Prof. Sam LawlerMay 5
I'm trying to rage-write an article about all the completely awful, useless, polluting, dangerous shit that companies are proposing to launch into orbit and I can't even tell what's fake and what's real on these fucking techbro websites anymore. It's all so fucking ludicrous.
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Like this shit: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/27/meta-inks-deal-for-solar-power-at-night-beamed-from-space/

Don't worry guys, the CEO says you can stare right into the infrared beam and it's totally safe! I trust him, don't you?

(How you transmit usable amounts of power with a beam that's so diffuse that you can look at it I have no fucking idea.)

Meta inks deal for solar power at night, beamed from space | TechCrunch

Overview Energy's first contract with Meta is a small step toward a future of space-based solar power.

TechCrunch
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Or this shit: https://www.cnn.com/science/space-forge-factory-semiconductors-spc

I guess factories in orbit are already a thing? Tiny factories, for now. Which then have to drop their precious cargo back through the atmosphere somehow and recover it? How does this make any sense economically at all?

This company is sending a factory into space to make materials for semiconductors

UK-based Space Forge wants to create ultra-high-quality crystals in space for the manufacture of semiconductors back on Earth.

CNN
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Or this shit: https://spacedaily.com/sd-n-nasa-backs-interlunes-2028-bid-to-mine-helium-3-from-the-moon/

The Moon's gravity is much weaker than Earth's so it'll be easy to accidentally launch rocks into Moon-escape orbits, making the Earth-Moon trip even more hazardous than it is already. Fun!

NASA Backs Interlune's 2028 Bid to Mine Helium-3 From the Moon

Interlune has secured a $6.9 million NASA award to build what the company says will be the first payload designed to extract solar-wind volatiles, including helium-3, directly from lunar regolith on the moon. The Seattle-based startup announced that the payload, dubbed Prospect Moon, is being developed for a targeted 2028 lunar launch. The award is […]

Space Daily
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Or THIS shit which is really shit: https://harvardtechnologyreview.com/2025/09/05/the-future-of-energy-unlocking-the-potential-of-space-based-solar-power/

Many companies are looking at different ways to do this (like the stare-into-the-IR-beam company above). All of them have huge safety, tech, and/or feasibility issues.

The Future of Energy: Unlocking the Potential of Space-Based Solar Power - Harvard Technology Review

A Future with Unrestricted Solar Panels  What if we lived in a world where solar panels produced electricity year-round, unaffected by night or clouds? Once considered a book-only sci-fi fantasy, space-based solar power, or SBSP, is now gaining popularity as […]

Harvard Technology Review
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

But of course nothing beats SpaceX's drunk teenager scifi novel of an FCC filing about how we need AI data centres in orbit to ascend into Kardashev civilization land. Which the FCC took totally seriously, opened for public comment in 4 days (record-short time!) https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-113A1.pdf

and the FCC will probably approve despite a couple thousand comments from the public and at least two petitions to deny opposing it. Fuckers.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/115345346648445621

A million satellites have obvious consequences, but even one can cause huge amounts of damage. Reflect Orbital, possibly simultaneously the most useless and damaging company ever to exist, which I have ranted about many times, and will continue to rant as their FCC filing is also likely to be approved despite a couple thousand comments against it from the general public and at least 2 formal petitions to deny. I really really hate this company a lot.

Show threadProf. Sam Lawler
I want to see companies that promise to use a handful of well-tested, ethically built, perfectly functioning satellites with decades-long operating lifetimes to do something that benefits the vast majority of humanity. Why can't we have more proposals like that?
May 5 at 9:48pmWeb
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Oh. This is orbital enshittification.

Shit.

Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6d ago
Another day, another extremely poorly though-out satellite megaconstellation that will enshittify orbit! https://spacenews.com/star-catcher-raises-65-million-for-space-power-grid/
Star Catcher raises $65 million for space power grid

Star Catcher Industries, a company developing power-beaming technology for satellites, has raised $65 million to validate the technology in space.

