I did a calculation yesterday that made me want to scream. If you look at the *current* density of satellites in 1km altitude bins in Low Earth Orbit, and assume they are travelling at circular velocities (generally true), then Starlink satellites pass within <1km of each other EVERY 30 SECONDS.

At Starlink altitudes, everything is travelling at 7 km/second, so <1 km close approaches are terrifyingly close. Every 30 seconds. WHY.

@sundogplanets Because dipshits want to have uninterrupted, high-speed, low-latency internet at all times rather than working on software that do not need that.

@pettter @sundogplanets

...and they could have high speed internet anyway via cables, wireless ground links etc.

@FediThing @pettter @sundogplanets not really, even in the US decades of corruption still leave huge areas of the country with no ISP available outside of dialup or sat. (prestarlink hughesnet was the major provider with their $150/m <1mbit service). There's still large areas that don't have even basic DSL yet, it's taken so long cell and sat are the norm in many areas. Step 1 if you want cables in the US is to break up verizon/at&t who were paid but never actually rolled out the infrastructure.

@raptor85

That sounds more like a regulatory problem in the US than a technical one?

@FediThing @raptor85

Also: regional problem, not a global one.

@iju @FediThing unfortunately the region is literally where the vast majority of starlink users are, mostly because of this issue.

@raptor85 @FediThing

My point was that Musk is turning a regional problem into a global one :D