points by pintxo 3 days ago | 0 comments
To be fair, the majority of satellites now seems to exist because "money" will trump any citizen concerns every time.
[–] 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.
[–] bix6 3 days ago