FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO
@sundogplanets This is absurd. I understand that FCC's area of competence is radio spectrum, so why the fuck did they approve this if it has nothing to do with them? Why didn't they pass the accountability to another entity, I don't know, perhaps the FAA?
Moreover, why do USA-based agencies have this kind of power over initiatives that affect the whole world???
@sundogplanets Unfortunately this was inevitable, the current American admin hates science and hasn't met a potentially environmentally disastrous new tech they don't like. Asking for feedback was only ever for show, the decision was already made, much as it was with all the new satellite constellations... Meanwhile their voters are railing about their foes geoengineering and having weather machines, as well as chemtrails.
@sundogplanets yes, because adding more solar input to an overheating planet is an amazing idea
@sundogplanets I can't fathom how incredibly dumb someone has to be to think that all we need right now is more sun time. This is beyond stupidity. These "persons" must be from another planet and they want to terraform, I don't see any other rational explanation.
Remember in fictions, when aliens try to eradicate us, all people of different nations join forces to reach the same goal : getting rid of them.
When will that happen ?
@sundogplanets ok wow I knew these are bad times but this is actually armageddon in slow motion
@sundogplanets Ye Gods this is literally James Bond shit.
Ok, so what happens when those lasers that say, the soon to be finished ELT, fire into space to adjust for atmospheric disturbance, hit one of these mirrors?
Do they reflect towards the Sun or to some random spot on the Earth?
@sundogplanets how can they approve something that the entire world has to suffer under
@sundogplanets and fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck no! Is the appropriate answer
🙍🫤😿
@sundogplanets Ha… the Great Cascading Crashing Clusterfuck of 2029 is going to be an interesting sight to behold…
@sundogplanets I’m so sorry. This is incredibly fucked up. For you and the rest of humanity.
@sundogplanets I assume SpaceX will make money off the launch services? If so, the function of the satellite comes second to the total number of satellites proposed?
@sundogplanets The appropriation of a Tolkien name is a giveaway that not only is this a bad idea, but it's been done by the worst people.
@sundogplanets I can only imagine the rest of the world very quickly planning to take down US garbage in space, and there may be no solution other than advocating for peace and dialogue.
Satellites can be very fragile, it would be very bad luck if somebody aimed a high-powered laser at them.
That these things have been tolerated until now doesn't mean that they're going to be tolerated indefinitely.
@sundogplanets
Above all, could those fucks please stop using names from Lord of the rings (e.g. Earendil, Palantir, Anduril).
At the moment, I’m reading it to my 7-year-old, and I’d rather not be reminded of all that dystopian tech shit while doing so.
@sundogplanets the stuff of nightmares: “But to expand the technology, Reflect Orbital envisions operating over 50,000 satellites by 2035.”
Americans aren’t the only people inhabiting this beautiful planet and the Earth isn’t flat, surely people and institutions from other countries can pick up a fight and resist this monstrosity - considering it would affect everyone. Right, right?
If I remember correctly, most international law on space came during the height of the Cold War, when neither the USA nor USSR were willing to accept the other having any say on what they launched. This led to the idea that the country containing the launch site is entirely responsible for the things that are launched.
Some of this is sensible. There!s a ceiling on sovereign airspace because it doesn’t make sense that ownership of the moon would change every few minutes as the Earth rotates (for example).
There should be more international regulation, but if the USA doesn’t agree, how do you enforce it? A few countries have anti-satellite weapons, but shooting down US-owned satellites would be politically impossible even where technically feasible (and likely cause more environmental damage than leaving them).
& the whole premise is so fucked up. Quoted from one article: "goal of creating a way to power solar farms at night"
Dude, have you never heard of batteries...?
@_elena @sundogplanets look, we all know there are only 2 countries: america and not america. and because america is always at war with not america, for defensive reasons you understand, why would they worries about how it impacts not america
So, who's the CEO of "Reflect Orbital" and can we place a couple of really big floodlights around his home...?
@sundogplanets how major of a crime would it be to shoot an annoying satellite with a big laser or a rail gun? Asking for a friend, as i don't have either of those :((
@sundogplanets How many shit things are getting Lord of the Rings names?
@sundogplanets fuck, seriously???
@sundogplanets We‘re not trying to grow food in the domes of Ganymede here. What are these people smoking?
@sundogplanets I am afraid we need to plan for an astronomy in the post-Kessler era 😭
@sundogplanets Peak stupid, peak stupid.
There’s no other use for this actually than a rich morherfucker to shine to his overnight party.
@sundogplanets This is going to require a new form of Luddite.
Hope India or Russia shoots it down with a missile...
@sundogplanets this is the smallest issue, but I hate how every company (or in this case, satellite) that’s named after something from Tolkien is just terrible for society. Palantir, Anduril, Erebor, etc. There’s probably upwards of a dozen by now.
Corporatism on a globalism scale.
“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini
@sundogplanets this is literally Karl Pilkington idea
@sundogplanets Oh FFS…what‘s next?
Breaking news: in a surprising twist Reflect Orbital announced their satellites themselves will not be solar but rather nuclear powered. „By using nuclear power we make sure our totally safe satellites keep working just as long as the sun. Check out our lifetime-subscriptions at 20% off for early investors.“
@sundogplanets the mind boggles, what a crock of an idea
@sundogplanets Hey at least they didn’t paint it tacky gold…
@sundogplanets FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO
@sundogplanets for some reason, national governments seem to think that they have authority to cause trouble in orbit. What happens in orbit affects everyone in some way. Surely doing something as ridiculous as putting a giant mirror in space should have broader international scrutiny?!
@sundogplanets Ok, back of the napkin-style math time. According to NASA, the moon's surface area is roughly (rounded up) 40×10^6 km², or 40×10^12m². These sattelites are 18m×18m or roughly (rounded up) 400m^2. The moon only shows us half of it's surface area, which is half-illuminated on average (the actual amount of light we receive from the moon is a bit less than that due to the moon being present for less of the night when nearer to a full moon, but I'll ignore that for now). So we've got 40e12/40e1/2/2 or 2.5e10, unitless. If we assume the moon reflects 20% as well as those mirrors (this is generous towards the mirrors), we end up with 5e9, or five billion. That's approximately the amount of these mirrors we'd need to build to reflect as much light back to the earth as the moon. Due to the very approximate nature of these only the order of magnitude really matters, but it is still a ridiculous amount and not worth it. After all, adding a second moon to power solar panels would probably not give ROI within the lifespan of the sun.
What are they even trying to do???
@sundogplanets I would never endorse someone going full Contact on this thing's launch vehicle once fully stacked. That would be a terrible and illegal thing to do.
@sundogplanets how the fuck is this under the fcc's purview?
@sundogplanets and of course it’s named after something from JRR Tolkien….
@sundogplanets assume they are only licensed to reflect back to USA??
What's wrong with everyone? Jesus.
@sundogplanets wow that sucks total ass
@sundogplanets I hope this thing gets shot down with some ASAT Rocket by the #Chinese or #Russia, if the #EU doesn't have the balls and this thing isn't in a GSO over the #USA!
@sundogplanets We could band together to aim lasers at these....
