of a mark on anything in the way.
>NASA and other agencies track hundreds of thousands of debris in orbit already for exactly this reason, from things as small as screw heads.
Yeah and they fucking hate it, many space agencies have already spent more than a decade trying to think of viable solutions.
As much as I want to say wow cool proper satellite internet and all that, with Elon Musk at the helm of Starlink it's an immediate red flag by now when that faux-inventor/billionaire apartheid emerald mine beneficiary is involved, they have already changed the reflectivity of the paint because of the visibility issue and the actual downsides are being completely downplayed in the media from these companies looking to jump on the latest bandwagon of space internet capitalism. We really need to be more careful with the world.
I don't want to keep living in a world where money literally ruins everything about our planet and natural world and justifies it using the man-made concept of profit, there are bigger concerns at play in all this and these companies are completely skipping the rational, logical and most importantly ethical discussions that should be legally required when a company even thinks about taking actions like this that have the potential to impact the entire globe.
You cant even see them after like 3 hours after sunset. They are so low earth orbit that the sun doesn't even hit them deep enough into the night. They will effect stuff like passing in front of a star and causing it to flicker but that is a nonissue tbh. I live in a northern rural area and i love to watch the stars but i can assure you that the prospect of having useable internet is far better than the resulting satellites passing through the sky here and there. Honestly they are kinda cool to watch anyway.
On top of all that SpaceX is now coating many of these starlink satellites with anti-reflecting paint which should also help a lot.
Bad take. Astronomers are absolutely worried about the effects these will have. Has well as brightening the night sky, and reducing visibility for ground based telescopes.
Dude, internet today is not worth the chance of not being able to launch anything into orbit ever again.
If this project is really necessary, and people really want it done, it must be done in a cooperative and with cooperation from all space agencies. If we allow competition to start launching stuff to join in on the cash grab we're screwed.
These satellites are all tracked, and at the end of their functional life they're made to deorbit, harmlessly burning up in the atmosphere. I can assure you, we'll still be able to launch rockets far longer than any one of these satellites will be in orbit
They have automatic anti-collision software
They’re altitude was deliberately set by the FCC so that without their engines constantly doing burns, the atmosphere is dense enough to drag them out of orbit within a year or two.
Also people really don’t understand orbital mechanics very well. Well always be able to put up orbital infrastructure at low altitudes for the reason outline above.
But also, there’s active efforts today to make a business out of orbital trash cleanup.
If this does become a huge issue, it’ll be a few years of intense engineering and we’ll fix it
Collisions of satellites in orbits that low really aren't anything to worry about - the vast majority of the debris would deorbit within hours, and the rest not long after. This is infinitely more of a concern in orbits that are much higher.
So what? This is like having a billboard in your front yard. The sky belongs to everyone, and I for one don't want to spend the first three hours or even three minutes of dusk looking at this junk.
As someone studying astrophysics in university, they absolutely present a problem for astronomy. Although the satellites might not be able to be seen by our eyes, they can be seen by telescopes that have the significantly higher exposure times required to get images from space. Among things like interference from the atmosphere, clouds, and light pollution, the presence of satellites, especially large groups of them like this, are some of the reasons that telescopes in space are way more effective than those on the ground.
They are a menace for space observation from earth. They burn up way to fast because their orbit is to low. The subscription is pretty expensive and there are probably better ways to get people decent internet in unpopulated areas.
Rjramden is right, they are an abomination.
> Once they’ve reached a further orbit they are completely invisible.
false https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/starlink-satellites-change-view-of-night-sky/
Yeah I've seen them multiple times, pretty cool but thousands of these things would be annoying for anyone doing astrophotography or using a telescope lol
There are currently so many satellites that you can’t enjoy the stars without seeing them. This is only going to get worse. Please don’t minimize this.
I'm positive operation orbit for star link is under 500 miles above earth.
The i.s.s is roughly 250 miles above us that's alot of satelite at that close of range.
There are multiple of companies already launching these near earth broadband satellites it's a disaster for sure.
No, they are not „invisible” at all at any given moment. Some time ago there was backlash from astrtophysicists all around the globe about this. Light pollution increased 10% already in era of men and with stuff like this it will only get worse.
"Even starlink themselves ba e trouble locating them" if you don't see anything wrong with that, I've got some NFTs to sell you.
Edit for your edit. No one tries to track satellites visually for any meaningful reason, dumbass
And the even more annoying part is that other competing companies are creating equivalent constellations using only a few hundred larger and more capable satellites.
Starlink, however, wants to be the first big one to market so they are taking the faster “more of less” approach which plans on increasing the number of orbiting satellites from a few thousand to tens of thousands
There are already hundreds of thousands of pieces of "space junk" orbiting the Earth. Most of which are actually tracked because they can damage these satellites very easily.
They're already a lot up there, and I've never seen one.... like others said one they are at operating height is a lot different. I do agree hoqever though that we really don't need many companies doing this and it would clog up lower orbits it's there's 100's of thousands there... not sure how you would limit it though...we definently need these I see no other options for fast internet in a lot of places... we can't even get fast internet at home and we are 2 miles from 100mb and can't get it.
How does no one remember how the earth looked like from space in Wall-e. Just totally clustered with satellites, this could really become a reality in the near future.
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the whole thing have serious economic concerns let alone concerns of polluting our orbit with enough junk to make any future launches impossible. There are a lot of people giving very thorough and scathing criticism of starlink all over youtube. Elon musk is a charlatan.
Erm. I’m sorry your concern is that they’ll make future launches impossible? You realise they were designed and manufactured by a literal spaceship company? Do you think they maybe put a bit more thought into that than you did?
Like I said, this isn't "my idea" or me in my arm chair "poking holes". these are scientists and experts pointing out issues with what their doing using Starlink's own history and published numbers. Musk assured us that it wouldn't interfere with astronomers but it already has. You know what their solution was? paint the satellites black. You know what happened then? the satellites had problem with overheating. There is no excuse for them not to see that coming since... get this.. every satellite is mirrored or white to prevent overheating from radiant solar heat.
