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Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars

33 points by mhb 3y ago

RyanAdamas 3y ago
Well, if LK-99 (not to make it about that again, but come on..) if LK-99 is real and works and is highly refined, we're talking about 5 mile runways of magnetic pulse projection into the stars. Rail systems would be far superior to rockets in getting to the stars and beyond. We could launch payload after payload to equal Musk's current system capacity in less time than it would take him to refuel one of his Falcons and set it up for launch.
- fortran77 3y ago
  Yeah, but this article is about Starlink
- mmaunder 3y ago
  Launching a sat from sea level through atmosphere to reach LEO at mach 24 would require heat shielding and velocities that aren’t feasible or practical even if you could find a country that wants fireballs traveling at over 50 times the speed of sound through their atmosphere.
mmaunder 3y ago
Governments think this is GPS and they can build sovereign alternatives. This ain’t GPS.
NelsonMinar 3y ago
This article is excellent. It feels to me like Starlink sort of accidentally fell into this position. They built a global Internet for consumers, then discovered there's a lot of military applications. The Ukrainian adoption clearly accelerated things. But maybe that was the plan all along, space development has been a joint military project since the beginning. I appreciated the specific reporting on Musk's threat to withdraw Starlink from Ukraine over funding. As the reporting notes, "SpaceX had initially covered some of the costs, with the United States and other allies also providing funding." Previously most press had reported it as if SpaceX was paying the full bill. It never has and still isn't. Unfortunately the reporting stops short of telling us what the current financial arrangement is, I imagine it's highly confidential.
- inemesitaffia 3y ago
  The USAF tested starlink before before it's private beta
- Shawnj2 3y ago
  I 100% guarantee you SpaceX didn’t realize “oh wow it turns out Starlink is great for military applications. Wow we never realized that!” SpaceX makes tons of money off of military contracts and this is totally something they would have seen coming miles away
MilnerRoute 3y ago
A statistic from the article. Something I hadn't thought of: "Today, more than 4,500 Starlink satellites are in the skies, accounting for more than 50 percent of all active satellites. They have already started changing the complexion of the night sky, even before accounting for Mr. Musk’s plans to have as many as 42,000 satellites in orbit in the coming years."

33 points by mhb 3y ago

Well, if LK-99 (not to make it about that again, but come on..) if LK-99 is real and works and is highly refined, we're talking about 5 mile runways of magnetic pulse projection into the stars. Rail systems would be far superior to rockets in getting to the stars and beyond. We could launch payload after payload to equal Musk's current system capacity in less time than it would take him to refuel one of his Falcons and set it up for launch.

fortran77 3y ago
Yeah, but this article is about Starlink
mmaunder 3y ago
Launching a sat from sea level through atmosphere to reach LEO at mach 24 would require heat shielding and velocities that aren’t feasible or practical even if you could find a country that wants fireballs traveling at over 50 times the speed of sound through their atmosphere.

mmaunder 3y ago

Governments think this is GPS and they can build sovereign alternatives. This ain’t GPS.

NelsonMinar 3y ago

This article is excellent. It feels to me like Starlink sort of accidentally fell into this position. They built a global Internet for consumers, then discovered there's a lot of military applications. The Ukrainian adoption clearly accelerated things. But maybe that was the plan all along, space development has been a joint military project since the beginning. I appreciated the specific reporting on Musk's threat to withdraw Starlink from Ukraine over funding. As the reporting notes, "SpaceX had initially covered some of the costs, with the United States and other allies also providing funding." Previously most press had reported it as if SpaceX was paying the full bill. It never has and still isn't. Unfortunately the reporting stops short of telling us what the current financial arrangement is, I imagine it's highly confidential.

inemesitaffia 3y ago
The USAF tested starlink before before it's private beta
Shawnj2 3y ago
I 100% guarantee you SpaceX didn’t realize “oh wow it turns out Starlink is great for military applications. Wow we never realized that!” SpaceX makes tons of money off of military contracts and this is totally something they would have seen coming miles away

MilnerRoute 3y ago

A statistic from the article. Something I hadn't thought of: "Today, more than 4,500 Starlink satellites are in the skies, accounting for more than 50 percent of all active satellites. They have already started changing the complexion of the night sky, even before accounting for Mr. Musk’s plans to have as many as 42,000 satellites in orbit in the coming years."