Elon Musk plans to launch 4,000 satellites to provide High-Speed Internet across the globe "for the - Polidicks

I wished they outlawed goddamn lobbyists, they are half the reason we can't get moving forward in technology.

[QUOTE=archangel125;46967965]If they do, I suppose that would constitute strong evidence that they don't have the interests of their constituents at heart, and are being bribed.[/QUOTE] and if they do do shitty things then luckily washington has the initiatives and musk can appeal directly to the people

[QUOTE=LtKyle2;46967999]He should just build a huge spaceship instead and take anyone who isn't a greedy corporate fuck to Mars to build a new life. This will just get blocked by lobbyists. Earth can belong the people who all went to harvard for their business master degree's while the rest of humanity is off exterminating alien races.[/QUOTE] It doesn't matter, no matter what planet we colonize, some asshole from the colonists would rise up and create a mega corporation to own everything.

Only a matter of time before some goomba fucknuts get somebody to assassinate him for accelerating progress. Happened to Martin Luther King, John Kennedy and John Lennon. Why do good men have to die because of some stuck up person's ideals?

[QUOTE=Nitro836;46968309]Only a matter of time before some goomba fucknuts get somebody to assassinate him for accelerating progress. Happened to Martin Luther King, John Kennedy and John Lennon. Why do good men have to die because of some stuck up person's ideals?[/QUOTE]Lennon's murder had nothing to do with his politics, his killer was simply a deluded maniac

[QUOTE=archangel125;46967862]Somehow I doubt this will ever come to fruition. There are too many politically influential parties, corporations and governments alike in whose best interests it is to prevent this.[/QUOTE] Google is backing it, they've valued SpaceX at 10B, which is pretty crazy.

I bet this would also allow for a really robust satphone network, which seems to be a problem. Satphone companies seem to go out of business pretty regularly.

[QUOTE=GunFox;46969376]I bet this would also allow for a really robust satphone network, which seems to be a problem. Satphone companies seem to go out of business pretty regularly.[/QUOTE] Musk outlined the problem pretty well (OvB has the link), most satellites are made with older hardware that is heavy/inefficient. By the time that a satellite has launched, its internals are already around 15 years old, and when it's out of commision satellites are well over 25. Not to mention the huge costs of launching all the satellites for a network. It's pretty easy to build a modern satellite (even hobbyists are doing it now). However, Musk's biggest savings are on the launch platform, once working, the SpaceX reusable rocket platform should be able to throw the satellites up for a fraction of what it previously cost.

[QUOTE=Tamschi;46965392]The latency is still going to be bad. Good for downloads, very terrible for (action) games.[/QUOTE] Yes because if I was poor and starving, and had access to basic internet I would be pissed off if my elite online games didn't work due to latency

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46969457]Yes because if I was poor and starving, and had access to basic internet I would be pissed off if my elite online games didn't work due to latency[/QUOTE] I did the math, 240ms isn't really good for games, but it could help so many developing countries currently have no access to information.

[QUOTE=nVidia;46966509]I bet Comcast and at&t lobbyist are already on this to lobby some ridiculous state law to make this illegal.[/QUOTE] Much like the Hyperloop, it's an idea that fails even the slightest legal/economic/logical scrutiny. Elon Musk seems to exist in a magical parallel universe where laws and other people's interests simply do not apply to him. He's rich, but he's not Comcast rich. They can squish him like a fucking bug if they decide he presents a serious threat to their "Use our monopoly to squeeze people until they bleed money" business model.

[QUOTE=markg06;46965466]Elon Musk is like an irl Tony Stark, I bet if it was possible to build a flying armour he'd have done it.[/QUOTE] Funnily enough, the Tony Stark you see in the movies was pretty much RD Jr. channeling Elon Musk. :v:

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;46969747]Funnily enough, the Tony Stark you see in the movies was pretty much RD Jr. channeling Elon Musk. :v:[/QUOTE] Not to mention, Elon Musk [b]was[/b] in Iron Man 2. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuG2AVFB-g0[/media]

