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I really hope Starlink lives up to the hype. But if it does, how do we stop it becoming a monopoly? We don't need and can't have multiple rival fleets of satel
by marcus_holmes 6y ago
I really hope Starlink lives up to the hype.
But if it does, how do we stop it becoming a monopoly? We don't need and can't have multiple rival fleets of satellites up there. But if it's just Starlink then how do we stop it charging more and more for less and less because no-one else is threatening it?
If it works, should the UN step in and take over the network as a service to all of humanity?
- justinclift 6y ago> I really hope Starlink lives up to the hype. The technical aspects of it seem to be: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/spacex-starlink-beta-tester-takes-user-terminal-into-forest-gets-120mbps/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/space...
- Robotbeat 6y agoWe do need and can have multiple fleets up there. OneWeb has already launched a bunch of satellites, and there is enough room up there for several more, particularly as operators get better at safely operating them.
- marcus_holmes 6y agoI would agree, but I've seen the mess that e-scooter organisations have made of this. The city is littered with e-scooters whose name changes every few months. If the business plan doesn't work out, who cleans up the satellites?
- Robotbeat 6y agoThe satellites have to have ability to do a commanded deorbit. Additionally, at the altitudes Starlink operates at, if there’s a problem with the commanded deorbit, the satellites will naturally deorbit in a reasonable time. EDIT:OneWeb operates at higher altitudes where if there's a failure, the satellite will stay there for hundreds of years, but to try to mitigate that a bit, they added a grappling fixture/fiducial to try to make it easier for a robotic deorbiting craft to capture it.
- marcus_holmes 6y agoI didn't know that about Starlink. That's cool :) The Oneweb stuff not so much, but at least they're thinking about it.
- kanox 6y ago> The city is littered with e-scooters whose name changes every few months. You claim to be against monopolies but are unwilling to tolerate even the slight inconvenience of seeing scooters parked around? I personally love them for their amazing convenience and they're also incredibly compact relative to cars or even bikes. > If the business plan doesn't work out, who cleans up the satellites? Cleaning up is essentially free as long as the satellites are still operational: just command them to deorbit. Orbits are low enough that the fuel required to deorbit is comparable to a few months of station-keeping.
- marcus_holmes 6y agoI'm not against the scooters being parked around. I'm against the flood of them, and them being abandoned in the middle of footpaths, cyclepaths, etc. They were a great novelty for a while. But I got over them. So if a satellite stops responding to commands, they're going to go get it? To make sure it doesn't hit anything else and cause more problems?
- dantheman 6y agoI wouldn't want the UN touching anything I ever might want to use/rely on.
- marcus_holmes 6y agoWell, who then? IEEE? W3C? someone like that?
- chokeartist 6y agoYou haven't established the need.
- Shared404 6y agoI would think IETF would be the ideal choice. If I were to pick a second place it would be IEEE. I don't think it would be a good idea to hand it to W3C, as this is at a layer+ lower than they would typically operate.