Starlink has been so successful, it is facing a lot of competition in the next few years. Every major power wants their own, national starlink network.
Amazon Leo plans for 3,000 satellites in orbit, and is already launching satellites.
China's state-backed starlink competitor GuoWang is putting 13,000 satellites in orbit by 2030. They've already started launching satellites.
China's Qianfan plans 15,000 satellites by 2030.
AST SpaceMobile is building their own network.
The EU is building EU: IRIS², explicitly as a Starlink alternative.
Russia, after realizing how critical starlink is on the battlefield, is planning its own Rassvet network. They've already launched satellites.
SpaceX has consistently launched ~90% of the mass to orbit for the whole planet Earth over the last several years[1][2]. There's no one else who could more credibly make such a claim.
Yeah I remember reading that what killed the space industry in the 90s-2000s other than the collapse of the USSR and cessation of great power competition was the massive move to digital communications, particularly satellite TV - which mean that a smaller number of satellites could serve the expected demand.
The people who want to put data centers in orbit must be either much smarter than me, or much dumber than me, because I just don't get how that makes any technical or economic sense.
Of course, it's possible nobody actually wants to do this, they just want to get funded to do it. (Old joke: "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant...")
Why are so many people just desperate to imagine environmental, economic, or social harm from any new technology or ambitious projects? Are you all just too old to enjoy the thought of an amazing future that's better than today? Or are you too brainwashed by the negativity in the media and think disasters are the only things that can happen? Or are you just bitter about life and can't have any hope? Or do you just feel smug being a nay-sayer to anything ambitious?
LEO satellites come down on their own in a few months/years. 100 tons of metal burning in the atmosphere seems a lot, but it's barely the total mass of meteorites falling in 24-48 hours, actually.
A million satellites isn't going to be 100 tons; even if they're all on the small side, say 100 kg each, the total is 100,000 tons, therefore by your numbers if they last on orbit for 3 years they'd double to triple the mass rate burning up on aero entry. I think SpaceX actually talking about 1-10 tons/satellite making this more like 10-100x if they last 3 years, but between AI hallucinations getting and Musk's increasing disconnect from reality (let alone political toxicity) this is basically irrelevant. SpaceX won't reach these higher masses to orbit spread over this number of satellites regardless.
Aggravatingly, I have seen research estimating that even the much smaller number of satellites currently in orbit is already enough to be unstable with regard to a Kessler cascade, and any question about the realism of Musk's goals from finance and engineering limits is clearly not enough to prevent this kind of scenario. Which may result in other governments interfering with his ketamine supply to make sure their satellites aren't caught up in one.
Simplest helpful thing for the Kessler problem is "just"* have fewer larger satellites, and if Starship actually delivers the launch costs necessary to make space-based data centres worth the bother vs. just buying some cheap desert land, I anticipate Musk getting managed upwards by his staff in this regard.
Leave it to the chainsaw man who has already become the millenium's worst killer, to wreak yet more sad havoc and ruin upon the sphere. What absolute trash, what a mad frivolous pointless ambition meant only to crowd out anyone from thinking of this enormous mass stupidity, destruction. Taking up/taking over of space, for no clear stated reason or value except to steal from us all, to deny & claim from the rest. Madness. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-1...
I wonder about the impact on our health of all the metals that will be present in the atmosphere after several months. For example, it is well known that lead in gasoline has increased crime.
100 tons is quite a lot of gpus. If they manage to solve such "minor" problems as powering and cooling them they could run for a decade or so without consuming or polluting. The methane burned to get mass into orbit is trivial - a 500MW powerplant burns that much in under a day.
Yeah, that response trivializes the massive burn that power plants perform each day.
When I worked in a midstream gas company, I recall a meeting when we were explaining the business to some new IT folk, and talking about the plants that process 100K barrels. One new guy in particular literally dropped his jaw and said, "you process 100K barrels of gas a year??" The room looked at him like he was insane and the woman running the meeting politely replied: "No, per day."
So acting as if "it burns less than a power plant" somehow means it is trivial is just a really odd take.
