★ Amy Star ★the easiest way to become radicalized about astronomy is to open a stargazing app and to make it highlight Starlink satellites
Kevin in Alaska@AmyZenunim fwiw this issue is more complicated for people living in remote communities without other high speed internet options
Mastodon Migration@feelnotes @AmyZenunim Sorry no. Remote internet does not justify filling low earth orbit with space junk and wrecking terrestrial astronomy. And once these things start smashing into each other we are going to have real problem. This is insanity.
@mastodonmigration @AmyZenunim i completely agree that there are terrible costs to starlink. but in rural communities that don’t have other internet options, starlink means you can meet with a doctor through telemedicine, attend online classes and earn a degree, start an online business, facetime with a loved one. what do we tell these people? “sorry the technology we used to connect the world wasn’t designed with you in mind.” my only point is this issue isn’t so simple as “starlink bad”
Mele@feelnotes Starlink provides a useful service for sure but at what cost? How is it, that a single company can litter the night sky that belongs to all humanity with their commercial junk for private profit? How profitable is it even? Not a rhetorical question, I'm genuinely wondering if it actually is sustainable at all. Even with SpaceX's reusable rockets, sending stuff into orbit isn't cheap and the satellites have a very short lifespan. Do the subscription fees really cover all that or is the whole thing just running on investor money and government subsidies? As far as I know (might be wrong here,) Starlink's inter-satellite routing isn't up yet, so where-ever Starlink is used, there has to be fiber nearby anyway, so it feels to me that improving the local cellular infrastructure would be cheaper.