Mastodawn

James Jensen Feb 5

Prof. Sam Lawler

Well, everyone, you can now submit a comment to let the FCC know what you think about SpaceX asking for 1 million satellites for "AI datacenters" whatever the fuck that means.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-113A1.pdf

Comments due March 6.

I am having a very hard time believing this is really happening. Fuck you, SpaceX, and fuck you, FCC. This is not regulation, this is a fucking joke, that will destroy our ability to use satellites for centuries.

Prof. Sam Lawler Feb 5

If anyone has time and energy to set up instructions for how to submit a comment to the FCC (it's really fucking complicated, on purpose, I'm sure), I would very much appreciate it! Otherwise I'll do it in the coming days.

Lauren Weinstein Feb 5

@sundogplanets It's not going to work. That will be obvious long before he has all that many satellites up, and he'll move on to his next sick joke.

@lauren @sundogplanets It will probably destroy what it was meant to in the time it is being developed though. Just as Hyperloop was really meant to kill off high speed rail projects.

Michael Kohne Feb 5

@lauren @sundogplanets I think this one is about the IPO - he wants to pawn off SpaceX on the open market (especially now that he's rolled the other loser companies into it), and this is about hyping SpaceX. If the commentary were to kill the idea ASAP, it might help fubar the IPO, which would be good for all the rest of us.

Wandering Star Feb 5

@sundogplanets https://www.fcc.gov/about/contact

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-comment

Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק Feb 5

@sundogplanets Yikes. Is DA 26-113 the “docket number or rulemaking number of the proceeding”?

rvandegrift Feb 6

@sundogplanets @aarbrk 26-113 matches the format of past proceeding identifiers, but it isn't in ECFS (yet?). I also had the email failure reported elsewhere.

The fallback is to mail a signed original, with *four* copies - details at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-comment#paper

I reported the issues using consumercomplaints.fcc.gov - they were forthright that I'd not be hearing back, but maybe it will unstick a fix.

Seán Fenian Feb 5

@sundogplanets A milliuon satellites is utterly barking insane. Based on the rate they're burning out GPU/VPUs in AI datacenters, my rough estimate is they're going to need 140 Falcon 9 launches PER DAY just to sustain the constellation. A million satellites that need replacement every 18 months on average?

katzenberger Feb 5

If somebody wants to venture into this, please test all steps.

The first one involves sending an email to [email protected] with "get form" and your email address in the message body.

The reply I got was trying to strangely gaslight me:

"Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

[email protected]
Your message couldn't be delivered. The Domain Name System (DNS) reported that the recipient's domain does not exist."

There seems to be a strange subdomain falstaff.fcc.gov involved. The attached error log says:

Diagnostic information for administrators:

Generating server: SJ0PR09MB11735.namprd09.prod.outlook.com

[email protected]
Remote server returned '550 5.4.310 DNS domain falstaff.fcc.gov does not exist [Message=InfoDomainNonexistent] [LastAttemptedServerName=falstaff.fcc.gov] [SA2PEPF00003023.namprd09.prod.outlook.com 2026-02-05T12:30:46.776Z 08DE6078A5284768]'

Alex Strasheim Feb 5

@katzenberger @sundogplanets

This is boring stuff, but when your server tries to deliver mail, the first thing it does is look for the MX records for the recipient's domain.

It looks like they're using Microsoft to run their email system.

My first guess is that they're changing their mail servers, and somehow your message got stuck during the transition.

1/2

Alex Strasheim Feb 5

@katzenberger @sundogplanets

Then it looks up the numerical address of the mail server. That's working as well. I think that if you try again, it will work.

The caveat is that when you query a DNS server, the answer gets cached for a while. So you might have to wait for your server's cached copies of the data to expire. But the data that's live now is good.

Quark Maker Feb 5

@katzenberger @sundogplanets
# whois.nic.gov

Domain Name: fcc.gov
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.nic.gov
Registrar URL: https://get.gov
Updated Date: 2025-07-21T18:50:44Z
Creation Date: 1997-10-02T01:29:23Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2026-07-16T18:50:44Z
Registrar: get.gov
Registrar IANA ID: 8888888
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited

get.gov

.Gov is the top-level domain for governments in the U.S. Request and manage a .gov domain.

Quark Maker Feb 5

@katzenberger @sundogplanets I wonder if they'll remember to re-up the domain before July 16. Someone far cleverer than I should see if they can take control of it.

MidgePhoto Feb 5

@katzenberger @sundogplanets
Falstaff is a good name for a mail server, but it looks as if DNS is either misconfigured, or has not yet propagated.
Notionally, a domain will contain several machines, one of which is called mail. And another is called post. And a third called www.
In fact they all may be on one physical machine. Which might be called Falstaff. or Laertes, Mercutio etc
Mine tend to astronomical.

is a Green Feb 5

Sorry, how does one submit a comment?

