The big issue is the massive constellation of satellites is barely being used anywhere near capacity to justify such a big install.
5200 satellites just for 3 million customers is beyond pathetic. I know it’s not a fair comparison, but  DIRECTV has 11 million subscribers with 12 satellites.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
PigeroniPepperoni on
Conflicts with astronomy but it was a godsend when I was on ocean research vessels.
simulated_copy on
I hate Starlink
And the clusterfu#k of space jumk in orbit
Papageier on
Damn Elon Musk and his…
*shuffles deck, draws card*
…satellites!
Electrical-Risk445 on
There’s other megaconstellations out there (OneWeb and the Chinese one), wonder what their impact is.
maporita on
BBC editorializing the headline again. They are Starlink satellites. Musk just happens to be the CEO. We wouldn’t talk about “Jensen Huang’s graphics chips” for example.
BerkleyJ on
The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy which are likely being exaggerated. They are also easily overcome by using space-based telescopes which will become more and more common and affordable due to SpaceX.
Halting technological progress because of small inconveniences that can almost certainly be solved with the same technology is counter-productive.
Optimoprimo on
He’s almost gone full Montgomery Burns.
spap-oop on
Time to deploy the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
flounderpants on
I have reduced visibility of the sky due to the corporate space junk. I should be compensated for my loss
SeparateSpend1542 on
How does one man get to decide he gets to encircle the earth with his profit machines? This is Mr Burns blotting out the sun level villainy.
BIGGUS_dickus_sir on
Leon said he wants to put advertising projectors in orbit.
tech01x on
The British Broadcasting Company scaremongering over Starlink, when the British are co-owners of OneWeb, which has far brighter satellites. Hmmm… not to mention that the Chinese are launching their large constellation that is far brighter than either. Then Amazon is going to launch theirs too….
Simply, any real space observation is going to have to be done by satellite in 10-15 years, and to the naked eye, we wouldn’t be able to tell anyways except in particular circumstances at dawn or dusk.
BWWFC on
now the real prime importance to getting reliable travel/presence to *the beyond*, aka moon/mars. BOOM!
and really… the future of astronomy has *evolved* to removing the atmosphere, thus *Hubble and James Webb,*
PeteZappardi on
Let’s do a quick thought experiment. First, think of a car.
There are 6,000 Starlink satellites. I couldn’t find exact dimensions for them online, but let’s say they’re 3 car-lengths long when deployed. So we can normalize the size of Starlink to be equivalent to about 18,000 cars.
There are about 1.5 billion cars on the planet, spread out over the 30% of the planet’s surface that isn’t water.
Now, think about how many of those cars you can see from 300 miles above the Earth’s surface. (For reference, pictures from the ISS are in the ballpark of 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.)
Do you see any cars? If you were to drop something, what are the chance you think it’d hit a car? Based on that view, would you say that Earth is at risk of running out of room for cars? I doubt it. Even though the concentration of cars on land is on the order of 20,000,000 times greater than the concentration of Starlink satellites in orbit. And yet, people think Starlinks are overcrowding orbit.
Sure, satellites are moving faster, but the nice thing about orbits is that they are trackable and predictable, much more akin to train tracks than to the roads all those cars travel on.
monkeysuffrage on
Aren’t the best telescopes beyond starlink orbit?
jcooli09 on
Those things really should be brought down.
want-to-say-this on
Isn’t Amazon doing satellite internet too?
alpha53- on
This really sucks for peps into astrophotography.
emseewagz on
when you are staring out into the great vastness of the universe, searching for meaning and the origins of life, think of me
-Elon
Dzotshen on
Who greenlit this shit? Talk to them
AllIsParticles on
Hope this continuous push to put more satellites in orbit doesn’t create a death trap of trash.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
CloudAllison on
I’d rather be able to see the stars than look at them on my phone
xoxoxivy on
Currently, Musk’s Starlink is composed of 6,400 satellites, with competitors Amazon, One Web, and other newcomers chasing that number. By 2030, there may be 100,000 satellites in orbit.