SpaceNews
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6d ago
BATTERIES. Batteries. Why are the techbros so excited about putting shiny shit in orbit instead of making better batteries on Earth? Not dystopian-scifi-enough?
Show threadChallis20706d ago
@sundogplanets batteries are cool as shit, though! I can carry power just...around. With me. Anywhere? And it weighs like...so little! It's cool.
Show threadMx. Eddie R6d ago
@sundogplanets
There's no Bond movie (or whatever) about batteries, but there are about cool space lasers?
Show threadandreas, der tapfere6d ago

@silvermoon82

Maybe Cruise and Diaz aren't cool enough for tech bros, but in fact there is a spy movie about a super battery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_and_Day

@sundogplanets

Knight and Day - Wikipedia

Show threadMx. Eddie R6d ago
@DerTapfere @sundogplanets
Oh cool! I've never heard of that one, will have to check it out.
Show thread"Miss Movie Masochist"6d ago

@sundogplanets Moonshots inherently create press, so "free advertising", while enforcing the perception they are edgy, out of the box thinkers. The more pie-in-the-sky the project, the more chances to exploit investors for cash while producing effectively nothing -- "It's more complicated than we thought".

Boring tech doesn't suit the techbro need for personal branding and myth-making, although boring tech runs the entire world.

Show thread"Miss Movie Masochist"6d ago

@sundogplanets A good example is Ford. They announced grid scale LFP batteries today.

It was on the third page.

Show threadSabreToothTigress ZenD5d ago
@socketwench @sundogplanets precise!
Show threadEstarriol, Terrorist Dragon6d ago

@sundogplanets

there are people making better batteries, but not tech bros.

Space shit gets headlines and Davos bragging rights, very little actually is aimed at anything except ego stroking at the moment.

Show threadtunefs(8) aficionado6d ago
@sundogplanets we could just sell each one an island with a pretend volcano lair
Show threadSabreToothTigress ZenD5d ago
@secretasianman @sundogplanets roflol
Show threadcan everything be outside now?5d ago
@secretasianman @sundogplanets nah let's sell them actual ones and just hope they're inside during the next eruption.
Show threadschrotthaufen6d ago
@sundogplanets None of the cyberpunk villains from the 80s/90s novels built batteries 🙊
Show threadDiane6d ago

@sundogplanets

Batteries can be evaluated on real physical characteristics.

And tech bros are so bad at management their companies struggle to build things.

https://electrek.co/2026/05/07/tesla-4680-battery-cell-performance-data-shows-cant-build-own-cells/

Tesla’s 4680 battery cells are underperforming and frustrating buyers

Five years after Battery Day, Tesla's 4680 cells deliver 13% less energy density, worse charging curves, and less range than the supplier cells they replace.

Electrek
Show threadKilroy_Was_Here6d ago

@alienghic @sundogplanets
Batteries also require hard and fast safety considerations. Glitz, spectacle, and money cannot be used to modify all the building, electrical, and fire codes throughout the world; nearly every sentence in them was written in the memory of dead men.

Neither can glitz, spectacle, and money be used to change the laws of physics.

However, the tech sector currently runs off of glitz, spectacle, and money. Safety and difficult problems are languages they don't speak.

Show threadAllen but one of the good ones6d ago

@sundogplanets Batteries are bad for business, how are you supposed to build your centralized energy monopoly if people can buy cheap battery + solar and disconnect from your grid?

I did spend quite a lot of time trying to come up with a conspiracy theory about how these projects are *actually* meant to distract from personal energy harvesting, divert funding from battery research, create an impression that "SPACE ENERGY BEAMS WILL BE SO CHEAP LET US COMMIT TO THAT INSTEAD!" but I just couldn't come up with anything that made any sense at all, even by the standards of conspiracy theorists.