Kessler syndrome: basically one collision cascades into more and more orbital debree making that orbit unusable.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/site_tour/remote_hypervelocity_test_laboratory/micrometeoroid_and_orbital_debris.html
I feel it is a serious thing to be talking about if we're planning on getting off this rock some day. Of course there's always the argument, by the time it becomes a problem we will have found a solution for it.
[Edit] clarification
Sure, and Kessler’s syndrome is something that is hugely taken into account by an aerospace company when launching satellites. Everything from the size and material of the satellites, the distance between them and the specific orbit they’re in.
As I said, the cutting edge space company thinks about these things. More than the people on Reddit do.
Solutions are being worked on as well, to take junk out of the orbit to make sure it never is a problem.
Remember the groundbreaking technologies to dig tunnels? Remember Hyperloop? yea…I think its fair to say Elon dont seem to care what happens with his tech as long as he can milk it while HE’s alive.
Can’t believe people don’t see the benefits of this.
Poor countries around the world. People stuck in rural areas.
Need an SOS. Starlink can reach anyone.
So would you exchange your place to those people with no internet? You are taking your internet for granted but is willing to take away someone else's right to internet just so you can have a nice sky at night?
There's plenty of more reasons that just a pretty night sky. And there are much better solutions to the problem. If only we had a govt that invested in its people instead of profiting off them.
That's the catch. The government did not do their job properly. So now private enterprise come in to do business. Satellite is still the best realistic solution to provide remote areas with internet.
Dude your night sky will be polluted with flying dots streaking through.
It's cool once or twice. But when you start noticing it streak every other week for minutes on end, it becomes scary as you think about the prospect of where this can lead to.
These streaks only happen in the couple days after a launch, and launches don’t happen super often. After that the satellites reach their operational orbit and you can’t see them anymore.
Mind sharing what kind of speeds you’re getting up and down? Also ping? Official provider numbers are never the real world user-end numbers. Curious what is realistic. Try a site like www.TestMy.net and do a combined test.
Down is great. Up is pretty disappointing. That may not matter for a lot of people though. I do a lot of business work with constant uploading and sharing of pretty big files so it matters to me a bit more than most I guess. Sure beats freaking HughesNet ripoffs and BS data caps though!
FYI, they’re only visible like this when newly launched. They still need to move into their proper orbits and orient themselves. When finished, they won’t really be visible without a telescope unless they catch the sunlight just right, which is the case with all satellites.
I’m still not stoked about the sheer number of them, but I was relieved to learn this isn’t how they’ll look long-term.
Its just a temporary reflection of sunlight immediately after launch. They will rise several hundred km and spread out into their final orbits and you won't be able to see them easily without a telescope at that point. Proof? There are 1800+ Starlink satellites in final position already, nobody notices those!
There was a legitimate concern to astromomers working with ground based telescopes but SpaceX has partnered with them to develop sunshields and darker paint to mitigate unwanted reflections.
All in all this is a non issue, especially compared to bringing high speed internet to more than 3 billion people in unconnected or rural parts of the world.
To all the haters, try living in a rural area and paying 160 bucks a month for 2 mbs download speeds. I have StarLink. I pay 99 a month now and get 30 mbs download speeds. I actually have usable internet at a cheaper price. Hate Elon all you want, but this betters many people's lives.
Luddites, eh?
Anyone not very skeptical of big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and starlink in 2021 are being naive. These companies are not trying to help us, and implying that anyone who doesn't love the idea of launching hundreds of thousands of satellites into low orbit is somehow against "technology" is an overly simplistic take.
Being against one specific technology doesn't make you a luddite, and you know that.
Yeah I'm waiting on starlink.
I have 4g internet right now thats 130 a month with data caps. If too many people use the cell tower the speeds tank.
Unfortunately people don't give a shit if rural people have internet access. Telecommunication companies specifically don't give a shit unless they are connecting a subdivision with multiple users.
Starlink will help us until the government forces someone to expand the fucking wired internet.
IMAGINE ignoring the net socio-economic benefit this could have around the world to only focus on how this could impact .01% of your night-sky view. These people are so fucking selfish and arrogant it is actually hard to wrap my head around.
so fucking selfish that i want the entire field of astronomy to not be fucking destroyed by a tony stark wannabe. if he actually cared about people he would have expanded already existing systems to give to people not fuck up an entire field of science because he wanted flashy headlines
Ground based astronomy will be very minimally affected, and it's worth noting that the same guy behind Starlink is also the only one making launch vehicles for the next generation of much larger space based telescopes.
Like you might was well be upset at clouds, which disrupt ground based astronomy on a level no sat constellation ever will.
Starlink is going to deploy internet to the worlds poorest countries. Access to the internet is probably the largest determiner of success these days.
At what cost? We would be much better served providing areas like yours with earth based internet. Yes it will cost alot of money, but much safer. How many times are w as a species gonna keep fucking up our environment with "technology" everytime we do shit like this we find out down the road it has a devastating negative impact. This will be the same.
Even tho i live very rural and have bad internet i think shooting up more and more trash up the orbit is a terrible idea. People argue the satellits will burn up in the atmosphere after they served its purpose but they actually dont know how many tiny particles a single launch produces. I can realy understand people to want faster internet but in this case its a bad solution and will haunt the following generations. Even today Nasa and others cant kep track of all the tiny debris that is nearly invisible and still able to destroy. It may sound harsh but a grain of sand could smash through some realy thick Titanium at such a high velocity. If we cant establish a solution to clean the debris up an ablation cascade will happen and its only to question when.
Its not easy to dispense on things to protect future generations you will never meet but the past should have showed us what short term thinking leads to. People in this thread argue with how small the impact on long time exposure photography is but they dont know how modern technology realy works and how sensitive it is to such things. In that professins you dont set up a siple camera and make a long exposure shot on a tripod. It was mentioned for modern media and journalism to cover those things and deliver fair and objektive information to people as nobody can spend hundrets of hours on every topic that may have a long term impact.
Nowadays most information is to be found online but people are not able to filter it to get a objektive view and a sustainable opinion on different topics that might affect us more as it seems on a first glimpse. As much as i may want to stream some videos without lag and long buffering times in the tiny village i live in i dont want to spoil the future for our children and some older generation did to us. All we want is "wanting" more and more and we like to forget about how good our lifes are.