Besides, the methane burn is one piece of the puzzle. There is more to environmental impact than just methane.
The problem isn't GPUs the problem is cooling them.
Look into what percentage of the ISS by weight is radiators, look into how little power it can generate and radiate, and you'll see that space data centers is the shitcoin pitch of 2026.
Also they are not building them in 3D space with current tech. We clearly don't have it. Cars barely drive themselves in cities, they are decade behind building and maintaining a. datacenter in space.
Banning Starlink is inadequate and won't change anything. China is building their own larger version with 20,000+ satellites. Russia is building their own network. The EU is building their own network.
Starlink has been so successful, it is facing a lot of competition in the next few years. Every major power wants their own, national starlink network.
Amazon Leo plans for 3,000 satellites in orbit, and is already launching satellites.
China's state-backed starlink competitor GuoWang is putting 13,000 satellites in orbit by 2030. They've already started launching satellites.
China's Qianfan plans 15,000 satellites by 2030.
AST SpaceMobile is building their own network.
The EU is building EU: IRIS², explicitly as a Starlink alternative.
Russia, after realizing how critical starlink is on the battlefield, is planning its own Rassvet network. They've already launched satellites.
> Most people likely don’t think about how often they use satellite communications. But that Instagram post you made? You used a satellite.
This article seems to confuse Starlink with ordinary cellular communications
They also might confuse Starlink with GPS satellites which are completely different things.
Let me fix your title:
SpaceX wants investors to think that they will be able to launch millions of satellites.
SpaceX has consistently launched ~90% of the mass to orbit for the whole planet Earth over the last several years[1][2]. There's no one else who could more credibly make such a claim.
1: https://officechai.com/stories/spacex-launched-85-of-all-glo... 2: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/05/spacex-launching-87-90...
They launched a grand total of ~10k starlink satellite, there is a long road between 10k and a million.
Musk would be "the most credible" at claiming he'll have a 1000 trillion dollar by 2050, it doesn't mean it's credible at all.
Yeah I remember reading that what killed the space industry in the 90s-2000s other than the collapse of the USSR and cessation of great power competition was the massive move to digital communications, particularly satellite TV - which mean that a smaller number of satellites could serve the expected demand.
How long until they turn a constellation into a giant LED billboard, showing commercials for Tesla?
Arthur C. Clarke beat them to it - the thought, at least.
Watch This Space - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_to_the_Moon
Isn't that a scene in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy?
Red Dwarf.
A little more destructive pushing suns into supernova to write "Coke is Life" across the sky.
ASAP.
https://futurism.com/russian-scientists-huge-advertisements-...
The people who want to put data centers in orbit must be either much smarter than me, or much dumber than me, because I just don't get how that makes any technical or economic sense.
Of course, it's possible nobody actually wants to do this, they just want to get funded to do it. (Old joke: "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant...")
> ... data centres that won’t have an environmental impact here on Earth.
Really? I wonder how they are going to get them up there without rocket launches?
And getting them down. Or allowing them to come down on their own... I doubt that is entirely environmental impact free.
Why are so many people just desperate to imagine environmental, economic, or social harm from any new technology or ambitious projects? Are you all just too old to enjoy the thought of an amazing future that's better than today? Or are you too brainwashed by the negativity in the media and think disasters are the only things that can happen? Or are you just bitter about life and can't have any hope? Or do you just feel smug being a nay-sayer to anything ambitious?
LEO satellites come down on their own in a few months/years. 100 tons of metal burning in the atmosphere seems a lot, but it's barely the total mass of meteorites falling in 24-48 hours, actually.
A million satellites isn't going to be 100 tons; even if they're all on the small side, say 100 kg each, the total is 100,000 tons, therefore by your numbers if they last on orbit for 3 years they'd double to triple the mass rate burning up on aero entry. I think SpaceX actually talking about 1-10 tons/satellite making this more like 10-100x if they last 3 years, but between AI hallucinations getting and Musk's increasing disconnect from reality (let alone political toxicity) this is basically irrelevant. SpaceX won't reach these higher masses to orbit spread over this number of satellites regardless.