On the other hand... maybe it's just Techbro Disruptors™️ taking aim at the fossil fuel industry and hoping like hell that they can convince enough people of their awesome that people will stop installing their own renewable+battery installations🤷

Show threadSabreToothTigress ZenD5d ago
@uastronomer @sundogplanets perfect
Show threadJoseph Shoer6d ago
@sundogplanets Batteries are the space version of techbros constantly reinventing trains
Show threadKnud Jahnke6d ago

@sundogplanets

Yes, please. I just returned two defective batteries today. Jointly weighed 130kg. I want them in handy 1 khW bits with a handle that I can stack or, much better, a container with 1000kWh sitting somewhere in this neighborhood, playing the role of an energy buffer.

Show threaddraNgNon6d ago
@sundogplanets omni magazine.
Show threadRoy -- the dull one6d ago

@sundogplanets

"Space. The Final Frontier."
The last new continent, there for the grab. And, this time, no d--- "first peoples" or regulators.

Vocabulary question: can you call it a "mindset" if there's no mind involved?

Show threadLoy Hena6d ago

@sundogplanets

because they want to be *seen*, they want everyone to look at them

Show threadNick Stevens Graphics6d ago

@sundogplanets

See also, why do they all want to build giant rockets, but none of them have any interest in keeping the crew alive?

Perhaps Sigmund Freud could help us here…

Show threadepicdemiologist6d ago
@sundogplanets I mean, hell, store energy by pumping water uphill! No rare earth metals needed and you don't fuck up low Earth orbit!
Show threadLisPi6d ago
@sundogplanets Presumably. I mean, if you look at the numbers solar power made more sense than nuclear power since the 1980s at minimum.

Why ever push for more infrastructure practically dependent on states (slur) then?
Show threadRob Fahrni6d ago
@sundogplanets @dgoldsmith Do these folks have to get permission beyond what they have to do in the US? This stuff affects the planet.
Show threadJoseph A di Paolantonio6d ago
@sundogplanets I like batteries. My internship between bachelors and grad school was in Li ion battery research (the 1970s, who knew, and my job was definitely grunt work). Mid-temperature molten salt fuel cells for solar thermal generators in grad school, and then photovoltaics. Batteries take a long time from research to ROI, and VC/techBros aren’t patient. But batteries we now have
Show threadSabreToothTigress ZenD5d ago
@jadp @sundogplanets exactly
Show threadglasspshr6d ago
@sundogplanets I work on batteries
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6d ago
@glasspusher GOOD! Keep doing it!
Show threadTarnport5d ago
@sundogplanets ya I don't think their goal is help or progress for all. Quite the opposite, sadly.
Show threadrooftopjaxx5d ago
@sundogplanets China'll be shipping sodium batteries very soon now, assuming there's any shipping taking place of course.
Show thread🇺🇦🇪🇺 cweickhmann5d ago
@sundogplanets Double-0 vs. Double-A - Mignon menace... badambaaadaaaaa! 🎶🎵🎼
Show threadMärt Põder5d ago
@sundogplanets "The Matrix" is all about batteries. Pretty dystopian too. I think they are doing their best to make it happen. It just takes some time.
Show threadChristian Vogel5d ago

@sundogplanets it's a betting game. You don't bet on things that just work, because everyone could do it, and you're not seen as a genius coming up with fancy ideas.

But importantly *also* don't bet on the very-unlikely things that theoretically could work in some distant future... you persuade *other* *people* to pour money into your batshit-crazy ideas which you claim will yield a 10000x return on investment later.

Then you'll use this inflated stock as collatoral to buy your new yacht.

Show threadQuark Maker6d ago
@sundogplanets Well, since the U.S. is the only country on Earth which matters, and all other countries exist in one capacity or another to do our bidding or be our source for minerals or other materials, and we don't believe in science and prefer good, solid, America-first Evangelical Christianity, who cares if people can see stars or not. We will put up more stars... we'll have the most and best stars, and if any other country complains, we'll just nuke them into a glass parking lot.
Show threadQuark Maker6d ago

@sundogplanets And just in case my prior post didn't make it obvious enough...

#SARCASM

Show threadQuark Maker6d ago

@sundogplanets And as a note for my note...

At any other point in the U.S.'s history, my initial comment would be 100%, turn-it-up-to-11 hyperbole. Unfortunately, our present Presidential Administration can't be trusted to actually *not* do what I said above.