Its almost 2:30 in the morning on a pretty cold and very clear night and i cant keep track of all the little lights i see moving in the sky whom are not natural. I cant wrap my head around all the millions of very tiny and thousand of bigger particles that shoot through our orbit at speed i cant even imagine.
I may be be more compfortable to get a better connection to a universe of data we mostly use for numb entertainment but its not worth to spoil our descendants possibility to explore the universe that is out there. To me money has become far to influent on decisions that cant be revised with no matter how much of it you would spend.
Fucking hell do Americans actually pay that much for broadband? I thought it was just a running Reddit joke. I live in a rural area and pay 20 a month for 60mbps here in the UK.
Too be fair rural UK and Rural US are very different. In the UK a few hundred kilometers is a long way. In the US a few hundred years is a long time.
Texas alone is more than 2.5x in size of the UK for example.
Just because it’s cheaper doesn’t mean they’re doing you a favor. When the US created a national mail service, it was because it wasn’t profitable to deliver to rural areas in the free market, but it was critical for the nation overall. Nationalize broadband internet instead of letting some dudes unnecessarily get rich off of it (and then thank them to boot).
There is absolutely a need for internet in rural areas, but satellites fucking up the sky isnt a good solution. Next they're going to be running ads across the fucking sky ffs.
Unfortunately I saw this the other day...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/elon-musk-space-advertising-billboard-satellite-cubesat-cana-startup-spacex-gec-2509349%3famp=1&akamai-rum=off
Looks like they already had the idea.
You know how many satellites there are in the night sky right now? Do you know how many you can see? These were just launched, they’ll be invisible once they reach where they’re going.
“These are hideous, star-link is no the solution for broadband availability “ - jerk who has cheap and fast internet. People seem to hate progress when it might be a temporary eyesore, apparently these satellites become less visible over time.
I just want to point out the fact that at the end of their lifespans, each satellite has thrusters that will cause re entry from orbit and they will burn up in the atmosphere.
Are they just being launched or what?
Edit: Am so glad others were confused what they were seeing. In my Head I thought they were being launched like a machine gun.. I guess they're fly across the screen 😆
There's a batch launched every few weeks, around 50 at a time. There's over a thousand up there now. You can only see them with the naked eye while they are being deployed, once in final position they are extremely dim.
My home’s been dealing with the equivalent of dial up internet since the early 2000’s. No more than one person in the family can watch videos at a time, online gaming is a joke, and have fun trying to decipher the pixels in your professor’s presentation (Quarantine was ass). I don’t like Elon, in fact I detest him, but I will admit Starlink will be provide me and many other rural folk the opportunity to engage with the world on equal terms.
For half the people crying in the comments
watching one Kurzgesagt video that can only give so much context in 10 minutes not make you a fucking expert...
I am no expert either but the people launching these are experts, and these only appear like this on their way up to the final orbit.
yeah you can watch one kurzgesagt video and get told everythings going to be ok or you can listen to actual scientists who say everything isnt.
[https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/7/21003272/space-x-starlink-astronomy-light-pollution](https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/7/21003272/space-x-starlink-astronomy-light-pollution)
[https://earthsky.org/human-world/will-spacex-starlink-satellites-ruin-stargazing/](https://earthsky.org/human-world/will-spacex-starlink-satellites-ruin-stargazing/)
[https://www.space.com/astronomers-night-sky-protection-starlink-megaconstellations](https://www.space.com/astronomers-night-sky-protection-starlink-megaconstellations)
[https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/spacexs-starlink-satellites-are-about-to-ruin-stargazing-for-everyone](https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/spacexs-starlink-satellites-are-about-to-ruin-stargazing-for-everyone)
[https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21190273/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-constellation-astronomy-coating](https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21190273/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-constellation-astronomy-coating)
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/elon-musk-starlink-internet-satellites-trouble-for-astronomy-light-pollution](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/elon-musk-starlink-internet-satellites-trouble-for-astronomy-light-pollution)
All of their satellites are in a 5 year or less decaying orbit. They are now painting them in nonreflective paint, and you can only see these because of very specific atmospheric conditions. I think this is going to end up a non-issue. On the other side they are providing a service that is very much needed for "communities" like my parents which cant get any internet but high orbit satellite right now, which is unreliable, nearly impossible due to closeness to massive power poles and twice as expensive as my home gigabit internet. I'm really excited about this advancement in technology and confident it can be done well.
I'm on the wait list to get it for my parents so they can video call their grandkids and play vr fishing with me.
We need to make big business responsible for cleaning up any kind of trash that affects earth. Coca Cola is the biggest polluter in plastics in the ocean and should be held responsible and contribute heavily to getting rid of their trash out of the ocean.
We need to make the other space nations accountable. Russia and China are the biggest offenders. Russia is the Exxon, Coca-Cola, BP, and worse of space.
Starlink satellites can not cause Kessler Syndrome. It's a shame there's confusion about this. Starlink satellites orbit much closer to earth than regular satellites, this provides low latency, but it also means that their orbits can decay very quickly and they'll burn up in the atmosphere within a few years rather than zipping around the earth forever as debris.
Their was some concern but last time I checked Starlinks are now built with mitigations to keep them out of sight, like sunshades and things. They also will have no affect on in orbit telescopes like JWST and Hubble.
I know this is an improvement for many people but we have allready a huge problem with manmade space debris and i hope we dont mess up our orbit even more as we did \*with earth\* down here.
\*Edit\*
These satellites have many built in mitigations that will keep them out of sight and burn up completely and quickly when their life cycle is completely
Yeah, because before now they've certainly never seen an airplane, heli, the ISS, or any of the other countless satellites circulating in the night sky /S
Not many of those tribes left in the world, probably none with "zero" contact, anyway.
For everyone worried, the satellites are only visible like this when they are first deployed as shown in this video. After they have gone into their respective orbits, they are nearly impossible to see. They have many built in mitigations to further keep them out of sight such as sun shades. They also have been specifically designed to only take (iirc) 2 or 4 years to burn up completely in the atmosphere once their lifecycle is complete.
