I presented at the local planetary journal club this morning about the 3 articles I co-authored for The Conversation in the past weeks about the effects that one million satellites would have on the night sky, the atmosphere, and the orbital environment (spoiler alert: all very very bad)
And one on light pollution that I thought would get published today but might not be out until after the weekend.
The third article in this (horrible) series of articles I've co-authored is now out. https://theconversation.com/a-million-new-spacex-satellites-will-destroy-the-night-sky-for-everyone-on-earth-277938
A million satellites of the size required for "AI data centers" would mean that everyone in the world would have more visible satellites than stars for most of the night and most of the year.
But don't worry, we'll be in Kessler Syndrome WAY before we get to a million satellites!
RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/116152057176915428
I've got a thread here where I more carefully explain the prediction plot, and post a bunch of sky predictions for many latitudes around the world, just to make the point of how incredibly stupid the idea of a million satellites is.
STOP AI DATACENTRES USING COMMUNITY POWER AND WATER!!!
Ok
NOT LIKE THAT!!!!!
Time to admit if you're opposed to orbital #Ai your opposition to Ai wasn't about environmental damage.
@n_dimension Well, not like that because the physics doesn't work.
- Way too hard to keep cool
- Say hello to Kessler effect
And if you care about the environment, you should care about all the substances that will end up in the upper atmosphere from the regular deorbiting of all those satellites. It's pretty much like dumping your rubbish in the ocean and thinking it's gone.
Ai Orbitals dont have to be in geostationary. You can boost them higher. Say goodbye to Kessler effect.
"Way to hard to keep cool", I seem to be the only person on this planet who has heard of droplet cooling or nuclear turbine cooling. Way more efficient than radiator fins, which is what every 'expert' seems to be stuck on.
@gunchleoc @sundogplanets @ArtHarg
No, the problem is mass/radiator areas.
With "experts" calculating 8 football fields of radiators for a few racks.
Both carbon-carbon nuke heatpipes and droplet cooling are 10-20x and 20-500x times more efficient than AL-fins.
Both use radiation, like the fins.
And space is big.
(BTW: Both designs are from the SDI era, ancient)
Prof. Sam Lawler
Wulfy—Speaker to the machines
GunChleoc
Arthur van der Harg