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SpaceX engineers in Fiji for six months
- doe88 5y agocool domain tld!
- Ancapistani 5y agoSounds like one of those “temporary” projects that outlives the people who start it.
- pjscott 5y agoOnce they get the inter-satellite laser links working, there are probably better places to put ground stations. Right now they're going with Fiji as the location because it has internet connectivity and is close enough for Starlink satellites to be visible from both places. The latter constraint will probably go away before too long.
- Taniwha 5y agoRemember that they're replacing seabed fibre that was damaged by the eruption - news reports this week say that they went to fish it up this week and couldn't find it (around the point of one of the breaks) - I'm guessing that TDR measurements from both ends give them numbers that don't add up so they know there are at least 2 breaks. That fibre is a dogleg from Fiji to Tonga - and will get repaired relatively quickly so I'm not sure about "outlives" - certainly there will be people in Tonga who may choose to continue with starlink but it may prove to be too expensive for most people (one the other hand the govt may choose it for some outlying islands)
- xwdv 5y agoThis is mostly a vacation disguised as a business expense.
- jsiaajdsdaa 5y agoI would definitely prefer to stay in Redmond Ridge if you know what I mean.
- devnulll 5y agoRedmond from Jan to June vs Fiji? Seems an easy choice if you're without children and concerns around their schooling. I think the engineers who work there would jump at the chance. :)
- jsiaajdsdaa 5y agoIt's 55F and overcast here most days, which for my pasty Dutch skin is quite the dream! I've lived in NY, Boston, DC, Cali, Florida, NC, London, AZ, WA.... nothing beats Redmond! Personaly preference of course :)
- cptcobalt 5y agoIs open access to information and the internet by not currently a fundamental human right? It is good that a company is working to rapidly restore reliable internet service to Tonga.
- xwdv 5y agoAre vacations also a fundamental human right? Sounds like a good way for two groups of people to both get what they need.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> Is open access to information and the internet by not currently a fundamental human right? No. People trying to stuff everything under the sun into the human rights label are to a large part to blame for public disillusionment with the term.
- nexuist 5y agoHow is open access to information not a fundamental human right? Do you believe in a society where people can't find out about things? If you don't, then you believe in the open access of information.
- xwdv 5y agoYou can believe people should be able to find out about things. But not be entitled to it. People don't need to be entitled to everything. There are very few true fundamental human rights in this world. All of them are raw primal needs. Food. Water. Air. Not being killed or tortured. What else really?
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> How is open access to information not a fundamental human right? Do you believe in a society where people can't find out about things? Non sequitur. I believe in many things that make a society good and better which do not reach the standard of a human right. This is my personal litmus test: the deprivation of a human right should create a legitimate claim to be violent. If your human rights are being denied, you have the right to take up arms. (My theory being the state, at that point, has lost the legitimacy of its monopoly on violence.) Blood has been spilled over slavery. Starvation. Torture and free speech. Blood is not owed because someone didn’t pay their Comcast bill.
- readthenotes1 5y agoMostly a vacation is not completely a vacation!
- mlindner 5y agoI don't get how some people can be so jaded. Like really?
- stjohnswarts 5y agoDid you and I read the same article? It's amazing how two people can get two diametrically opposed ideas out of the same source material.
- throw6622 5y agoThis is not a good look for Kacific. Tonga already had a contract with them to implement satellite internet before the eruption. It seems like their ability to actually deploy their technology was so poor SpaceX can beat them starting from square 1. One of the many ways Starlink will disrupt the best laid plans.
- e4e78a06 5y agoIt looks like the contracted amount from Kacific was 1 Gbps and the previous fiber cable was offering 10 Gbps. It doesn't seem implausible that a single prioritized Starlink Premium terminal could deliver at least 1 Gbps and that would be very easy to fly in and setup. Side note, it's really incredible that an entire island got by on 10 Gbps of bandwidth.
- selectodude 5y agoIt's only 100k people. I'm sure nobody is able to pull huge bandwidth but even if every man, woman, and child on the island was hammering away at it 24/7, that's 100kbit per person. Slow, but usable.
- darknavi 5y agoHome-labbers in Tonga getting sweaty palms.
- dillondoyle 5y agoI wonder if netflix could fly in one of their CDN boxes.
- gxt 5y agoWould you have them eat cake too?
- rootsudo 5y agoNot really, you assume that everyone in the world is the same as you. Much of the world is still using pre 4G technology and pipes with cell phones that have 512mb ram and possibly 32gb of memory (Total.) Then you also have to realize what is the most consumption and usage - unlike most countries it is not streaming in general.
- AnotherGoodName 5y agoStarlink can't do satellite to satellite hops and is low orbit. So there needs to be a base station within a short distance for the user to bounce to via a single satellite. So right now Starlink won't work in Tonga since the nearest base station (Boorowra, NSW) is over the horizon for satellites visible to people in Tonga. The base station in Fiji means that Starlink can work in Tonga. Note that Inmarsat, iridium, etc. work just fine in Tonga in the meantime.
- spullara 5y agoThe latest version of Starlink is equipped with lasers to do these hops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#V1.5_(operational) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#V1.5_(operational)
- dotnet00 5y agoThey're still a relatively small portion of the operational constellation, so while better than nothing, they aren't common enough to rely on for continuous service, thus the choice of Fiji for this temporary station. While this will likely not be the case within another year, what matters in relation to this is what they can do right now, not in another year. This shouldn't be taken as criticism of Starlink, but rather an example of the possibilities as the fully featured constellation starts to become ready. Eventually they wouldn't need to send over engineers to setup a base station, they'd just send over some dishes and adjust routing priorities.
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- monkeybutton 5y agoThe source linked to by the wiki article talks about the first batch of laser link satellites being launched but doesn't really go into much depth about it. Does this mean they're wrapping up the testing phase? It would be cool to read more about the practical logistics done to make such a network work in orbit.
- ghostly_s 5y agoI sincerely hope this has more substance than SpaceX's prior acts of charity.
- propogandist 5y agowhat's the history?
- mlindner 5y agoThe last one had substance but it was too little too late. Don't attack someone for trying to help but being unable to do so quickly enough.