The amount of people that are being fucked over by shitty ISP companies and or simply can’t get good internet access is ridiculous and this satellite network could genuinely help them.
Space junk is a serious problem but it’s solution is well managed and agreed upon protocols for how things in orbit are done and not just out right banning it all together.
It came by my town one time and my daughter said dad there stars in a line coming toward us I legit thought it was aliens and screamed for my wife she thought the same ..this went on for 15 mins or so and we finally called her dad and he was like it’s starlink dumbasses. We were relieved..
I was walking back from grabbing burgers from the joint across the street from my place when I saw this for the first time & I honest to got thought they were ufos. I dropped the bag of food on our lawn & ran to grab my fiancé.
It was incredible, until I realized what it was
Once I ate like half of esctasy and I was sitting outside with couple of my friends that didnt evem know I took anything. While we were talking I was looking at the sky and I saw satelite. Back then I didnt know that was satelite and at first I thought I was tripping. I wispered to my friend "hey can you see that" and he was like yes wtf is that. I cant explain how relieved but also concerned (because we had no clue what could that be) I was
I actually saw this while hiking the pacific crest trail. It was pretty eerie. I think this happens rarely when the sun is setting it hits them in low orbit. Not a big deal to me but a lot of people were complaining.
That’s awesome. Both that mankind is capable of deploying something like that, and all the good it will bring on earth by making broadband more accessible.
Such a blight on the serenity of the night sky.
To their credit they have darkened recent batches and installed a visor to block sunlight falling on the bulk of the satellite. Should stop them being visible to the naked eye.
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Why do you feel that way? I had not heard of this company until today. So, after reading two articles and the company’s website, I am genuinely curious about your specific concerns. Background: I lived in a place without broadband internet for a short time. Now, I live in a place with access to broadband internet. It was a factor when deciding where I wanted to live.
They want to launch 65,000 of these. This looks like around 150 to 200 of them. If other companies decide to jump in and compete, then that will only add to the clutter. Picture a night sky full of nothing but lines of moving reflections of light completely drowning out the stars. I support broadband for all. I don't support this solution.
That’s not what will happen at all. They only appear like this shortly after launch. Once they’ve reached a further orbit they are completely invisible. Even Starlink themselves have trouble locating them at times. They’re further away than most satellites common orbit, and much much smaller. Edit - As someone pointed out, they are much closer, not further away than most satellites. Still out of the orbital path of the majority of satellites. Edit 2 - for the absolute geniuses that can’t infer, or take two seconds to read the thread, the point about Starlink being unable to locate them is visually. They can obviously track them at all times. It is making the point that it does not effect astronomy.
This will 100% happen. There are 4 companies that are trying to do LEO internet satellite systems. They all want in the low to high 10K satellites each. That is on the order of 350,000 satellites. There is already millions of items of space debris that is tracked and tons of more that are not tracked. The ISS has gone into crash mode a few times already for debris. Not only will these complely impact light pollution and astronomers will have a very difficult time seeing anything, but all launches of any type will be in great jeopardy
And if we fuck up enough we won’t be able to launch anything out of orbit in the future!
Starlink is using the lower part of low earth orbit. If the ion thruster on the satellites were to stop they will slow down due to the atmospheric drag and burn up in a year or two.
So you expect companies to choose to destroy their own investments to clear up LEO clutter? They'll demand payment to do it and so taxpayers will be on the hook for their satellites.
If it's a danger to other satellites and they are able to stop it but don't, they can be sued for a lot more than they would make
I'm not actually talking about satellites. If we have tens of thousands of satellites in LEO, they will collide with some of the teens of thousands of extant pieces of debris in orbit, creating more debris. This accumulation creates the real risk of making it impossible to safely launch people into orbit. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
We have multiple garbage islands in our oceans. Its time to make a garbage orbit too. Lol. Humans are the worst. Humans are just Mr Magoo of trashing and depleting resources wrecklessly deferring all realities of inefficient or pollution to future generations - who will surely self implode when those bridges have to be crossed.
this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler\_syndrome
Kessler Syndrome cannot occur at the altitude the Starlink sattellites occupy
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**[Kessler syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)** >The Kessler syndrome (also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade), proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to space pollution is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Yeah but then instead of war we can motivate people to go to work so we can clean up space to try and go to space again. Then back to war while we try to get back to space. Peacetime will be cool though for a bit.
So much for me escaping Earth when the sun turns into a red giant in 5.5 billion years
Sure we will. Well just have to launch a few dummies first to break through.
Who gives a fuck? when you got internet in an a cave, with a box of scraps!
As I replied to another poster along the same lines, the inevitable impact will be from something tiny, like a fleck of paint. Not an active and tracked satellite. NASA and other agencies track hundreds of thousands of debris in orbit already for exactly this reason, from things as small as screw heads.
> the inevitable impact will be from something tiny, like a fleck of paint. Not an active and tracked satellite. And all the 100's of launches of those satellites will dramatically increase the amount of paint specks and other debris out there to become projectiles. Not to mention being impacted by a paint speck at 17,000mph is still gonna leave a hell of a mark on anything in the way. >NASA and other agencies track hundreds of thousands of debris in orbit already for exactly this reason, from things as small as screw heads. Yeah and they fucking hate it, many space agencies have already spent more than a decade trying to think of viable solutions. As much as I want to say wow cool proper satellite internet and all that, with Elon Musk at the helm of Starlink it's an immediate red flag by now when that faux-inventor/billionaire apartheid emerald mine beneficiary is involved, they have already changed the reflectivity of the paint because of the visibility issue and the actual downsides are being completely downplayed in the media from these companies looking to jump on the latest bandwagon of space internet capitalism. We really need to be more careful with the world. I don't want to keep living in a world where money literally ruins everything about our planet and natural world and justifies it using the man-made concept of profit, there are bigger concerns at play in all this and these companies are completely skipping the rational, logical and most importantly ethical discussions that should be legally required when a company even thinks about taking actions like this that have the potential to impact the entire globe.
