More Junk in space

[wookie1965]

Just read this might as well give up on astronomy

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8581179/Amazon-wins-FCC-approval-Kuiper-internet-constellation-consisting-3-200-satellites.html#newcomment

[RT65CB-SWL]

  

[maw lod qan]

If they can have a class action suit over the price of telescopes, why not on ruining the view?

[michael8554]

Think this shows that if Musk hadn't done it, someone else would have - the march of "Progress".

We can only hope that Musk has such a lead over Amazon that they will fail, leaving us with only one constellation.

Michael

[JamesF]

23 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Think this shows that if Musk hadn't done it, someone else would have - the march of "Progress".

We can only hope that Musk has such a lead over Amazon that they will fail, leaving us with only one constellation.

Unless China and Russia decide they want one of their own as well...

Nutty as a fruitcake Musk might be, but at least he didn't insist his rockets were modelled on himself.

James

[michael8554]

10 hours ago, JamesF said:

Nutty as a fruitcake Musk might be,

 Can't even begin to agree with that, his Tesla, SpaceX Boosters, Dragon, and AI are years ahead of the competition - bring on the self-drive electric cars and the end of IC engines.

StarLink appears to be a sound business proposition with an unfortunate FU to the Astronomy community - blame the US FCC for allowing a project with world-wide repercussions.

Michael

 

[Peter Drew]

Surely there must be a large potential business for retrieving space junk, a space age Steptoe?        🙂

[JOC]

Is there any danger with all these satellites that we will planet-lock ourselves with spacecraft being unable to find a route through the space junk?

[JamesF]

5 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Can't even begin to agree with that, his Tesla, SpaceX Boosters, Dragon, and AI are years ahead of the competition - bring on the self-drive electric cars and the end of IC engines.

You do have to balance that against some of his other behaviour however.  Tweeting that aliens obviously built the pyramids in Egypt might just be a PR stunt (I assumed so), but some of his rantings about Covid-19 and the ways he has behaved publicly towards other people don't exactly speak of a balanced, rational person.  Whilst he won the defamation case brought against him last year, the evidence that came out as part of the trial didn't exactly do him any favours either.

I admire many of the things his companies have achieved and that he is ploughing money back into other businesses, but he himself I am not at all sure about.

James

[RT65CB-SWL]

I suppose the bean counters at the FCC; (and other communication regulators worldwide); are to busy looking down at their QWERTY keyboards and .XLS spreadsheets... rather than looking up at the night sky!

Edited August 7, 2020 by Philip R