“This is actually threatening the entirety of ground based astronomy in every wavelength and in different ways. If it continues, without the sort of mitigation to make these satellites quiet, then it does become an existential threat for the kinds of astronomy we do.”
-Jessica Dempsey, Director of ASTRON
So the question is, are we choosing a corporate race to provide worldwide internet coverage over earth-based astronomy for our future? If so, does that limit astronomy to government, corporations, and the ultra-wealthy that can field telescopes in space?
Dr-Lipschitz on
Giant satellite in the sky sometimes blocks view of stars.Â
No shit shirlock. The benefits outweigh the cost.
Stompalong on
Global surveillance. So it begins.
mjincal on
Musk is only blocking your view of the universe because he hates you
thatguyad on
It’s just so fitting. Obnoxious and in the fucking way.
Background_Sea7915 on
This dude is looking to be a dick on a universal scale.
kristospherein on
The gif cuts off…why is this being upvoted? Reddit is feeling more and more like a crappy version of TikTok or Twitter.
TheEmpressSeraphina on
Musk did not help technological progress—the scientists, physicists, and engineers did. He is not a genius Reddit makes him out to be. He merely uses the work of smart individuals and markets it under his name.
We must remember the true laborers behind the face of the company.
eisfer_rysen on
When we create a Dyson sphere to harness our star we will have future scientists complaining as well.
anon8622 on
The future of astronomy will be space based. The higher cargo of the next gen launchers and the diameter allowed for the payload will allow some big increase in our instruments capabilities. Trying to keep the sky EM free is a lost cause, there is too many incentives and the benefits far outweight the impact on our ground based observatories.
seekertrudy on
I barely see the stars in the sky where I live anymore…
Streambotnt on
Every single thing about Elon Musk is dumb. The company he didn’t found but instead bought the rights to be called founder creates only dogshit cars. The boring company is indeed a bland, useless husk that can’t make a tunnel (even when humanity has lots of experience in building these) work. X is a steaming pile of trash overrun by nazis, white supremacists, traitors, and conspiracy theorists. He’s a nepobaby whose wealth founded on mommy and daddies money. His own family hates him. And now the last mentionworthy company, that actually achieved something, it pollutes the low earth orbit with short-lived satellites. Which obstructs the view of everything not on earth. Fuck Elon Musk, fuck the rat. I hope he dies a slow and agonizing death.
dzernumbrd on
They should be forced to coat them in vantablack at least.
39 Comments
Elmo is such a prick.
The big issue is the massive constellation of satellites is barely being used anywhere near capacity to justify such a big install.
5200 satellites just for 3 million customers is beyond pathetic. I know it’s not a fair comparison, but  DIRECTV has 11 million subscribers with 12 satellites.
[deleted]
Conflicts with astronomy but it was a godsend when I was on ocean research vessels.
I hate Starlink
And the clusterfu#k of space jumk in orbit
Damn Elon Musk and his…
*shuffles deck, draws card*
…satellites!
There’s other megaconstellations out there (OneWeb and the Chinese one), wonder what their impact is.
BBC editorializing the headline again. They are Starlink satellites. Musk just happens to be the CEO. We wouldn’t talk about “Jensen Huang’s graphics chips” for example.
The benefits of Starlink far outweigh the alleged inconveniences to astronomy which are likely being exaggerated. They are also easily overcome by using space-based telescopes which will become more and more common and affordable due to SpaceX.
Halting technological progress because of small inconveniences that can almost certainly be solved with the same technology is counter-productive.
He’s almost gone full Montgomery Burns.
Time to deploy the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
I have reduced visibility of the sky due to the corporate space junk. I should be compensated for my loss
How does one man get to decide he gets to encircle the earth with his profit machines? This is Mr Burns blotting out the sun level villainy.
Leon said he wants to put advertising projectors in orbit.
The British Broadcasting Company scaremongering over Starlink, when the British are co-owners of OneWeb, which has far brighter satellites. Hmmm… not to mention that the Chinese are launching their large constellation that is far brighter than either. Then Amazon is going to launch theirs too….