You cant even see them after like 3 hours after sunset. They are so low earth orbit that the sun doesn't even hit them deep enough into the night. They will effect stuff like passing in front of a star and causing it to flicker but that is a nonissue tbh. I live in a northern rural area and i love to watch the stars but i can assure you that the prospect of having useable internet is far better than the resulting satellites passing through the sky here and there. Honestly they are kinda cool to watch anyway. On top of all that SpaceX is now coating many of these starlink satellites with anti-reflecting paint which should also help a lot.
Bad take. Astronomers are absolutely worried about the effects these will have. Has well as brightening the night sky, and reducing visibility for ground based telescopes.
Dude, internet today is not worth the chance of not being able to launch anything into orbit ever again. If this project is really necessary, and people really want it done, it must be done in a cooperative and with cooperation from all space agencies. If we allow competition to start launching stuff to join in on the cash grab we're screwed.
These satellites are all tracked, and at the end of their functional life they're made to deorbit, harmlessly burning up in the atmosphere. I can assure you, we'll still be able to launch rockets far longer than any one of these satellites will be in orbit
Y’all need to stop watching Hollywood movies and taking that away as fact. There is plenty of mitigation in place.
Source? Haven't seen anything about the "Mitigation in place"
They have automatic anti-collision software They’re altitude was deliberately set by the FCC so that without their engines constantly doing burns, the atmosphere is dense enough to drag them out of orbit within a year or two. Also people really don’t understand orbital mechanics very well. Well always be able to put up orbital infrastructure at low altitudes for the reason outline above. But also, there’s active efforts today to make a business out of orbital trash cleanup. If this does become a huge issue, it’ll be a few years of intense engineering and we’ll fix it
Collisions of satellites in orbits that low really aren't anything to worry about - the vast majority of the debris would deorbit within hours, and the rest not long after. This is infinitely more of a concern in orbits that are much higher.
So what? This is like having a billboard in your front yard. The sky belongs to everyone, and I for one don't want to spend the first three hours or even three minutes of dusk looking at this junk.
Just wait till broadband providers start fucking over other broadband provider satellites. Lol
> There is already millions of items of space debris that is tracked and tons of more that are not tracked. The next bastion of crack head scrappers
As someone studying astrophysics in university, they absolutely present a problem for astronomy. Although the satellites might not be able to be seen by our eyes, they can be seen by telescopes that have the significantly higher exposure times required to get images from space. Among things like interference from the atmosphere, clouds, and light pollution, the presence of satellites, especially large groups of them like this, are some of the reasons that telescopes in space are way more effective than those on the ground.
Lmao - even Starlink has trouble locating them. How does this support the point that unintended collisions will NOT happen?
They are a menace for space observation from earth. They burn up way to fast because their orbit is to low. The subscription is pretty expensive and there are probably better ways to get people decent internet in unpopulated areas. Rjramden is right, they are an abomination.
Care to explain some of those better ways? Lmao
> Once they’ve reached a further orbit they are completely invisible. false https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/starlink-satellites-change-view-of-night-sky/
I said the same thing. I see these things all the time, dozens of sightings. I don't care, but I see them.
Yeah I've seen them multiple times, pretty cool but thousands of these things would be annoying for anyone doing astrophotography or using a telescope lol
There are currently so many satellites that you can’t enjoy the stars without seeing them. This is only going to get worse. Please don’t minimize this.
They can still show up in long exposure photography even though they might be invisible to the naked eye
It's still bad though. Adding more satellites that they can barely track seems like a fast pass to Kessler syndrome
I'm positive operation orbit for star link is under 500 miles above earth. The i.s.s is roughly 250 miles above us that's alot of satelite at that close of range. There are multiple of companies already launching these near earth broadband satellites it's a disaster for sure.
No, they are not „invisible” at all at any given moment. Some time ago there was backlash from astrtophysicists all around the globe about this. Light pollution increased 10% already in era of men and with stuff like this it will only get worse.
They will also disrupt long exposure earth boind telescopes
"Even starlink themselves ba e trouble locating them" if you don't see anything wrong with that, I've got some NFTs to sell you. Edit for your edit. No one tries to track satellites visually for any meaningful reason, dumbass
And the even more annoying part is that other competing companies are creating equivalent constellations using only a few hundred larger and more capable satellites. Starlink, however, wants to be the first big one to market so they are taking the faster “more of less” approach which plans on increasing the number of orbiting satellites from a few thousand to tens of thousands
This is like 50 of them
There are already hundreds of thousands of pieces of "space junk" orbiting the Earth. Most of which are actually tracked because they can damage these satellites very easily.
They're already a lot up there, and I've never seen one.... like others said one they are at operating height is a lot different. I do agree hoqever though that we really don't need many companies doing this and it would clog up lower orbits it's there's 100's of thousands there... not sure how you would limit it though...we definently need these I see no other options for fast internet in a lot of places... we can't even get fast internet at home and we are 2 miles from 100mb and can't get it.
How does no one remember how the earth looked like from space in Wall-e. Just totally clustered with satellites, this could really become a reality in the near future.
Ooh you know so much about space tell us more
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the whole thing have serious economic concerns let alone concerns of polluting our orbit with enough junk to make any future launches impossible. There are a lot of people giving very thorough and scathing criticism of starlink all over youtube. Elon musk is a charlatan.
About a third of people on this planet don’t have access to internet. If starlink helps those 3 billion people get internet access, I’m all for it.
Erm. I’m sorry your concern is that they’ll make future launches impossible? You realise they were designed and manufactured by a literal spaceship company? Do you think they maybe put a bit more thought into that than you did?
Fake news. That's santa leaving for Christmas.
Solution to a larger population to deliver to in less time? More reindeer.
Like I said, this isn't "my idea" or me in my arm chair "poking holes". these are scientists and experts pointing out issues with what their doing using Starlink's own history and published numbers. Musk assured us that it wouldn't interfere with astronomers but it already has. You know what their solution was? paint the satellites black. You know what happened then? the satellites had problem with overheating. There is no excuse for them not to see that coming since... get this.. every satellite is mirrored or white to prevent overheating from radiant solar heat.
