this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Scientists, looking deep into space, have long voiced their concerns that satellites are encroaching on their ability to study the cosmos.

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[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I tried to separate the conversation from Elon to keep it more honest about the benefits of accessible internet for everyone anywhere on Earth.

So why do you think that launching thousands of satellites would be more cost-effective than other options?

  1. Satellites are expensive.

  2. Launching them into space is expensive.

  3. Cell phones, and cell phone towers are cheap.

  4. Elon Musk is launching them into an orbit where they'll decay in 10 years anyway, meaning you'll have to perpetually launch these thousands, or even 10s of thousands of satellites into space just to keep service.

  5. Traditional satellite companies launch fewer numbers of many satellites into the sky to cover large swaths of land instead. Since they aim at rural areas (ex: the Ocean with no one there), they are superior in a cost/efficacy perspective. Yes, there's less bandwidth, but there's less people, so its a fine tradeoff.

  6. If you need more density, building cell phone networks / cell phone towers is just superior.

  7. If you need even more density than what cell phones can give you, then there's always fiber optic directly.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lmao go run some fiop in the Amazon and let me know how that shakes out