Trails Made by Starlink Satellites(iau.org) |
Trails Made by Starlink Satellites(iau.org) |
1) Exposures are fairly short and frequent and so pixels contaminated by these satellites can be easily rejected. 2) There is a huge amount of resources (relative to other projects) going into the image pipeline for this project.
I don't actually know in details how much this will affect other types of observations though. [2] is the IAU's statement (that goes with that image), which points out some types of observations that might be more affected.
[1] https://www.lsst.org/content/lsst-statement-regarding-increa... [2] https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann19035/
Spectroscopy is the fundament on which modern astronomy is built, and it inherently takes long times even with big mirrors. Getting a satellite in the field of view as you take your spectrum most likely means having to start over, and you run out of usable darkness faster.
Save wireless for what it’s actually useful for, mobile and extremely remote use.
2. In order to have wireless available for extremely remote use, it has to be everywhere.
3. The bandwidth that is planned will not be enough for more than a small percentage of traffic in dense urban areas.
NIMBY had nothing to do with it.
I think you misspelled "telecom lobby"...
https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadbloc...
Also a one-year contract still doesn't protect you from them setting predatory pricing for expiring contracts the next year. A large telco can play many games of attrition that are very hard for a small (non-VC) startup to win.
Not that I think this particular case wouldn't work in LEO, just for things that wouldn't there are much better options - we just have historically had trouble getting there affordably/reliably enough to make it worth while.
Oh, sorry, I though you were going to argue that we don't have to put science on hold just to let all the world stream gagnam style via Elon owned infrastructure.
In any case, a single SpaceX heavy costs about the same as 9 2.5 m telescopes, so good luck making the argument that science won't suffer.
If you put a science instrument in space, you do it because it's the only option, not because Elon says so.