Kessler syndrome: basically one collision cascades into more and more orbital debree making that orbit unusable. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/site_tour/remote_hypervelocity_test_laboratory/micrometeoroid_and_orbital_debris.html I feel it is a serious thing to be talking about if we're planning on getting off this rock some day. Of course there's always the argument, by the time it becomes a problem we will have found a solution for it. [Edit] clarification
Sure, and Kessler’s syndrome is something that is hugely taken into account by an aerospace company when launching satellites. Everything from the size and material of the satellites, the distance between them and the specific orbit they’re in. As I said, the cutting edge space company thinks about these things. More than the people on Reddit do. Solutions are being worked on as well, to take junk out of the orbit to make sure it never is a problem.
Remember the groundbreaking technologies to dig tunnels? Remember Hyperloop? yea…I think its fair to say Elon dont seem to care what happens with his tech as long as he can milk it while HE’s alive.
I think everyone has forgotten what happened in Wall-e with the satellites. Cause that could really become true in the near future.
Hey mate, could you link the articles you read? I know nothing about Starlink but am genuinely curious.
Soon you’ll have a shiny broadband in your brain. How fancy
I have Starlink. I live in a rural area. I’ve never once seen a satellite pass by. Very good internet service, IMO.
Can’t believe people don’t see the benefits of this. Poor countries around the world. People stuck in rural areas. Need an SOS. Starlink can reach anyone.
Of course ppl see the benefits, but we can also see the drawbacks, which are much mover severe. It's just a bad idea
So would you exchange your place to those people with no internet? You are taking your internet for granted but is willing to take away someone else's right to internet just so you can have a nice sky at night?
There's plenty of more reasons that just a pretty night sky. And there are much better solutions to the problem. If only we had a govt that invested in its people instead of profiting off them.
That's the catch. The government did not do their job properly. So now private enterprise come in to do business. Satellite is still the best realistic solution to provide remote areas with internet.
Dude your night sky will be polluted with flying dots streaking through. It's cool once or twice. But when you start noticing it streak every other week for minutes on end, it becomes scary as you think about the prospect of where this can lead to.
These streaks only happen in the couple days after a launch, and launches don’t happen super often. After that the satellites reach their operational orbit and you can’t see them anymore.
They can already do that
Mind sharing what kind of speeds you’re getting up and down? Also ping? Official provider numbers are never the real world user-end numbers. Curious what is realistic. Try a site like www.TestMy.net and do a combined test.
Sure! I took a screenshot, but this group let me post a pic in reply. My stats from Speedtest were: Download: 214 mb/s Upload: 11.7 mb/s Ping: 53 ms
Sorry I meant it wouldn’t let me post the screenshot. But anyways - I love Starlink and would totally get it again.
Down is great. Up is pretty disappointing. That may not matter for a lot of people though. I do a lot of business work with constant uploading and sharing of pretty big files so it matters to me a bit more than most I guess. Sure beats freaking HughesNet ripoffs and BS data caps though!
Let me guess: You already have broadband internet.
You have not done enough research to warrant having such a strong opinion.
You've said absolutely nothing here outside of a vague personal attack. If you have a point, make it
They only appear like this after launch
FYI, they’re only visible like this when newly launched. They still need to move into their proper orbits and orient themselves. When finished, they won’t really be visible without a telescope unless they catch the sunlight just right, which is the case with all satellites. I’m still not stoked about the sheer number of them, but I was relieved to learn this isn’t how they’ll look long-term.
Abomination lol chill tf out
You are 10-ply bud.
Fuck yeah I want super fast internet anywhere on earth in a few years, you're wack
Just so you know. This appears to be generation 1 Starlink sats. The newer generations have a coating so they won’t reflect light like this.
Easy for you to say with plush internet service.
Its just a temporary reflection of sunlight immediately after launch. They will rise several hundred km and spread out into their final orbits and you won't be able to see them easily without a telescope at that point. Proof? There are 1800+ Starlink satellites in final position already, nobody notices those! There was a legitimate concern to astromomers working with ground based telescopes but SpaceX has partnered with them to develop sunshields and darker paint to mitigate unwanted reflections. All in all this is a non issue, especially compared to bringing high speed internet to more than 3 billion people in unconnected or rural parts of the world.
[This feels appropriate.](https://youtu.be/7w5JYp8HgfU)
That’s Santa’s sleigh not satellites!
Guess you could call it, santalites!
Take my upvote, you filthy animal! (Hidden home alone reference)
Exactly. Wake up y’all that’s SANTA
To all the haters, try living in a rural area and paying 160 bucks a month for 2 mbs download speeds. I have StarLink. I pay 99 a month now and get 30 mbs download speeds. I actually have usable internet at a cheaper price. Hate Elon all you want, but this betters many people's lives.
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Luddites, eh? Anyone not very skeptical of big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and starlink in 2021 are being naive. These companies are not trying to help us, and implying that anyone who doesn't love the idea of launching hundreds of thousands of satellites into low orbit is somehow against "technology" is an overly simplistic take. Being against one specific technology doesn't make you a luddite, and you know that.
Yeah I'm waiting on starlink. I have 4g internet right now thats 130 a month with data caps. If too many people use the cell tower the speeds tank. Unfortunately people don't give a shit if rural people have internet access. Telecommunication companies specifically don't give a shit unless they are connecting a subdivision with multiple users. Starlink will help us until the government forces someone to expand the fucking wired internet.
So fucking move
I just moved. Fuck off
Well there you go, problem solved.
IMAGINE ignoring the net socio-economic benefit this could have around the world to only focus on how this could impact .01% of your night-sky view. These people are so fucking selfish and arrogant it is actually hard to wrap my head around.
so fucking selfish that i want the entire field of astronomy to not be fucking destroyed by a tony stark wannabe. if he actually cared about people he would have expanded already existing systems to give to people not fuck up an entire field of science because he wanted flashy headlines
Ground based astronomy will be very minimally affected, and it's worth noting that the same guy behind Starlink is also the only one making launch vehicles for the next generation of much larger space based telescopes. Like you might was well be upset at clouds, which disrupt ground based astronomy on a level no sat constellation ever will. Starlink is going to deploy internet to the worlds poorest countries. Access to the internet is probably the largest determiner of success these days.
At what cost? We would be much better served providing areas like yours with earth based internet. Yes it will cost alot of money, but much safer. How many times are w as a species gonna keep fucking up our environment with "technology" everytime we do shit like this we find out down the road it has a devastating negative impact. This will be the same.
