The Astronomy Thread
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Burns
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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They have raised at least $128 million so far, so they must have some kinda of practical plan for making money in the somewhat near term. It would be interesting to know how long, both for this company and Starlink, have estimated before they start turning a profit.
From Forbes(Mar 3, 2020):
The Midland, Texas-based AST & Science aims to use satellites to overcome those limitations. It’s just raised $110 million in a series B round led by U.K.-based mobile provider Vodafone and Japanese e-tailer Rakuten to launch a mobile broadband network, called SpaceMobile, powered by satellites. These can connect to phones “anywhere on the planet, when you’re flying on an airplane, in a remote location, at sea—anywhere,” says the company’s founder and CEO Abel Avellan.
The company successfully tested its technology last year when it launched a prototype satellite called BlueWalker 1 in April. The satellite was able to successfully deliver signals to phones and demonstrate the company’s abilities. With the new round of capital, which brings its total fundraising to $128 million, it will be able to ramp up production of the hundreds of satellites it plans to put in orbit, using a modular manufacturing approach to keep costs down.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Spacex has such a huge advantage by having such a low cost to deploy the satellites it's hard to see how other projects can compete.
I've heard some speculation that the starlink receiver is really expensive to build and even charging $500 for them to beta testers they are losing considerable money on them.
I've heard some speculation that the starlink receiver is really expensive to build and even charging $500 for them to beta testers they are losing considerable money on them.
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Siddar
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Most likely they are. Because they're just starting production on them. Cost should plummet as they produce more.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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The incremental design of SNx reminds me of the scenes in The Right Stuff where they repeatedly push the button, with a fade to a rocket blowing up.
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just another day in the life your typical spacefaring civilization. it's the "questions from kids" part. gotta love it.
Szlia
Member
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Whenever I see one of the NASA stream I am shocked at how abysmal the production is. I don't mean in term of budget, but in the inability to convey information. For the two main questions any person will ask when landing on the stream - What am I seeing ? Where are we in the mission ? - the answers should always, always, always be on screen. Have a progress bar, a ticker and/or a timer, have a tag for each camera, and if you feel that it's too intrusive for the awe of the pure space images, have a secondary stream with the raw footage. Hell ! Have a multi camera stream for that.
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Everyday Astronaut is the best at doing that real time.
www.youtube.com
Not live for this event, but he's really good at pretty much everything space related. Love all his educational videos.
A little more obnoxious is the NasaSpaceFlight guys, but they answer a lot of questions and stuff along the way. I'd probably be watching them but their feed is out of sync w/ the station audio.
Everyday Astronaut
Rocket science. A term we all use to describe something incredibly difficult. Trying to grasp all of the concepts involved in rocket science can be incredibl...
www.youtube.com
Not live for this event, but he's really good at pretty much everything space related. Love all his educational videos.
A little more obnoxious is the NasaSpaceFlight guys, but they answer a lot of questions and stuff along the way. I'd probably be watching them but their feed is out of sync w/ the station audio.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Worse. If you watch the SpaceX streams whenever they do those missions, it's no longer the SpaceX stream. It's down to 720p because NASA cannot stream higher than 720p. It's whatever NASA has, even for the pure SpaceX parts (like the launch itself).
I'm pretty sure this is a contractual obligation, because SpaceX would probably do it like they handle normal launches, where they have a separate channel with the entire mission control audio for those interested. They would absolutely provide their own, full HD coverage if they could get away with it.
Siddar
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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The quality of streams has been going down sense they brought in the diversity hires and stuffed them all over in PR department.
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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You losers have had thousands of years to jerk off at specs of light in the sky without clutter getting in the way. Getting Starlink up so
BrutulTM
can spend $100 a month jerking off to low-latency virtual porn is going get humanity off this rock. As a side effect, stuff like James Webb or Hubble will become tremendously easier to accomplish, making all the ground-based constellation observation look pathetic.In other words, you're going to lose being able to look at blinky ass stars with your shitty telescope and gain the ability to rent a few minutes of time from one of hundreds of space-telescopes to get some real images.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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You losers have had thousands of years to jerk off at specs of light in the sky without clutter getting in the way. Getting Starlink up so
In other words, you're going to lose being able to look at blinky ass stars with your shitty telescope and gain the ability to rent a few minutes of time from one of hundreds of space-telescopes to get some real images.
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I've been turned. Just like in Medieval Total War 2, the space junk priesthood has lost another cleric to the heretics.
Actually, what made me realize my bitch is trivial, these satellites -- and likely this kind of system -- is quite short term. Just likely the rest of my lifetime. So the fuck what? I've already been lucky enough to live in that narrow slice of geological time in which a species even invented such things.
And I've personally seen the rings of Saturn many times.
See, operating your own 'scope (and you either got to go deep desert dry or deep mountain cold ime for the real fun) it's yours. It's your universe. You own it. Because its yours. Or at least, those slender streams of photons that only your 'scope is passing into your retina, it makes me feel like a very solid, empirical, clear chain-of-evidence, observer.
I like to run a square court. I can testify as to the existence of Saturn, if required.
Also, if I am using my telescope, it means I'm camping up in the allegheny nat. forest. Hard to have a bad time in that kind of environment.
Actually, what made me realize my bitch is trivial, these satellites -- and likely this kind of system -- is quite short term. Just likely the rest of my lifetime. So the fuck what? I've already been lucky enough to live in that narrow slice of geological time in which a species even invented such things.
And I've personally seen the rings of Saturn many times.
See, operating your own 'scope (and you either got to go deep desert dry or deep mountain cold ime for the real fun) it's yours. It's your universe. You own it. Because its yours. Or at least, those slender streams of photons that only your 'scope is passing into your retina, it makes me feel like a very solid, empirical, clear chain-of-evidence, observer.
I like to run a square court. I can testify as to the existence of Saturn, if required.
Also, if I am using my telescope, it means I'm camping up in the allegheny nat. forest. Hard to have a bad time in that kind of environment.
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a c i d.f l y
ಠ_ಠ
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I try to imagine how this works for kids who are at the appropriate age where they can be spellbound. Having been a youngster when Ol' Neil put 'er down, I dimly remember the quality. It was more information -- as opposed to simply graphic -- dense. Things were explained. Some dude would hold a model spaceship and say "here is what is happening." Low tech, of course! It was mostly explanation, in words, and basic graphics.
I think people today largely lack the ability to explain things without a fair amount of props. Complicated props. Everything is Wake Up and Smile. But I still think, to a kids mind, it has to be hitting. If anyone has some youngsters, testify!
I'll be waiting!
Come on now!- 1
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Oh Brutaltm -- the moment you come on starlink broadband, you gotta let us know that very second. That will likely be amazing.
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