John Garver
Prof. Sam LawlerAlso, in case anyone is counting, Starlink is now 63% of all active satellites.
2 out of ever 3 satellites up there now are owned by that awful billionaire. He effectively controls Low Earth Orbit. That should terrify everyone.
...just in case anyone needs more to be terrified of. Sorry.
You know what you can do? Not buy Starlink internet. (And if Starlink is your only option, write to them as a customer and tell them that you are concerned about their safety practices on the ground and in orbit, and they need to make fewer satellites with longer functional lifetimes)
sebastian büttrichThere are so many reasons not to use #Starlink -
the atmospheric pollution,
being at the whim of a far-right tech-bro, to turn your communications on and off as he sees fit (and has done before),
contribute to his empire of launch industries (#SpaceX), communications (#Starlink) and propaganda (#XformerlyKnownAsTwitter),
its military interests,
the fact that it s not sustainable and will fall apart at some point (#Kessler),
damaging your own infrastructure
... and more:
Ms. Que Banh@sundogplanets Do you know Musk tries to gain influence with some rather naive leftist groups by offering them free Starlink gear for their direct actions/protest work? I know because he offered & then donated several full Starlink setups to activists in BC. People took them out of desperation because other communications gear was seized by RCMP CIRG. I heard similar things had happened with Starlink in NZ & a few places in South America too.
Darrin West@sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity Not just influence. Being the transport, it would be easy to snoop their activity, and trivial to locate them. Not that great an idea for any kind of activist. If you know them, tell them about VPNs, at a minimum.
@obviousdwest @sundogplanets I tried to warn people that accepting would make it easier to track them but they didn't listen to me. I refused to use the gear. I moved camps a few times when people brought Starlink gear to where I was tenting.
@PhoenixSerenity @obviousdwest WHOA I had no idea they were "donating" starlink equipment to activists. Wow. Good on you for not taking it at face value...techbros NEVER give away stuff for free!
@sundogplanets @obviousdwest 100% - it's good to be wary of super rich techbros donating their gear. There's always a shitty catch to it.
Some activists found out that fact, the hard way. Remote comms stations with Starlink gear were the first to be heavily targeted by RCMP CIRG. They didn't search but beelined straight to stations in middle of forests & up in mountains. They knew exactly where they were since Starlinks are trackable.
Some activists found out that fact, the hard way. Remote comms stations with Starlink gear were the first to be heavily targeted by RCMP CIRG. They didn't search but beelined straight to stations in middle of forests & up in mountains. They knew exactly where they were since Starlinks are trackable.
@PhoenixSerenity @obviousdwest Wow that's terrifying.
@sundogplanets @obviousdwest All of the Starlink comms were found very quickly & seized. They didn't last long in the field. The accepting of that gear contributed to a lot of middle of night raids where RCMP CIRG went straight to the Starlinks & left everything else alone. That's why I kept moving where I slept, after that gear was brought to camps.
Dan Neuman 🇨🇦@PhoenixSerenity @sundogplanets @obviousdwest Not to mention Musk's habit of turning off access when it is needed most by the users. See Ukraine.
Matt Palmer@sundogplanets as the Trojans learned many years ago, beware of geeks bearing gifts.
Mrinappropriate
lurkingsquiddle@obviousdwest @sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity VPNs only encrypt the content of what you are looking at and where you are looking at. Starlink still gets to track you as well as their system allows.
ITsec Agentur@PhoenixSerenity @sundogplanets WTF? That is evil.
@itsec_agentur It was pretty darn awful having to hear some naive activists praise the kindness & generosity of Musk.
I got called a downer, when I tried to talk some critical sense into folks, when warning people to not use the gear & why it's dangerous/likely a setup & not true charitable kindness gestures from a fascist/racist billionaire.
I got called a downer, when I tried to talk some critical sense into folks, when warning people to not use the gear & why it's dangerous/likely a setup & not true charitable kindness gestures from a fascist/racist billionaire.
@PhoenixSerenity That is bad.
@itsec_agentur It's often how some rich people can fool some not so rich people. By pretending to care/by "donating" when they're the evil ones doing many things that are killing humans & destroying living environments.
@PhoenixSerenity It sounds straight out of a story of @pluralistic
While the easy part is unfortunately very easy for me to imagine, I am wondering how can it be that some folks is still so naive?
While the easy part is unfortunately very easy for me to imagine, I am wondering how can it be that some folks is still so naive?
@itsec_agentur @pluralistic Too many people are still too credulous. They can be blinded by celebrities/expensive gear donations.
Eric LawtonI have, and use, another option but am afraid Starlink will drive local ISPs out of business as they only offer much lower speeds to any of us with trees between our home and their tower.
Gregaro McKoolIn our not-so-rural region region Elon was about to be the only choice. Then the big three Canadian telcos decided it was, in fact, cost effective to connect us and life has been peachy since. It’s almost like it wasn’t in fact that hard in the first place!
Mike@sundogplanets It's ok, terrified is way off in the rear view mirror at this point
Yvan@sundogplanets to add to the terror my first thought is: how hard would it be for him to have weaponised some % of that "fleet"? Is that feasible. Obviously the guy doesn't have the skills to do it himself, but I bet he has the mentality to try. It'd require some number of people working for him to be in on it and surely there aren't many who'd go along with something like that…
Have them launch some sort of tungsten rod perhaps? The old "rods of god" concept.
I may have read too much sci-fi.