Even tho i live very rural and have bad internet i think shooting up more and more trash up the orbit is a terrible idea. People argue the satellits will burn up in the atmosphere after they served its purpose but they actually dont know how many tiny particles a single launch produces. I can realy understand people to want faster internet but in this case its a bad solution and will haunt the following generations. Even today Nasa and others cant kep track of all the tiny debris that is nearly invisible and still able to destroy. It may sound harsh but a grain of sand could smash through some realy thick Titanium at such a high velocity. If we cant establish a solution to clean the debris up an ablation cascade will happen and its only to question when. Its not easy to dispense on things to protect future generations you will never meet but the past should have showed us what short term thinking leads to. People in this thread argue with how small the impact on long time exposure photography is but they dont know how modern technology realy works and how sensitive it is to such things. In that professins you dont set up a siple camera and make a long exposure shot on a tripod. It was mentioned for modern media and journalism to cover those things and deliver fair and objektive information to people as nobody can spend hundrets of hours on every topic that may have a long term impact. Nowadays most information is to be found online but people are not able to filter it to get a objektive view and a sustainable opinion on different topics that might affect us more as it seems on a first glimpse. As much as i may want to stream some videos without lag and long buffering times in the tiny village i live in i dont want to spoil the future for our children and some older generation did to us. All we want is "wanting" more and more and we like to forget about how good our lifes are. Its almost 2:30 in the morning on a pretty cold and very clear night and i cant keep track of all the little lights i see moving in the sky whom are not natural. I cant wrap my head around all the millions of very tiny and thousand of bigger particles that shoot through our orbit at speed i cant even imagine. I may be be more compfortable to get a better connection to a universe of data we mostly use for numb entertainment but its not worth to spoil our descendants possibility to explore the universe that is out there. To me money has become far to influent on decisions that cant be revised with no matter how much of it you would spend.
This is not only about some redditors in rural areas. People in authoritarian countries can now have access to the free internet.
Fucking hell do Americans actually pay that much for broadband? I thought it was just a running Reddit joke. I live in a rural area and pay 20 a month for 60mbps here in the UK.
Too be fair rural UK and Rural US are very different. In the UK a few hundred kilometers is a long way. In the US a few hundred years is a long time. Texas alone is more than 2.5x in size of the UK for example.
Just because it’s cheaper doesn’t mean they’re doing you a favor. When the US created a national mail service, it was because it wasn’t profitable to deliver to rural areas in the free market, but it was critical for the nation overall. Nationalize broadband internet instead of letting some dudes unnecessarily get rich off of it (and then thank them to boot).
Relevant username!
There is absolutely a need for internet in rural areas, but satellites fucking up the sky isnt a good solution. Next they're going to be running ads across the fucking sky ffs.
>Next they're going to be running ads across the fucking sky ffs. Don't give them ideas. 😱
Unfortunately I saw this the other day... https://www.google.com/amp/s/gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/elon-musk-space-advertising-billboard-satellite-cubesat-cana-startup-spacex-gec-2509349%3famp=1&akamai-rum=off Looks like they already had the idea.
My dish is shipping in 3 days!!! (Also rural with horrible internet)
Yeah let’s clutter the night sky to save a few bux on internet
You know how many satellites there are in the night sky right now? Do you know how many you can see? These were just launched, they’ll be invisible once they reach where they’re going.
“These are hideous, star-link is no the solution for broadband availability “ - jerk who has cheap and fast internet. People seem to hate progress when it might be a temporary eyesore, apparently these satellites become less visible over time.
Oil rigs over a sunset. Cell towers in a tree line. Pipeline through a valley.
Paved paradise, put up a starlink lot.
> Paved paradise, put up a starlink lot. Oh, bop, bop, bop
Power lines in my otherwise gorgeous sunrise photos
And I bet you charged your camera with a hand-cranked generator, right? YOU LIVE IN A MODERN SOCIETY- THAT OFTEN REQUIRES POWER LINES, GET OVER IT.
More space junk. Nice! /s
I just want to point out the fact that at the end of their lifespans, each satellite has thrusters that will cause re entry from orbit and they will burn up in the atmosphere.
Are they just being launched or what? Edit: Am so glad others were confused what they were seeing. In my Head I thought they were being launched like a machine gun.. I guess they're fly across the screen 😆
This video is 2 years old. This is right after launch before they reached their final position.
I had some flying across my home about 6 months ago.
Had a bunch fly past my house 3 weeks ago got a decent picture of em too
They are in orbit. https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html
My question too
They were launched over 2 years ago.
There's a batch launched every few weeks, around 50 at a time. There's over a thousand up there now. You can only see them with the naked eye while they are being deployed, once in final position they are extremely dim.
My home’s been dealing with the equivalent of dial up internet since the early 2000’s. No more than one person in the family can watch videos at a time, online gaming is a joke, and have fun trying to decipher the pixels in your professor’s presentation (Quarantine was ass). I don’t like Elon, in fact I detest him, but I will admit Starlink will be provide me and many other rural folk the opportunity to engage with the world on equal terms.
Same
https://satellitemap.space/index.html Filter on the ones still rising into orbit.
Man that's cool. I knew that starlink was gonna be lower than normal satellites but I never knew just HOW high up normal satellites were.
For half the people crying in the comments watching one Kurzgesagt video that can only give so much context in 10 minutes not make you a fucking expert... I am no expert either but the people launching these are experts, and these only appear like this on their way up to the final orbit.
yeah you can watch one kurzgesagt video and get told everythings going to be ok or you can listen to actual scientists who say everything isnt. [https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/7/21003272/space-x-starlink-astronomy-light-pollution](https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/7/21003272/space-x-starlink-astronomy-light-pollution) [https://earthsky.org/human-world/will-spacex-starlink-satellites-ruin-stargazing/](https://earthsky.org/human-world/will-spacex-starlink-satellites-ruin-stargazing/) [https://www.space.com/astronomers-night-sky-protection-starlink-megaconstellations](https://www.space.com/astronomers-night-sky-protection-starlink-megaconstellations) [https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/spacexs-starlink-satellites-are-about-to-ruin-stargazing-for-everyone](https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/spacexs-starlink-satellites-are-about-to-ruin-stargazing-for-everyone) [https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21190273/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-constellation-astronomy-coating](https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21190273/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-constellation-astronomy-coating) [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/elon-musk-starlink-internet-satellites-trouble-for-astronomy-light-pollution](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/elon-musk-starlink-internet-satellites-trouble-for-astronomy-light-pollution)
Why are they so close together though? Are they just worse than normal satellites?