Simply, any real space observation is going to have to be done by satellite in 10-15 years, and to the naked eye, we wouldn’t be able to tell anyways except in particular circumstances at dawn or dusk.
now the real prime importance to getting reliable travel/presence to *the beyond*, aka moon/mars. BOOM!
and really… the future of astronomy has *evolved* to removing the atmosphere, thus *Hubble and James Webb,*
Let’s do a quick thought experiment. First, think of a car.
There are 6,000 Starlink satellites. I couldn’t find exact dimensions for them online, but let’s say they’re 3 car-lengths long when deployed. So we can normalize the size of Starlink to be equivalent to about 18,000 cars.
There are about 1.5 billion cars on the planet, spread out over the 30% of the planet’s surface that isn’t water.
Now, think about how many of those cars you can see from 300 miles above the Earth’s surface. (For reference, pictures from the ISS are in the ballpark of 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.)
Do you see any cars? If you were to drop something, what are the chance you think it’d hit a car? Based on that view, would you say that Earth is at risk of running out of room for cars? I doubt it. Even though the concentration of cars on land is on the order of 20,000,000 times greater than the concentration of Starlink satellites in orbit. And yet, people think Starlinks are overcrowding orbit.
Sure, satellites are moving faster, but the nice thing about orbits is that they are trackable and predictable, much more akin to train tracks than to the roads all those cars travel on.
Aren’t the best telescopes beyond starlink orbit?
Those things really should be brought down.
Isn’t Amazon doing satellite internet too?
This really sucks for peps into astrophotography.
when you are staring out into the great vastness of the universe, searching for meaning and the origins of life, think of me
-Elon
Who greenlit this shit? Talk to them
Hope this continuous push to put more satellites in orbit doesn’t create a death trap of trash.
[deleted]
I’d rather be able to see the stars than look at them on my phone
Currently, Musk’s Starlink is composed of 6,400 satellites, with competitors Amazon, One Web, and other newcomers chasing that number. By 2030, there may be 100,000 satellites in orbit.
“This is actually threatening the entirety of ground based astronomy in every wavelength and in different ways. If it continues, without the sort of mitigation to make these satellites quiet, then it does become an existential threat for the kinds of astronomy we do.”
-Jessica Dempsey, Director of ASTRON
So the question is, are we choosing a corporate race to provide worldwide internet coverage over earth-based astronomy for our future? If so, does that limit astronomy to government, corporations, and the ultra-wealthy that can field telescopes in space?
Giant satellite in the sky sometimes blocks view of stars.Â
No shit shirlock. The benefits outweigh the cost.
Global surveillance. So it begins.
Musk is only blocking your view of the universe because he hates you
It’s just so fitting. Obnoxious and in the fucking way.
This dude is looking to be a dick on a universal scale.
The gif cuts off…why is this being upvoted? Reddit is feeling more and more like a crappy version of TikTok or Twitter.
Musk did not help technological progress—the scientists, physicists, and engineers did. He is not a genius Reddit makes him out to be. He merely uses the work of smart individuals and markets it under his name.
We must remember the true laborers behind the face of the company.
When we create a Dyson sphere to harness our star we will have future scientists complaining as well.
The future of astronomy will be space based. The higher cargo of the next gen launchers and the diameter allowed for the payload will allow some big increase in our instruments capabilities. Trying to keep the sky EM free is a lost cause, there is too many incentives and the benefits far outweight the impact on our ground based observatories.
I barely see the stars in the sky where I live anymore…
Every single thing about Elon Musk is dumb. The company he didn’t found but instead bought the rights to be called founder creates only dogshit cars. The boring company is indeed a bland, useless husk that can’t make a tunnel (even when humanity has lots of experience in building these) work. X is a steaming pile of trash overrun by nazis, white supremacists, traitors, and conspiracy theorists. He’s a nepobaby whose wealth founded on mommy and daddies money. His own family hates him. And now the last mentionworthy company, that actually achieved something, it pollutes the low earth orbit with short-lived satellites. Which obstructs the view of everything not on earth. Fuck Elon Musk, fuck the rat. I hope he dies a slow and agonizing death.
They should be forced to coat them in vantablack at least.