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Or we could use a tiny fraction of the economic potential enabled by global, ubiquitous high-speed internet to put a few more telescopes in space? Laying cable
by pseudo0 5y ago
Or we could use a tiny fraction of the economic potential enabled by global, ubiquitous high-speed internet to put a few more telescopes in space? Laying cable across the globe also seems like it would be a whole lot more expensive and environmentally harmful than a few extra satellite launches.
- freemint 5y agoThere are some measurements we are not able to do in space (until we have habitats in orbit) due to tuning and experimentation required, size and heating/cooling constraints ... However some new experiments can be done in space, so some branches of astronomy will loose, a few selected will win. The environmental argument is an interesting one and i have no idea on the total lifetime damage of both solutions. The heaviest digging will be required where there are humans living any way. Laying cables and maintenance while probably more expensive also has some benefits such a high paying jobs, distributed all over the world instead of increasing the worlds Gini coefficient further. I would recognize Starlink as a good idea (outweighing the negatives) if it would be public infrastructure but that train has sailed.