[LINK] Elon Musk: Starlink whipping the competition

[Kate Lance]

It's not just astronomers are worried. Within 25 years all that infrastructure
being built on satellites could destroy itself. The Kessler Syndrome: when a
catastrophic event in low earth orbit becomes inevitable. 

"As more objects are launched into orbit, the possibility of catastrophic
collisions increases. More frequent collisions increase the volume of debris,
thereby raising the odds of another collision.

In other words, there is a point at which completely ceasing the launch of
new objects into space will not prevent the debris field up there from growing.
Assuming the current launch rate going forward of around 1,500 satellites per
year, the researchers estimate that the “critical population density” turning
point will occur around 2050. By that year, a catastrophic event in low earth
orbit becomes inevitable.

The most immediate sign to the public would be the sudden failure of broadcast
TV ... and GPS. Because of its reliance on information provided by satellites,
the global economy would screech to a halt. People would not be able to
withdraw money, and global supply chains would freeze.

Controlling the subsequent chaos and reconnecting the globe through traditional
means would take quite some time, and likely many, many lives."

https://robertvanwey.substack.com/p/the-imminence-of-the-destruction

Regards,
Kate


On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 08:58:44PM +0000, Philip N Argy wrote:
> Another issue is whether we have or are about to reach saturation point with LEO satellites.  Already astronomers are complaining about their interference with terrestrial based observations.
> Philip
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Link <link-bounces at anu.edu.au> On Behalf Of Tom Worthington
> Sent: Thursday, 12 December 2024 07:49
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Elon Musk: Starlink whipping the competition
> 
> On 10/12/24 16:44, Stephen Loosley wrote:
> > Elon Musk: Starlink whipping the competition
> > By David Braue on Dec 10 
> > 2024https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/elon-musk-s-starlink-whipping-the-competition.html?ref=newsletter&deliveryName=DM24627
> > 
> > NBN Co:  Sky Muster was not very impressive compared to Starlink ...
> 
> The NBN plan was to use fiber & copper in cities, fixed wireless in 
> regions, & satellite in remote areas.
> 
> Sky Muster is a big old geostationary satellite, while Starlink is a 
> whole lot of little low orbit ones. The services were designed at 
> different times for different purposes.
> 
> It is not clear how long Starlink will be able to keep their lead. As 
> with Tesla, having shown there is a market for a product, others may 
> move in and provide an alternative.
> 
> As Dr Craig Benson, Co-founder and Director of Skykraft pointed out in a 
> recent talk at the Canberra Innovation Network, SpaceX is happy to 
> launch satellites for other companies. Someone could come up with a way 
> to make satellites cheaper, or better, than Starlink.
> 
> One unanswered question is what is the sweet-spot for bandwidth. 
> Starlink offers 25 to 220 Mbps through an antenna about the size of a 
> laptop. But customers might be happy to pay less for less bandwidth. 
> Perhaps a terminal about the size of a mobile phone with enough 
> bandwidth for voice calls, internet, video conferencing and TV. This 
> could be teamed with a solar panel for a permanent installation.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
> 
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