• hark@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Alternatives would be great! My only concern is the number of satellites that have to be continually launched while older satellites are burned up after just five years. That’s thousands of satellites per service provider having to be continually replaced. Seems wasteful, but maybe I’m thinking the resource usage is greater than it really is in the grand scheme of things.

      • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 days ago

        That five year figure is the time it takes to deorbit if the satellite goes dead, not the lifespan, from my understanding.

        • TheFadingOne@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          15 hours ago

          I’m not entirely sure of the exact legalities but I have some experience working cube-sats and have some insights on this. Since Low Earth Orbit is getting kinda crowded you now have to ensure that your satellite deorbits within 5 years of deployment. So that 5 year figure does limit the satellites lifespan. Quite significantly sometimes because you have to ensure that even if the satellite is dead on arrival it deorbits within those five years.

          I bet all of these restrictions can be alleviated to some extent if you’re a super rich dickhead but that’s how it is for us.

          • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            14 hours ago

            I know that the Starlink birds deploy at a relatively low altitude, then climb to service height under their own power, so they deorbit quite fast if they’re DOA.

            My impression was the five year figure is without the satellite boosting it’s orbit, but I could be wrong.

            Do yours have their own engine?

      • kebab@endlesstalk.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        2 days ago

        Well if Europe doesn’t do this, US or China will regardless and they won’t care about leaving junk in the space. So it’s a matter of who will profit off that. And also, the EU is doing a lot for the environment already. Maybe it’s time for other countries like India to stop throwing trash directly into rivers now? We live on the same planet. Even if EU achieves the zero-emission state, it only accounts for 5% of the population in the world, so it won’t change that much on a global scale if other countries continue refusing to cooperate

    • RandAlThor@lemmy.caOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Honestly, someone hurry up and launch an alternative! Chinese are setting up one but I wouldn’t trust them either.

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        The French government just invested a load of money in Eutelsat to kickstart this about a month or so ago

      • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        2 days ago

        I think they should be taken down or taken over by another entity. They were launched under the premise they were a utility and it turns out they’re being used military.

        I dont mean the internet access itself but the giving and striping of access to suit a military agenda goes beyond the pervue of an organization claiming to be an ISP or commercial utility.

      • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Can’t even watch porn with Chinese internet, westerners won’t survive a day on using that internet without a VPN.

          • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 days ago

            yup, they moved to PROXIES, and anti-detect browsers much like reddits getting more sophisticated detection, china is always trying to find a way to detect these methods. from what ive heard on the same forum that ban evades reddit.