Play Ball and Fight Fascists Feb 5

@celesteh @sundogplanets

They have instructions here

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-comment

noplasticshower Feb 5

@sundogplanets have you ever thought of using the surface of the ocean to show the non-maths how this looks on a smaller sphere? Get them to drive a boat through the grid or something tangible.

I don't think they understand 3D...or 2D

Kevin J. Rogers Feb 5

@sundogplanets A.I. data centers in space is such a batshit crazy idea, it's hard to believe anyone takes it seriously. But they do.

It's just mind-blowing. Like living inside a comic book.

JamesB192 Feb 5

@sundogplanets let me marh this badly...

At a launch a second they could have that sucker up in months. At a launch every hour it'd take more than a century. At a launch a day millenia. Assuming of course one satellite per launch. That's just the getting to orbit bit. Fabbing the satellites might well take longer. After of course the lead time to ensure hallucinating chatbots are not on the worse granola.

CM Thiede Feb 5

@sundogplanets now he wants to corner the market on the sun's rays

Nonya Bidniss Feb 5

@sundogplanets Maybe that's what it's going to take to teach the world and especially the U.S. that the billionaires should have been loaded onto a rocket and shot right into the fucking sun

Petra van Cronenburg Feb 5

@Nonya_Bidniss better idea than Mars. More sustainable. 😁 @sundogplanets

Eric Lawton Feb 5

I appreciate any Americans that submit a complaint, but who exactly gave an American regulatory body authority over the whole of low Earth orbit and beyond?

Colonial theft.

@PhoenixSerenity

Petra van Cronenburg Feb 5

@EricLawton 💯 @sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity

@sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity @EricLawton I think we - non US people - have to turn to our governments to tell them to stop this insanity.

Not that I have much confidence in the swiss gov, tough...

Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴‍♂️📷 🗺️Feb 5

@EricLawton @sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity

or is it because they have authority over SpaceX as an American company - and the US already believes it can tell American companies what they can do in other countries.

LΞX/NØVΛ 🇪🇺Feb 5

@sundogplanets may be a blessing in desguise, i mean if (when) they fuck up, it will (force) the US to clean their mess by inventing tech to clean out there (if scientifically possible i'm not well known in space physic).

Ben Aveling Feb 5

People have tried to find ways to clean up space, with no practical options.
Low earth orbit tends to clear itself up fairly quickly, there’s a lot of drag on leo satellites. Higher orbits take a lot longer, but things are further apart, so a bit of garbage matters somewhat less. @lexinova @sundogplanets

Frances Perkins was right Feb 5

@lexinova @sundogplanets what’s crazy to me is that spacex is asking for a waiver for the bonding aka insurance requirements. When there is catastrophic failure there will be nobody holding the bag…

RowinSpeez Feb 5

@sundogplanets the good thing is that Elon Musk has never delivered on anything he's ever promised, and this would require rocket launches at such an wildly high pace that I don't think they could come close to pulling this off.

It's just to juice SpaceX IPO and then musk can be a trillionaire. If the next US administration comes to be, this plan is dumpstered for sure.

@sundogplanets How would a data center event work in outer space? Heat would build up. Unless I'm missing something and the idea is to have something super worse than regular DCs down here?

Awk & sha Feb 5

@kiri @sundogplanets you’re not missing anything; this is absolutely the problem with data centers, structures famously constrained by their ability to reject heat, in space, a place famous for its insulative properties. It’s stupid.

Not to mention that data centers require maintenance and equipment replacement. This aspect of data centers is why companies decided not to put them in the ocean (where heat would be easier to reject). How do they think they’ll do maintenance? Or do the satellites just become trash after a few years?

six_grandfathers_mountain Feb 5

@mmcknett @kiri
RE
constrained..reject heat, in space.. It’s stupid...
data centers require maintenance and equipment replacement

@sundogplanets
RE
fucking joke, that will destroy our ability to use #satellites for centuries

Anything #SpaceX wants is probably crap bc #ElonMusk is the guy driving the bus

And another way to destroy the use of space satellite tech is to have #WW3 which is what will only make big tech richer, 🥵

@nomdeb
Thx 4 orig Prof. Sam boost

Daniel Gibson Feb 5

@mmcknett @kiri @sundogplanets
There's also the problem that computers running in space must be more resistant to radiation than the ones we use down here.
The chips used there are different (and slower), use bigger semiconductor scale.

AFAIK this just can't work, even aside from the issue of having a million additional satellites...

(see https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/)

Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea.

There is a rush for AI companies to team up with space launch/satellite companies to build datacenters in space. TL;DR: It's not going to work.