@yvan @sundogplanets some are militarized, it’s not clear in what ways they’re weaponized: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starshield
I doubt they have large tungsten rods (too heavy), but they could easily have radio jammers and some sort of anti-satellite weaponry. Even the civilian model could navigate to block foreign launches, and to ensure safe windows for “our” launches; the military model might have more navigation capacity. I doubt we’ll know until the next war starts, and maybe not even then
@ShadSterling ah, great, so the bozo probably has some control of US government endorsed and tech equipped war satellites! Feeling even more terrified already.
🟥 Eveline Sulman 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦@sundogplanets how can I know if I use Starlink or not?
diego"Smash the looms"
MrEdgarBass@sundogplanets #ElonMuskIsASecurityRisk so pull his clearance.
Kev@sundogplanets absolute madness
Woozle Hypertwin@sundogplanets For-profit satellites should pay an international tax for access to LEO orbits, since crowding and debris are becoming a problem and money has already been spent (and more will be spent) working out how to clean it up.
...yeah, I don't know how to make this happen.
Easier: only democratic governments, nonprofits, and co-ops should have access to LEO. (Yeah, still impossible at the moment, but something to aim for.)
Samuel Hautamäki@woozle @sundogplanets A tax wouldn't really punish big companies, they could afford to pay it, but smaller companies (and competitors) wouldn't necessarily be able to. Satellite counts need to be LIMITED (not satellites taxed) and with every satellite deployed they need a concrete plan for after it's obsolete (i.e. a way to collect it or re-use it so it doesn't burn up in the stratosphere and damaging the ozone)
@sirobsidian @sundogplanets Taxing, to my mind, is more about paying for services (e.g. orbital cleanup) than about deterrence. The more it costs to run the cleanup project and keep the orbital slot usable, the higher the taxes should be.
(It would also make logical sense to credit companies for doing their own cleanup in the form of returning a satellite to earth, preferably intact rather than via de-orbiting it to burn up and land chunks in the ocean, along with the other environmental damage you mention).
Deterrence is usually in the form of fines -- though they do tend to be vastly inadequate. To my mind, they should be expressed in terms of percentage-ownership of the company, payable either in stock or with the equivalent cash (using the company's maximum valuation over the past year).
Allan@sundogplanets always makes me think of that Stargate episode where Daniel Jackson goes mad with power and
DalaiWhat about satelite hacking 😊 Pick an old one, and when it gets out of its orbit try to play bowling 🤣
@sundogplanets how the heck did we allow this to happen.
وردي 
🇵🇸@sundogplanets petition to rename them starlitter
Anansi (spider)
Tanuj Gupta@sundogplanets they will die out... the revenue is not enough to support Starlink. ... they are counting on taxpayers money.
Democracy Dies in Dumbass@sundogplanets All the space-trash he's generating is going to bite us in the ass pretty soon.
ColdougIt's anyone's guess how that particular piece of information is going down in the Kremlin
floydgump@sundogplanets One day the universe will show that fool just how insignificant and powerless he really is.
Barry Goldman@sundogplanets i'm pretty sure that was his original plan, not mars, mars was a cover.
isolImagine if every non-SpaceX launch started 'accidentally' being bumped into a superfluous satellite or 2.
And only SpaceX knew where safe launch/orbit windows were.
And Starlink satellites would only dance out of the way of SpaceX vehicles …
Elric@sundogplanets ANYONE with a half a brain said that this was a bad idea, yet Musk was allowed to continue. The signs have been on the wall for years. And now it's too late. Good luck cleaning up his mess. Sigh.
Howard Chu @ Symas@sundogplanets time to get James Bond on the case. Something like Tomorrow Never Dies?
Mark Wyner Won’t Comply 
@sundogplanets this is super insightful. I honestly had no idea this was happening. I also didn’t know anything about Starlink being affiliated with the billionaire fascist tech bro.
I’m going to have to do some research on this. I’m concerned about Apple’s new satellite backup system for internet. I hope they’re not using Starlink for that.
Thanks for sharing this. 🙌🏻
Michael Busch@markwyner @sundogplanets Apple's satellite emergency texting feature uses Globalstar, which operates a network of just 25 satellites at far higher altitude than the Starlinks.
Cecelia@michael_w_busch @markwyner @sundogplanets T-Mobile is the company with the SpaceX agreement to do regular cell signals from Starlink satellites.
@helianthropy thank you!
A. No, née: Moose@sundogplanets it's not only the satellites up there. It's also the satellites coming down:
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-reentry-pollution-damage-earth-atmosphere
herbert@sundogplanets Leon really is Blofeld by now. I’ve always been a massive 007 fan, but I prefer the fantasy version over the real world one.
Simon LucyAct 2, ransom notes are delivered and the missile systems enabled.
Børge@sundogplanets Feels like a real life supervillain
AlgoCompSynth by znmeb 🇺🇦@sundogplanets Monopolies are bad. We need an early warning system of them, because once they get big enough, they cannot be regulated.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.@sundogplanets Do Starlink satellites have enough maneuverability to take out other satellites if Musk wanted? If so, what kinds of potential target satellites share a similar orbit?
@sundogplanets
I don't see that as control.
Taking up space in the volume, yes, but it makes putting another one up there is no harder now than previously.
I don't see that as control.
Taking up space in the volume, yes, but it makes putting another one up there is no harder now than previously.
@midgephoto That's...not how this works at all.
@sundogplanets
It has come a long way since Arthur C Clarke suggested we would have 3 of them, and Kubrick envisaged one.
It has come a long way since Arthur C Clarke suggested we would have 3 of them, and Kubrick envisaged one.