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 LawlerMay 5
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?
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 5

Oh. This is orbital enshittification.

Shit.

Show threadProf. Sam Lawler
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
May 12 at 3:24pmWeb
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 tapfere5d 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 R5d 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_Here5d 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 threadepicdemiologist5d 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 threadLisPi5d 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 Fahrni5d 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 Paolantonio5d 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 threadglasspshr5d ago
@sundogplanets I work on batteries
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler5d 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 threadAkaSci 🛰️6d ago

@sundogplanets
Fresnel lenses in space!

How large will these panels of lenses be for practical use?

Here is a good article on space power, including designs to beam power to earth, some spanning multiple square kilometers.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251029-the-beam-dream-should-we-build-solar-farms-in-space

Space power: The dream of beaming solar energy from orbit

Harvesting solar energy in orbit and beaming it down to Earth is a decades-old idea. Now, a raft of companies say they could make it a reality.

BBC
Show threadJames Tweedie6d ago
@AkaSci @sundogplanets If the multiple square kilometres cover Mar e Lago and various agressive warmongering parliaments around the world I could be persuaded of their benefits.
Show threadRay McCarthy6d ago
@AkaSci @sundogplanets
A delusion, not a dream!
Show threadKnud Jahnke6d ago

@sundogplanets

And with their marketing blahblah they're not even pretending that they really have a business model. Shoot something into space, hope it sticks, and then sell to someone else.

Show threadWTL6d ago
@sundogplanets This just re-enforces my thought that a lot of VCs have no one on staff (that decision makers listen to, anyway) that can do math or understands space.
Show threadrich6d ago
@sundogplanets I followed that link, and every subsequent link on that site, and each one made me sadder and angrier at the same time 😕
Show threadMichael Busch5d ago

@sundogplanets

So many scammers playing follow-the-leader.

Show threadStargeezer Smith5d ago

@sundogplanets
I do see evidence of your well thought out point. I do amateur astronomy when weather permits, a few days a month. And for the last several engagements my views have been interrupted by a rather bright satellite streaking through the field of view. Typically this occurs within the first 30 minutes of observing.

Mind you that's not a naked eye view when a large section of sky is within eyesight, but traveling through the very limited field of view of my telescope.

Show threadJuan Per¢ent,🇲🇽 🍉,🇻🇪5d ago
@sundogplanets None of the comments above seem to adress the obvious issue: we don't have an easy way to gather and transform energy from the skies 🌞⚡.
Let's be grateful that a tech company can make that energy available to us
for a small monthly fee.
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of Pnictogen5d ago
@sundogplanets an idea so stupid, of course it's roused up competition. It almost seems like some diabolical game of malicious compliance with the very idea of solar power—wrecking the credibility of solar energy by "disrupting" it with inane innovations, much as Elon Musk has laid waste to the credibility of the electric vehicle by focusing that whole market round his appalling celebrity and his gimmicky luxury cars.