Taranis

Awk & sha Feb 5

@Doomed_Daniel oh yeah, I can’t believe I forgot they have to be radiation-hardened, too!

Conny Nasch Feb 5

@Doomed_Daniel @mmcknett @kiri @sundogplanets The voice of reason was noted in the comments to this very clarifying article. I am an artist/painter and not engineer, (my father and partner are), I am fascinated by engineering and science though. Thank you for this super perspective on the subject I watched last night on 3Sat "Nano", which chilled me to the bone.

@kiri @sundogplanets @mmcknett Surely that is the point of doing it, they will break and he has to launch more to fill that gap. It ensures continual launches and hence profits

@mmcknett @kiri @sundogplanets

I suspect Musk knows this won't work. He doesn't care so long as more naive investors throw money at him.

@kiri @sundogplanets laser guns for the AI uprising...

Louise Auerhahn 🏳️‍🌈Feb 5

@kiri @sundogplanets It doesn't have to work. It just has to trick rich people into thinking it might work.

@lauerhahn Fair point!

Strider Uwe 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽Feb 5

@sundogplanets But SpaceX will “scal[e] to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” How could you possibly be against that?!?

Yeah, it’s batshit crazy, Musk is hyping for IPO (although I don’t know if he believes it himself… he’s huffed his own farts a few times too many). I’ll be astonished if more than, I dunno, a few dozen ever get launched. By that point, it should be clear what a stupid idea it is.

Roger Moore Feb 5

@UweHalfHand @sundogplanets
I think it's more about justifying the purchase of xAI, which otherwise makes no sense, not that orbital data centers make the tiniest bit of sense. It's part of a pattern of Musk using one of his companies to buy another to protect him from the shame of the purchased company going belly up. See Tesla/Solar City and xAI/X for previous examples. Don't be surprised if Neuralink is next.

Strider Uwe 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽Feb 5

@VATVSLPR @sundogplanets Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s some crazy tapdancing, I’m just not sure how much of it Musk believes himself… I’d be prepared to believe any number between 0 and 100%

naught101 Feb 5

@VATVSLPR @UweHalfHand @sundogplanets like a stupidity ponzi scheme. Using the first stupid as a down-payment on future stupid.

Cedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen Farm Feb 5

If other countries have any sense, they'll shoot them down after notifying the UN whatever pertinent commitee.

Toni Aittoniemi Feb 5

@sundogplanets Our economy is no longer serving the public, but the financial system.

Data centers in space won’t work, but the investment bankers don’t know that, so bullshit that make number go up rules.

Data centers in space are the tulip craze of our age!

Our economy never served the public. It is by definition in service to the financial system. Our society on the other hand has at times served the public. Forget the economy, embrace society, and the people with a million spacebux will lose all their power over you.

If only I could convince everyone else to do that too...

CC: @[email protected]

naught101 Feb 5

@sundogplanets Another huge distraction from the real challenges we face as a humanity?

Humble Fan of Atty. Woo Feb 5

what I personally want for my birthday on the 13th is for SpaceX or any large building to fall on Musk and end him.....I won't even ask for a Nobel Peace Prize if that were to happen. I will issue a small smile or two.....I yield back my time.

ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Feb 5

@sundogplanets Sounds like Musk - hubris unconstrained by reason.

TehAppKiller Feb 5

@sundogplanets That means to not comply with Police investigations and Courts orders (grok, grokipedia,...) worldwide through alternative SpaceX internet except by use of force. That means controlling Space launches. In addition to polluting our sky and the Space

@sundogplanets AI data centers project means the invasion of public space by one SpaceX!

bananamangodog Feb 5

@sundogplanets With Kessler syndrome thought to be inevitable now I'm surprised this is even being entertained and policy isn't being drawn up to ration new satellites and mandate retrieval of spent/decommissioned/junk satellites in order to get approval for a new one.

https://nasaspacenews.com/2025/01/urgent-warning-kessler-syndrome-could-collapse-modern-technology/#Why_the_Sudden_Alarm

Urgent Warning: Kessler Syndrome Could Collapse Modern Technology

Space exploration has opened extraordinary doors for humanity. From GPS systems that guide our daily commutes to weather satellites that

NASA Space News

science fiction coming alive ...

klausfiend has moved Feb 5

@sundogplanets Any chance the guidelines for commenting when the FCC was mulling axing/reinstating Net Neutrality are still valid at this point?

downbeatdan Feb 5

@sundogplanets Thanks for the great talk tonight in Hamilton Dr Sam. Scary but enlightening... time to spread this widely.

Jean-Baptiste Maillet Feb 5

@sundogplanets plus space is not only a US thing (until some guy decide he wants a property title on it for some US thing). There is a higher authority for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law

Space law - Wikipedia