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There is a very practical reason: Starlink. Launching all those Starlink sats on Falcon 9 must be much more expensive than they would like, and Starship aims to
by the_duke 5y ago
There is a very practical reason: Starlink. Launching all those Starlink sats on Falcon 9 must be much more expensive than they would like, and Starship aims to provide a considerably higher payload capacity with much lower cost (if the re-usability plans work out).
Apart from that, Musk is great at marketing and sometimes full of crap, but when you listen to some of his converstions it's not hard to believe that the Mars mission is earnestly what drives him.
- hef19898 5y agoI am still not convinced Starlink being really cheaper than ground based fibre. Exceptions I can think off: - military application, but they have their solutions - on high seas, no idea how that works now - regions maintaining ground stations is risky (war zones and so on) Maybe I am wrong, but I have the impression Starlink is for SpaceX is what FSD is for Tesla, a way to "raise" money. And that is working. I am just not sure if I like it, since it would mean innovation success depends more on the founders ability to raise money than actual product market fit or profitability.
- joshmarlow 5y agoIt's possible that it would not be cheaper from an overall infrastructure perspective, but still cheaper for consumers with limited options. Most of my extended family lives in rural Tennessee where their internet options are still dial-up and 5G. Comcast isn't interested in laying additional fiber to remote houses. There are options through AT&T, but I think they end up paying close to $20/GB. Several of my relatives are pretty pumped about StarLink as a potential option. I think the niche for StarLink is this - outlying communities where traditional ISPs are uninterested in building out infrastructure for the 'long tails' of the population.