Prof. Sam Lawler2d ago

Any journalists want to write an article about all the environmental costs of the more than 10,000 Starlinks that are now in orbit? All I'm seeing are breathless articles mindlessly worshiping That Awful Billionaire for crossing the 10,000 satellite mark.

Every single one of those will come down in an uncontrolled reentry. That's a lot of metal in the atmosphere, and a lot of dice-rolling to see if any more pieces will make it to the ground.

SpaceX is truly awful.

Show threadDrew 🇵🇭 ♾️1d ago
@sundogplanets SpaceX - or rather #Starlink - is my lifeline, and the lifeline of many thousands of others living in a rural location with no proper broadband service. #Spacex may be "awful" but it has improved my quality of life immeasurably.
Show threadJohn Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺
@drewtowler can you not instead get ViaSat or HughesNet?
Mar 16 at 1:10amWeb
Show threadDrew 🇵🇭 ♾️1d ago
@johnlogic When I bought my Starlink kit, I could not get either of those. Having invested in that kit, I'm obviously not going to ditch it. Not to mention the time spent routing cables through walls and roof voids. So whether I can _now_ get ViaSat or HughesNet is immaterial.
EDIT: On checking, Viasat and HughesNet have completely unacceptable latency anyway.
Show threadJohn Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺1d ago

@drewtowler ViaSat and HughesNet use few satellites in geostationary orbits, which are higher than the many disposable satellites that Starlink uses in low Earth orbit.

I've tried VoIP over a GEO system and the latency caused it to be marginal at best. But the latency wasn't an issue for most other uses.

Show threadDrew 🇵🇭 ♾️1d ago
@johnlogic It would be unworkable for me.