Show threadCogito ergo mecagoendiosMay 5

@sundogplanets In the 2010s everybody got a social media account and now there are no more offline humans to focus your onboarding efforts on. These funds have existed for 30 years by growing cloud services. But now it's just the inert bottom of the ocean where there is no more whale carcass left.

So they try to keep the lights on by absorbing whole large infrastructure sectors. It's not that they have anything useful to offer space. It's that space has government money that is useful to them.

Show threado ifrit 🌱May 6

@sundogplanets
You are doing the work journalist are not 😔

Thank you

Show threadPetra van Cronenburg6d ago
@ifrit She does the work often together with the journalists who interview her and write about it. @sundogplanets
Show threado ifrit 🌱6d ago
@NatureMC
Yes, I know. But most of media just copy and paste uncritical propaganda 🤷
@sundogplanets
Show threadMsMeropeMay 5
@sundogplanets
💰 ?
Show threadAccordionBruceMay 5

@MsMerope @sundogplanets
So many problems would be solved by taxing the super-rich until there are no billionaires seeking ways big enough to waste their impossible wealth

It would only take a few years at the wealth tax rates we had before the Reagan etc revolution that brought us here

Show threadTom DB 🦣May 6
@AccordionBruce @MsMerope @sundogplanets The problem is indeed those people have too much money and free time on their hands. Who made them suddenly ffing Einsteins? Big messiah complexes in Techbro circles.
Show threadMozMay 5

@sundogplanets I'm disappointed that one of the "all satellites everywhere all the time" companies hasn't just thrown a bunch of cheap-ish telescopes into orbit and opened them up to you lot.

But then Elon did promise to end world hunger and when the quote arrived he went very quiet and never paid up. It was only ~$6B IIRC, which even at the time was less than 5% of his wealth.

Show threadCat WestMay 6
@moz @sundogplanets and instead of ending world hunger, he cut off the funds that fed millions and had kept starvation at bey. He did so, gleefully. Starving children became a hobby for him.
Show threadConny NaschMay 6
@Catawu Yep, DOGE 🤬 @moz @sundogplanets
Show threadJenica Lake เหล็ถเลถMay 6
@connynasch @Catawu @moz @sundogplanets he stole a charity
Show threadConny NaschMay 6
@MamaLake 😢 @Catawu @moz @sundogplanets
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 5
@sundogplanets The FCC's mandate and expertise is in protecting communications, ensuring satellites don't interfere with each other, etc. They have much less expertise in protecting from externalities like the night sky, etc, and it now shows.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 5
@sundogplanets Like, if you asked most people "what is the primary agency that regulates launching things into orbit", almost no one (who doesn't already know) would guess "the FCC".
Show threadMatt Hardy 3.11 for WorkgroupsMay 5
@mattblaze @sundogplanets in a sane world it’d be an international body.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 6
@technicaladept @sundogplanets It just makes no sense.
Show threadstibMay 6
@mattblaze
Fixed it for you: "The FCC's mandate and expertise is in protecting *the USA's* communications". No one in the rest of the world gave them any mandate.
@sundogplanets
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 6
@stib @sundogplanets Well, yes and no. International communications are governed by treaty, and national regulatory agencies are obliged to ensure compliance with them. The FCC does a reasonably good job here as far as I know in this regard. But they simply aren't competent to regulate things that aren't communications, like *space*.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 6
@stib @sundogplanets The problem with these harebrained satellite schemes isn't that they're interfering with international communications (which is what the FCC coordinates), it's that they're interfering with the environment at large..
Show thread🫰 Ada ⅘ 🌙May 5
@sundogplanets
🙏🙏🙏 thanks to voice all this out, this topic should raise much more voices and struggles about it. There's so much to do with all the mess being done in this world. Why are we letting multi-billionnaires ruin all our planet and its surroundings and still doing more profit out of pure speculation and debt on our own shoulders?? It's really outrageous that they do it in first hands but why are we so powerless to stop them? Omg, it's so fucked up.