[mrshadowgoose]

I am entirely convinced that absent LEO comsat constellations, people who espouse this sentiment would likely be whining about "useless astronomy taking money away from helping poor people".

If you genuinely care about the field of astronomy, rest assured that the same falling launch costs that have enabled LEO comsat constellations, will enable the launch of fleets of space-based telescopes.

[croes]

Space based telescopes have limits Earth bound telescopes don’t have and they are easier to maintain

[mrshadowgoose]

Yes, I am quite aware that the current generation of space-based telescopes are quite limited. And it's solely due to the historically extreme cost of mass to orbit.

The largest proposed ground observatories already use segmented mirrors. One can use the same approach in space, it's only a matter of launch cost.

[timewizard]

> fleets of space-based telescopes.

Isn't one of the nice aspects of astronomy is that you can do quite a bit as an amateur with some decent equipment and a nice vantage point? What value does this fleet have to these people?

> people who espouse this sentiment would likely be whining about "useless astronomy taking money away from helping poor people".

You've constructed a strawman for the purposes of gatekeeping; meanwhile, there very much is a reason to have a rational conversation about the trade offs of these large commercial ventures that impact literally the entire planet.

[mrshadowgoose]

> Isn't one of the nice aspects of astronomy is that you can do quite a bit as an amateur with some decent equipment and a nice vantage point? What value does this fleet have to these people?

It doesn't, and admittedly I don't really care that much.

I care far far more that remote communities can now have meaningful access to the internet, one of the most transformative and enabling technologies in existence, than niche hobbyists being mildly encumbered. And most people likely fall into the same camp.

As already mentioned, I find it really hard to believe that the common person whining about "the poor amateur astronomers" are being sincere. Some of them likely are, but "finding any reason possible to whine about billionaires" seems to be vogue these days.

[timewizard]

> I care far far more that remote communities can now have meaningful access to the internet

Then can you tell me how many remote communities were not being served before that are now suddenly capable of accessing the internet now that these particular constellations exist? I mean just looking at Starlink's current availability map shows how little you might actually care about this particular outcome.

Even so was this the most affordable and sustainable option for these countries? Was there absolutely no way to achieve both goals at once?

> I don't really care that much.

Noted. We're just picking sides today, I guess. Bummer.

[ralfd]

> looking at Starlink's current availability map

https://www.starlink.com/map

???

Almost all of the Americas, including the deepest Brazilian jungle.

Indonesia, Australia, Mongolia.

Decent chunks of subsahara Africa.

Ships far away on the ocean, transcontinental airplanes … how is this all not amazing?

[timewizard]

You did notice that many of those areas are "Service Date Unknown," "Pending Regulatory Approval," and "Coming Soon?"

The first world has great coverage, I'll give you that, but to say that this network is somehow an inherent advantage to indigenous and under served "remote" people is quite literally laughable.

And yes, the Amazon is being served, and they have _faster_ internet than before, which is somewhat good and not without it's problems to be sure, but they had the internet before. They have smartphones. How did you think they utilize the starlink service at all? They have a pretty narrow power budget which this really doesn't help with all while delivering them deeper into the pockets of American monopolies.

Oh, and the mining and logging companies absolutely love that they have the service necessary to support their commercial work in the Amazon. High rating from them, they would agree, it's "amazing."

The ocean, planes, and all sorts of remote vehicles had internet before as well. This is nothing particularly new other than being faster. Which moves the question to the appropriate place. Is it worth damaging the sciences for faster commercial internet? Are we actually doing anything more than sending youtube poop and pornography and gambling websites into places that never had to deal with these intrusions before? All while enabling a higher rate of destruction of the very place they live?

[IshKebab]

You can still do that.