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Astronomers will have to get used to this. If we ban these for such nonsense reasons, it will be Chinese satellites blocking their view.
by ZhuanXia 7y ago
Astronomers will have to get used to this. If we ban these for such nonsense reasons, it will be Chinese satellites blocking their view.
- going_to_800 7y agoWell put.
- bscphil 7y agoIsn't this exactly the same view as "if we regulate the use of fossil fuels, China will use way more than us and outcompete us economically" and "if we limit the number of nuclear weapons we create, there's going to be a gap between our nuclear firepower and Russia's"? Creating a livable planet is not easy, but nationalistic thinking makes it a hundred times harder.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoHow do satellites make the planet unlivable?
- mech1234 7y agoWhich do you think has more capability to improve and save lives? 1. Cheaper internet available everywhere for anybody willing to pay 2. Better data on the cosmos I'd go with #1.
- viklove 7y agoThen we get blasted by a gamma ray burst from Betelgeuse and we're all dead. Studying the cosmos is extremely important, and studying threats (asteroids, supernovae, etc.) are just one part of that.
- skuthus 7y agoHow should we prevent this gamma ray blast? Or will astronomy just tell us its coming?
- foxyv 7y agoWhat is the point of studying the cosmos if we never leave our planet? Space is coming. Admittedly much slower than we expected. However SpaceX's satellites are just the beginning. Astronomy will continue, just much more so. Imagine a telescope array the size of the earth scanning the stars from orbit. Why look at an asteroid when you can GO there and do something with it?
- bscphil 7y ago1. The response isn't really relevant, because I was pointing out an argumentative mistake in my parent comment. They said, "if we don't do X the Chinese will"; I was not making a point about the relative positives / negatives of doing X. 2. I'd go with #2. 3. Even if #1 is right, jumping to the conclusion that Musk's project is a good idea is a complete non-sequitur. As far as I know, no one has argued that putting 10000 satellites into space is the only way to provide widely available cheaper internet. As you can see from discussions elsewhere in the thread, it's not likely to even do that. Will SpaceX provide service to China?
- Mangalor 7y ago"nonsense reasons" You mean..."Science"?
- fastball 7y agoWhat useful science has been achieved in the last 100 years thanks to astronomy? Meanwhile, what kind of useful science do you think can be facilitated by globally accessible high-speed internet? The value generated by such a network is clearly orders of magnitude more useful than observing the cosmos, at this juncture of human endeavor. Not too mention that Starlink will allow SpaceX to re-invest more and more money into space launches / space travel. I'd much prefer humans actually visit other celestial bodies rather than just staring at them.
- petschge 7y agoWhat useful thing has been produced by the internet? I'd much rather have humans enjoy nature than writing about it on the internet.
- fastball 7y agoSurely you can't be serious.
- elfexec 7y ago> What useful thing has been produced by the internet? Is this Hacker News? This is the type of nonsense I expect on the NYTimes comment section. > I'd much rather have humans enjoy nature than writing about it on the internet. Why are you here instead of enjoying nature?
- bufferoverflow 7y agoThe internet produced thousands of wonderful things. Your argument is 100% baseless. Astronomy is nice too, but I will choose the internet every time, if forced to choose. We have wonderful images of the whole sky in all kinds of spectrum in incredible resolution.
- 7y ago
- xkjkls 7y agoYou believe there's no use in developing global cooperation to regulate issues like this? Because if so, we have far more to worry about than satellites.
- OrgNet 7y agothe Space Force will take care of that