Gregory's ServerAlso, in case anyone is counting, Starlink is now 63% of all active satellites.
2 out of ever 3 satellites up there now are owned by that awful billionaire. He effectively controls Low Earth Orbit. That should terrify everyone.
 66 comments
 @Jennifer @sundogplanets I really think he's squatting on orbits like real estate and he plans to charge people for access at some point. Enshitification of the night sky, as it were  @Jennifer I think shooting things into orbit is regulated. That's why SpaceX has to ask the United States of America Federal Aviation Administration for permission before they do it. Except the United States makes up only about 4% of the world population, or represents about 6% of the world's land area. Yes, Starlink is available also outside of the United States, but even so... it's quite a gap from there to @sundogplanets's figure of 63% of active satellites being Starlink. @sundogplanets I am currently not buying starlink internet for exactly this reason, and in part because of your info. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say I'm not giving that asshole a penny. There are so many reasons not to use #Starlink - the atmospheric pollution, being at the whim of a far-right tech-bro, to turn your communications on and off as he sees fit (and has done before), contribute to his empire of launch industries (#SpaceX), communications (#Starlink) and propaganda (#XformerlyKnownAsTwitter), its military interests, the fact that it s not sustainable and will fall apart at some point (#Kessler), damaging your own infrastructure ... and more:  @sundogplanets Or you could write to them and ask them to comply with US military requests to turn off starlink receivers that are being by the Russian military to control Shahed drones in Ukraine.   @sundogplanets Do you know Musk tries to gain influence with some rather naive leftist groups by offering them free Starlink gear for their direct actions/protest work? I know because he offered & then donated several full Starlink setups to activists in BC. People took them out of desperation because other communications gear was seized by RCMP CIRG. I heard similar things had happened with Starlink in NZ & a few places in South America too.  @sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity Not just influence. Being the transport, it would be easy to snoop their activity, and trivial to locate them. Not that great an idea for any kind of activist. If you know them, tell them about VPNs, at a minimum. I have, and use, another option but am afraid Starlink will drive local ISPs out of business as they only offer much lower speeds to any of us with trees between our home and their tower. In our not-so-rural region region Elon was about to be the only choice. Then the big three Canadian telcos decided it was, in fact, cost effective to connect us and life has been peachy since. It’s almost like it wasn’t in fact that hard in the first place!  @sundogplanets I like how for years, we were sold on the idea “oh don’t worry, satellites just burn up in the atmosphere once they die.”  @sundogplanets to add to the terror my first thought is: how hard would it be for him to have weaponised some % of that "fleet"? Is that feasible. Obviously the guy doesn't have the skills to do it himself, but I bet he has the mentality to try. It'd require some number of people working for him to be in on it and surely there aren't many who'd go along with something like that… Have them launch some sort of tungsten rod perhaps? The old "rods of god" concept. I may have read too much sci-fi. @sundogplanets is there anything else we can do apart from that ? As I understand it, nothing Starlink is doing is illegal under US law (we'll ignore the massive failure that is)?  @julianfairfax @sundogplanets apart from shutting off Ukrainian usage during battle, and not doing anything about Russians putting it on Shahed drones  Is why no one has done anything about him, except threaten thinking about possible action and sending nice letters of inquiry on DOJ stationery.   @sundogplanets For-profit satellites should pay an international tax for access to LEO orbits, since crowding and debris are becoming a problem and money has already been spent (and more will be spent) working out how to clean it up. ...yeah, I don't know how to make this happen. Easier: only democratic governments, nonprofits, and co-ops should have access to LEO. (Yeah, still impossible at the moment, but something to aim for.) @sundogplanets always makes me think of that Stargate episode where Daniel Jackson goes mad with power and @sundogplanets That’s a concerning statistic! The concentration of satellite ownership in the hands of a few, especially one individual, raises significant questions about control over Low Earth Orbit and the