Aggravatingly, I have seen research estimating that even the much smaller number of satellites currently in orbit is already enough to be unstable with regard to a Kessler cascade, and any question about the realism of Musk's goals from finance and engineering limits is clearly not enough to prevent this kind of scenario. Which may result in other governments interfering with his ketamine supply to make sure their satellites aren't caught up in one.
Simplest helpful thing for the Kessler problem is "just"* have fewer larger satellites, and if Starship actually delivers the launch costs necessary to make space-based data centres worth the bother vs. just buying some cheap desert land, I anticipate Musk getting managed upwards by his staff in this regard.
* nothing in space is "just"
Totally sidestepping the issue and refuting the words.
Regardless of how they fall, they still fall on the planet.
And this still ignores the massive atmospheric pollution of chemical rocket launch.
Space elevator would be a big help with launch, but the trash is still dropped on the ground, or in the ocean, in the end.
We're only starting to see and understand the damage. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/... https://www.science.org/content/article/burned-satellites-ar...
Leave it to the chainsaw man who has already become the millenium's worst killer, to wreak yet more sad havoc and ruin upon the sphere. What absolute trash, what a mad frivolous pointless ambition meant only to crowd out anyone from thinking of this enormous mass stupidity, destruction. Taking up/taking over of space, for no clear stated reason or value except to steal from us all, to deny & claim from the rest. Madness. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-1...
I wonder about the impact on our health of all the metals that will be present in the atmosphere after several months. For example, it is well known that lead in gasoline has increased crime.
100 tons is quite a lot of gpus. If they manage to solve such "minor" problems as powering and cooling them they could run for a decade or so without consuming or polluting. The methane burned to get mass into orbit is trivial - a 500MW powerplant burns that much in under a day.
Yeah, that response trivializes the massive burn that power plants perform each day.
When I worked in a midstream gas company, I recall a meeting when we were explaining the business to some new IT folk, and talking about the plants that process 100K barrels. One new guy in particular literally dropped his jaw and said, "you process 100K barrels of gas a year??" The room looked at him like he was insane and the woman running the meeting politely replied: "No, per day."
So acting as if "it burns less than a power plant" somehow means it is trivial is just a really odd take.
Besides, the methane burn is one piece of the puzzle. There is more to environmental impact than just methane.
Yes it is trivial when humanity is burning 100 million barrels of oil per day and 300 tons of coal per second and 100 tons of natural gas per second.
The problem isn't GPUs the problem is cooling them.
Look into what percentage of the ISS by weight is radiators, look into how little power it can generate and radiate, and you'll see that space data centers is the shitcoin pitch of 2026.
ISS is not comparable, we don't have to keep GPUs in human-habitable temp ranges, and radiation speed goes way up with increased temps.
Also they are not building them in 3D space with current tech. We clearly don't have it. Cars barely drive themselves in cities, they are decade behind building and maintaining a. datacenter in space.
March 8th story OP?
Some previous discussion:
A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47598415
Part of this announcement:
xAI joins SpaceX
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46862170
Spacex will cause Kessler syndrom and bring the world economy down.
Should be banned. These companies are destroying a piece of the environment that belongs to all of us - the night sky.
Along that line people should look into BUG ratings [1] for outdoor lighting, especially city operated lights. [1]
[1] - https://www.landscapeforms.com/ideas/bug-rating-system-101
Let's ban ads too, while we're at it.
Where do we sign?
Banning Starlink is inadequate and won't change anything. China is building their own larger version with 20,000+ satellites. Russia is building their own network. The EU is building their own network.
Oh ffs ... how is the homebrew laser defense industry coming along?
Spec Priority: ability to attach said laser defense instrument to home telescope ... and enable user to blast those madafakkas out of the sky.
There is an upside: this may be the shortest route to eliminating any future launches:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
Sorry Buck Rogers fan bois, should have left this fantasy in the 1950s...
Mentioning Kessler syndrome, especially in the case of Starlink LEO satellites, is the classic midwit test.