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I think you over-simplify the challenge. Satellites have limited lifespans. You can build them bigger, better, stronger, to last longer, but inevitably they br

by mabbo 3y ago

I think you over-simplify the challenge. Satellites have limited lifespans. You can build them bigger, better, stronger, to last longer, but inevitably they break down and cannot be serviced. One micrometeorite in the wrong place, and the entire investment is gone. Even the day to day wear and tear from the radiation of space slowly breaks them down. What's more, they can't change orbit once launched. If you lose one, you can't reposition another to make up the difference. It's just a gap, so you need high redundancy. You would need very well-built satellites (expensive) with high powered transmitters (expensive because they need lots of power/solar panels) in a large network (lots of them) to provide high redundancy. They'd also each need to be launched with an expensive rocket (maybe when Starship is operating?). The DSN using dishes on the ground on earth is the cheaper option, because you can fix things that break. It's maintainable with a low ongoing cost instead of a super high up-front cost.

MR4D 3y ago
I agree with everything you say. However, as we move beyond near-earth space, we will need better communications systems. The moon provides an ability to work out things like replacing/repairing/ decommissioning a satellite beyond earth's orbit but much easier & quicker to get to than anywhere else in the solar system. Also, satellites can last a long time. There are GPS satellites that are a quarter of a century old and still functioning [0]. I didn't check about other satellites, but I'm sure there are older ones. If we are to become a space-faring species, then we will need to learn how to do this. Original sea-faring peoples did this millenia ago, and today we ship all sorts of things to every corner of the globe. Building a shared communication infrastructure is a logical next step. Otherwise we are going to build oversized devices with larger batteries almost like making a walkie-talkie trying to communicate between countries - it's not a good approach. Build out the infrastructure and then the devices (probes/satellites/spacecraft/etc) can leverage the shared infrastructure. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks

by mabbo 3y ago

MR4D 3y ago

I agree with everything you say. However, as we move beyond near-earth space, we will need better communications systems. The moon provides an ability to work out things like replacing/repairing/ decommissioning a satellite beyond earth's orbit but much easier & quicker to get to than anywhere else in the solar system. Also, satellites can last a long time. There are GPS satellites that are a quarter of a century old and still functioning [0]. I didn't check about other satellites, but I'm sure there are older ones. If we are to become a space-faring species, then we will need to learn how to do this. Original sea-faring peoples did this millenia ago, and today we ship all sorts of things to every corner of the globe. Building a shared communication infrastructure is a logical next step. Otherwise we are going to build oversized devices with larger batteries almost like making a walkie-talkie trying to communicate between countries - it's not a good approach. Build out the infrastructure and then the devices (probes/satellites/spacecraft/etc) can leverage the shared infrastructure. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_satellite_blocks