implications for global communications and internet access. It highlights the need for more diverse and equitable governance in space. We must ensure that the benefits of space technology are accessible to all, not just a select few. #SpaceDebate #SatelliteOwnership #DigitalEquity What about satelite hacking 😊 Pick an old one, and when it gets out of its orbit try to play bowling 🤣 @sundogplanets he is also involved in the mining projects in NC? Could he actually need workers that are used to be around mining?Does Trump also mean dig baby dig, just not saying it? They've been buying up land around the mine in Bess City NC offering my sister millions over value! Not to mention the quartz mine wiped out in the mountains that evidently is enough to complete all the AI robots they need to start depopulation! What y'all think,land grab, crazy thinking? @sundogplanets they will die out... the revenue is not enough to support Starlink. ... they are counting on taxpayers money.  @sundogplanets All the space-trash he's generating is going to bite us in the ass pretty soon.  @sundogplanets One day the universe will show that fool just how insignificant and powerless he really is. @sundogplanets i'm pretty sure that was his original plan, not mars, mars was a cover. Imagine if every non-SpaceX launch started 'accidentally' being bumped into a superfluous satellite or 2. And only SpaceX knew where safe launch/orbit windows were. And Starlink satellites would only dance out of the way of SpaceX vehicles … @sundogplanets ANYONE with a half a brain said that this was a bad idea, yet Musk was allowed to continue. The signs have been on the wall for years. And now it's too late. Good luck cleaning up his mess. Sigh.  @sundogplanets time to get James Bond on the case. Something like Tomorrow Never Dies?  @sundogplanets and he's getting most of the space travel contracts. he's dominating all of these platforms. his power is building at an alarming pace.  @sundogplanets this is super insightful. I honestly had no idea this was happening. I also didn’t know anything about Starlink being affiliated with the billionaire fascist tech bro. I’m going to have to do some research on this. I’m concerned about Apple’s new satellite backup system for internet. I hope they’re not using Starlink for that. Thanks for sharing this. 🙌🏻  @sundogplanets it's not only the satellites up there. It's also the satellites coming down: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-reentry-pollution-damage-earth-atmosphere @sundogplanets Leon really is Blofeld by now. I’ve always been a massive 007 fan, but I prefer the fantasy version over the real world one.  @sundogplanets and you can see all of them on https://satmap.space/ @emmanuelc @sundogplanets Wow! That is a powerful image. Click the burger menu, then uncheck the #starlink box and watch all those #sattelites disappear. Very scary! And this is only something like 1/4 the total number of satellites a “full” Starlink constellation is estimated to be. Elon has floated the idea of there needing to be upwards of 40,000 satellites.  @sundogplanets out of all of the 'how could we let this happen' stories of the past 100 years, this is right up there with the worst of em.   @sundogplanets a blood emerald racist apartheidist incel natalist. How befitting a suicidal species. @sundogplanets Monopolies are bad. We need an early warning system of them, because once they get big enough, they cannot be regulated.  @sundogplanets Do Starlink satellites have enough maneuverability to take out other satellites if Musk wanted? If so, what kinds of potential target satellites share a similar orbit? @sundogplanets He was a rich white kid under apartheid until it ended. Then he came to the USA to make our lives miserable.  @sundogplanets  @sundogplanets I request your permission to screenshot the first post of this thread and share it with my students. @sundogplanets They’ve made such an impact on already overtaxed satellite tracking systems that any new spacecraft has to jump through new hoops and spend more money just avoiding crashing into a Starlink, or anything else for that matter "So Musk, do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to sabotage efforts to hinder me as your government has been doing for a decade." @sundogplanets ... and now Amazon has a competing project - kuiper  @sundogplanets A website has been launched in Sima 🎬the best site to watch foreign movies and series for free and without ads📢   |
...just in case anyone needs more to be terrified of. Sorry.
You know what you can do? Not buy Starlink internet. (And if Starlink is your only option, write to them as a customer and tell them that you are concerned about their safety practices on the ground and in orbit, and they need to make fewer satellites with longer functional lifetimes)