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;46969747]Funnily enough, the Tony Stark you see in the movies was pretty much RD Jr. channeling Elon Musk. :v:[/QUOTE] He also had a cameo: [B]-fuck you beat me-[/B] The bad guy's factory was also filmed in the SpaceX factory. (if you look close you can see SpaceX logos still) He also has a cameo in Machete Kills: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_MGXAtX8fA[/media] He also produced "Thank you for smoking." [url]http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1907769/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1[/url]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46965572]If it could be low latency and be almost comparable to cellular networks like LTE and UTMS when it comes to latency wise(I can easilly pull off a 30-70MS depending on the day on my UTMS HSPDA+ wtih 17mbps d/ 4.2mbps u) then yeah that would be pretty damn good. International routes won't be good still but it's a start.[/QUOTE] Mobile networks are almost the same in terms of technical limitations to cable networks, except that the total bandwidth per area is capped somewhat badly (but that also has a fairly high ceiling if you just litter the landscape with antennas). Latency should be about the same unless the hardware is terrible (which unfortunately is almost always the case). With satellite connections the distance the data has to travel puts a very hard limit on the latency (but overall speed still depends on the focus. It's obviously still going to be much lower since the satellites' designated service areas are going to be huge in any case). [QUOTE=Abaddon-ext4;46965757]It depends on the satellite location. Geostationary orbit does have some seriously high latency, but in low Earth orbit satellite could reach less than 40 ms RTT Now who will win? Elon Musk with SpaceX or Richard Benson with Virgin Galactic?[/QUOTE] Right. However, if they don't make them stationary they'll require more expensive ground equipment that supports automatic tracking to connect to them. (Since afaik the frequencies and power permitted for satellites doesn't exactly lend itself to anything but dishes anymore.) On the other hand, I'm not sure how much of the planet can be addressed from a geostationary orbit. At those frequencies the diffraction in the atmosphere probably isn't large, so there'd be some area around the poles that couldn't be reached. (In theory they could turn them into clusters and have them oscillate around certain points though, switching through as they change places. There [I]should[/I] be enough space in space to do it collision-free :v:)

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;46969584]I did the math, 240ms isn't really good for games, but it could help so many developing countries currently have no access to information.[/QUOTE] do you honestly think people in developing games will be racing to play video games

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46973010]do you honestly think people in developing games will be racing to play video games[/QUOTE] In terms of $/hr, video games are basically the cheapest entertainment money can buy. [editline]20th January 2015[/editline] This isn't even counting legitimately free to play games like League of Legends or Dota.

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46973010]do you honestly think people in developing games will be racing to play video games[/QUOTE] i did the math for the nerdes

Can we just start cloning Elon Musk? Seriously, he needs to donate sperm or something to spread his DNA throughout our society. Everything this guy does is awesome.

[QUOTE=Lord_Ragnarok;46976136]Can we just start cloning Elon Musk? Seriously, he needs to donate sperm or something to spread his DNA throughout our society. Everything this guy does is awesome.[/QUOTE] He's pioneering that, too. [img]http://i.imgur.com/1cMXU6K.png[/img] (Nevada Alexander died of SIDS at 10 weeks old :( )

Elon Musk is starting to sound more and more like a mad scientist and I [i]fucking love it[/i] Seriously, am I the only one who secretly hopes he's our first super villain?

[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;46976396]Elon Musk is starting to sound more and more like a mad scientist and I [i]fucking love it[/i] Seriously, am I the only one who secretly hopes he's our first super villain?[/QUOTE] No No I don't hope for that at all

[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;46976396]Elon Musk is starting to sound more and more like a mad scientist and I [i]fucking love it[/i] Seriously, am I the only one who secretly hopes he's our first super villain?[/QUOTE] we already have plenty of villanous people on the planet. some with more power than they should have.

[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;46976396]Elon Musk is starting to sound more and more like a mad scientist and I [i]fucking love it[/i] Seriously, am I the only one who secretly hopes he's our first [b]super hero?[/b][/QUOTE]

This is amazing, I wonder how much profit can be made from a scheme like this. I mean there must be easier ways of making boatloads of money than a space satellite network... right?

[QUOTE=mix999;46978083]This is amazing, I wonder how much profit can be made from a scheme like this. I mean there must be easier ways of making boatloads of money than a space satellite network... right?[/QUOTE] If it's successful (big [I]if[/I] here), SpaceX would be getting monthly payments from a significant portion of the world's population. There's potential for extreme profit. However, satellite internet sent many companies into bankruptcy in the dotcom era.

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;46978909]If it's successful (big [I]if[/I] here), SpaceX would be getting monthly payments from a significant portion of the world's population. There's potential for extreme profit. However, satellite internet sent many companies into bankruptcy in the dotcom era.[/QUOTE] Those who do not adapt, die out.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;46965303]I hope he's got a solution for upload because that's always been the problem with satellite connections. Great on the downlink, but uplink was a dialup connection.[/QUOTE] This hasn't been true for years, modern satellite connections are two-way. The problems remaining are latency and bandwidth (most if not all satellite ISPs have data caps).