Prof. Sam Lawler1d ago
WOW what a rollercoaster looking at my email and texts this morning. First piece of context: I am staying in an (incredibly nice) sheep shearer's hut (actually bigger than my house) in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and THIS is what the sunrise looks like right now. Wow.
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler1d ago

I have an email from my collaborator saying he just re-ran the CRASH Clock code, and we are now under 3 days for the first time ever! Good work on bringing us that much closer to Kessler Syndrome, everybody. Special congrats to SpaceX on that one. Hope you take full credit when it starts!

https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/ (Website hasn't been updated yet, but here's info on what the CRASH Clock tells us about how close we are to Kessler Syndrome)

CRASH Clock – Outer Space Institute

Show threadAsta [AMP]1d ago
@sundogplanets I mean, who was still using GPS anyway? Or satellite imagery for weather? Or looking at things in deep space? Or monitoring the sun? Or taking pictures of the night sky and pondering what it is to be human?

I mean it's not like there was any other way to get internet rolled out to those places, so!

/s
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler1d ago
@aud There are often other options that are kind of terrible in rural places. I understand why people have jumped on Starlink. I just really don't understand why Starlink needs SO DAMN MANY satellites to deliver this service. If it was really just for a few rural people who didn't have other options, then they certainly wouldn't need 42,000 sats...
Show threadAsta [AMP]
@sundogplanets oh yeah, I understand why people use Starlink in rural areas, for sure. Didn’t mean to make it sound like I’m snarking on them; I’m just snarking that we could have made a proper effort to roll out fiber to these places… but since Musk owns a rocket company, not a fiber company, wellll…
Mar 20 at 7:35pmWeb
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler23h ago
@aud TOTALLY agree there :)
Show threadschrotthaufen23h ago
@aud @sundogplanets Also, satellite sounds cooler, *and* you can take them away. Abandoning the fiber, because the ruling government of a country isn’t fascist enough for your taste, isn’t as effective when some other ISP can use the cables. Not so much with the sats. (Yes, I do think for Musk it’s all about power, and looking cool while amassing it.)