I don’t know how much Musk can be separated from Starlink. Not only because Starlink, as part of SpaceX, is privately held but also because the main reason they now have a superior service to offer is that they got fucktons of money from government customers, which is also tied to Musk’s action
A big part of Musk’s involvement with politics is because everything he does, from EVs to rockets to, now, big energy-guzzling datacenters for AI, needs a lot of government backing, if not in terms of direct contracts at least in terms of regulation and incentives.
Even his direct involvement with Trump wasn’t because he suddenly became a Nazi (he’s probably always been one, according to his own family) but in order to become even more entangled with government investments, even trying to control NASA directly.
And not only US governments. I remember Musk suddenly being everywhere in Europe pitching Starlink. Meloni’s government in Italy was grilled for allegedly agreeing on a big contract with Starlink.
warm@kbin.earth 5 days ago
Id rather all this space trash burn up and we just spend the money on providing internet via land.
Kage520@lemmy.world 5 days ago
It’s still a good thing for cell coverage in remote areas for hiking emergencies though. The few satellites that currently do that are stupidly annoying and expensive to use. You have to carry specialized equipment, and if you use Garmin, you pay a yearly fee for the privilege of signing up for the low tier plan, then a monthly fee for the service, and then pay by the text message after the first few. Starlink just added T-Mobile so if you have a newer phone and use T-Mobile you can skip all of that and message out in emergencies without all that nonsense. Hopefully more brands will be added soon, but I don’t know.
Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Life is not safe. Adventure even less so. The loss of the night sky and the risk of Kessler syndrome is not outweighed by a slight convenience allowing influencers to stream video and hit social media while pretending to get away from it all.
5gruel@lemmy.world 4 days ago
What a weird hill to die on. Is it about letting people die or about influencers livestreaming?
What about comms during catastrophies? Small villages or off-grid houses? Remote research installations?
I swear, Lemmy is becoming more reactionary by the day.
Kage520@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s not for streaming. As far as I know it’s just text messages. Absolutely agree we should not be using screen time when out and away. We just need that little bit of safety.
nymnympseudonym@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Not just for hiking emergencies.
Many of us in reasonably functioning democracies have had a few decades to forget that sometimes people want to destroy your civilian infrastructure. Far fewer of those people have the capability to disrupt a satellite grid.
warm@kbin.earth 4 days ago
Or we could just make satellite phone service more accessible? Without the need for thousands of pieces of space trash put into LEO? Nobody needs tiktok when they are climbing a mountain in a remote area.