Hacker News

points by Aurornis 3 days ago | 0 comments

The image itself is interesting, but the context in which it’s presented in this article is dishonest.

The headline is the worst offender, saying that the skies are “choked” with satellites.

The headline is misleading. The photo alone is interesting with the right context.

The guy who actually made the image seems to just think it's cool: "I knew if I carried on it would look even better and more impressive in terms of satellite numbers."

But the framing from others is terrible. "Who gave anyone permission do this?" Um, every single satellite ever launched has gone through government approvals. Sorry if you didn't start paying attention to the world of space flight until it ruined your attempt at photography, but that's on you.

[–] wolvoleo 3 days ago

There's another point: most of these satellites by far have been approved by the US, nobody else had any say in them. Right now the way it works is that approval is granted by the launching nation only.

As it clearly affects the whole world there should be some kind of international body governing it IMO. But I doubt that will happen because most nations are instead racing to get similar swarms of satellites up.

[–] wat10000 3 days ago

Most countries are party to the Outer Space Treaty, which specifically sets it up that way. An actual international organization would probably make sense now that space activity is ramping up so much, but it's not as if the current state of things is an accident the way "Who gave anyone permission do this?" implies.

[–] bix6 3 days ago

lol what. Regular citizens don’t get a say on satellites and many would prefer we didn’t put so many up. “National Security” will trump any citizen concerns every time.

[–] pintxo 3 days ago

To be fair, the majority of satellites now seems to exist because "money" will trump any citizen concerns every time.

[–] bix6 3 days ago

Agreed, I should’ve added that as the other overriding case

[–] wat10000 3 days ago

In other words, millions of people not only want those satellites to be there, but are willing to part with some of their hard-earned cash to make it happen.

This isn't some nefarious plot to manipulate the market or irradiate all the gold in Fort Knox or something. That scare-quoted "money" comes from providing useful services to people who want to pay for them. Yes, it turns out that millions of people wanting high-speed communication for their rural homes trumps people who get angry that they have to run their astrophotography through some software.

[–] bix6 3 days ago

Sorry which regular rural people are parting with their cash to launch satellites?

[–] wat10000 3 days ago

There's this service called Starlink which currently accounts for the majority of satellites in orbit. Starlink uses those satellites to provide internet access to subscribers on the ground. They have several million paying customers. Their service isn't particularly competitive in most urban areas where more traditional internet services are cheaper and faster, but there are lots of rural areas where they're by far the most competitive option, so that's where most of these subscribers are found.

[–] wat10000 3 days ago

Not sure how you saw "government" and read it as "regular citizens," but do go back and read it again.

[–] bix6 3 days ago

Exactly. The regular citizens don’t get to participate in the decision.

[–] wat10000 3 days ago

Are we suddenly acting surprised at the concept of representative government?

I don't understand what people actually want to happen here. Part of living on a planet with eight billion other people is dealing with the fact that some of them are going to do things you don't like. Governments, treaties, and international organizations are how we manage it. I understand if people disagree with the specific process that's in place for these things, or disagree with the decisions that get made, but they're acting like there isn't any process, or they somehow deserve to be personally consulted as part of it.

[–] bix6 3 days ago

In what world is Elon getting to blanket the sky with tens of thousands of satellites a representative government?

[–] wat10000 2 days ago

Are you suggesting that a representative government would certainly disallow such a thing? Why?

[–] krapp 3 days ago

He's a private citizen and he's allowed to do it because it isn't illegal.