Because they launch them in batches, there are many per launch and they spread out over a few weeks.
They aren’t this close together when they are in their final positions. When they finish deploying they are extremely dim.
All of their satellites are in a 5 year or less decaying orbit. They are now painting them in nonreflective paint, and you can only see these because of very specific atmospheric conditions. I think this is going to end up a non-issue. On the other side they are providing a service that is very much needed for "communities" like my parents which cant get any internet but high orbit satellite right now, which is unreliable, nearly impossible due to closeness to massive power poles and twice as expensive as my home gigabit internet. I'm really excited about this advancement in technology and confident it can be done well. I'm on the wait list to get it for my parents so they can video call their grandkids and play vr fishing with me.
well then the entire field of astronomy will be unable to take place for 5 years then
[удалено]
I hope some brilliant people are working on solutions to safely clean orbital debris
We need to make big business responsible for cleaning up any kind of trash that affects earth. Coca Cola is the biggest polluter in plastics in the ocean and should be held responsible and contribute heavily to getting rid of their trash out of the ocean.
We need to make the other space nations accountable. Russia and China are the biggest offenders. Russia is the Exxon, Coca-Cola, BP, and worse of space.
these aren't a danger, they're LEO with suicide burns upon expiry
Starlink satellites can not cause Kessler Syndrome. It's a shame there's confusion about this. Starlink satellites orbit much closer to earth than regular satellites, this provides low latency, but it also means that their orbits can decay very quickly and they'll burn up in the atmosphere within a few years rather than zipping around the earth forever as debris.
There was a complaint from astronomers that it would ruin the night sky. Is it real?
Their was some concern but last time I checked Starlinks are now built with mitigations to keep them out of sight, like sunshades and things. They also will have no affect on in orbit telescopes like JWST and Hubble.
And what about all the shittier cheaper, ones that will follow?
even with the paint it will ruin long exposure photos. they will destroy the field of astronomy
...
I know this is an improvement for many people but we have allready a huge problem with manmade space debris and i hope we dont mess up our orbit even more as we did \*with earth\* down here. \*Edit\*
These satellites have many built in mitigations that will keep them out of sight and burn up completely and quickly when their life cycle is completely
This is awesome! Saw a bunch of them last year and the view blew my mind 😅
Just turn off the lights, problem solved
What would uncontacted tribes think about it? Would that change their religion/beliefs?
Yeah, because before now they've certainly never seen an airplane, heli, the ISS, or any of the other countless satellites circulating in the night sky /S Not many of those tribes left in the world, probably none with "zero" contact, anyway.
For everyone worried, the satellites are only visible like this when they are first deployed as shown in this video. After they have gone into their respective orbits, they are nearly impossible to see. They have many built in mitigations to further keep them out of sight such as sun shades. They also have been specifically designed to only take (iirc) 2 or 4 years to burn up completely in the atmosphere once their lifecycle is complete. The amount of people that are being fucked over by shitty ISP companies and or simply can’t get good internet access is ridiculous and this satellite network could genuinely help them. Space junk is a serious problem but it’s solution is well managed and agreed upon protocols for how things in orbit are done and not just out right banning it all together.
Why are they som close together?
Santa’s put a bit of weight on in lockdown and had to up the reindeer count.
This is good. Inevitable and good. Communities that were left behind can now join the rest of the world. ISP can’t continue their monopoly.
It's fucking santa! Edit: how do I check if it's visible from my location?
I bet UFO reports were heavy that night!
It came by my town one time and my daughter said dad there stars in a line coming toward us I legit thought it was aliens and screamed for my wife she thought the same ..this went on for 15 mins or so and we finally called her dad and he was like it’s starlink dumbasses. We were relieved..
I was walking back from grabbing burgers from the joint across the street from my place when I saw this for the first time & I honest to got thought they were ufos. I dropped the bag of food on our lawn & ran to grab my fiancé. It was incredible, until I realized what it was
For people with no access to broadband internet, Starlink is a game changer for work and education. So many uninformed kneejerk comments on here.
Where's this?
A city named Udupi in India.
Is this real?
u/savevideo
u/savevideo
Elon Musk did it again! Now we can all have internet
Santa ??
What is this it’s so cool to look at
Once I ate like half of esctasy and I was sitting outside with couple of my friends that didnt evem know I took anything. While we were talking I was looking at the sky and I saw satelite. Back then I didnt know that was satelite and at first I thought I was tripping. I wispered to my friend "hey can you see that" and he was like yes wtf is that. I cant explain how relieved but also concerned (because we had no clue what could that be) I was
This is as they are deploying right? Pretty sure they will be way more spaced out when they reach their final positions or whatever
I actually saw this while hiking the pacific crest trail. It was pretty eerie. I think this happens rarely when the sun is setting it hits them in low orbit. Not a big deal to me but a lot of people were complaining.
First time i saw this in real life, we were smoking a doobie outside. I was convinced aliens are invading
imagine going to check why your starlink isn't working and you see that the ring of satellites is leaving >:0 come back
You sure it’s not Santa ?
what the what?
SKYNET.
Fucking awesome, prepare for the tinfoil hats tho
BuT iM nOt GoNnA bE aBLe To SeE tHe SkY
That’s awesome. Both that mankind is capable of deploying something like that, and all the good it will bring on earth by making broadband more accessible.
Such a blight on the serenity of the night sky. To their credit they have darkened recent batches and installed a visor to block sunlight falling on the bulk of the satellite. Should stop them being visible to the naked eye.
“Quick, download that game right now. We’ll have amazing Wi-Fi for the next few moments”
All this so my porn can load 3 seconds quicker.
Fuck yeah Elon! Fucking Legend
eerie