Are direct-to-cell satellite connections useful? Yes. Are the benefits for a small handful of people who can afford access to those satellites worth the increased collision risks in orbit, the atmospheric pollution from launching and reentering all of them, the ground casualty risks from reentering them, and the light/radio pollution they cause? I would argue, no. Invest in better remote ground-based infrastructure! This scramble for direct-to-cell sats is NOT going to work.
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Damn, looks like the freaking huge AST satellite launched successfully. I guess we'll find out soon how incredibly fucking bright and radio-loud it is 😭
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtp5dj2o6rqnge56sz2db5a/post/3mapcxxetwk2o
...and how hardy it is to debris hits. That's a big cross-section: 2,400 square feet, a bit bigger than a basketball half-court. This paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027311772030644X suggests 1 hit energetic enough to penetrate 1 mm of aluminum per m^2/yr from debris and 1 from micrometeorites at AST's altitude, so about 1 hit per day. Good luck...
(Especially given a much smaller Starlink satellite and the similar cross-section Chinese space station both likely got hit by debris in the last few days)
@sundogplanets I've heard that some of the ISS people are starting to wonder if increased rates of debris strikes are due to Starlink launches, but I haven't seen any releases on it yet.
@sundogplanets Be pretty satisfying if it got destroyed right away, but that causes *other* problems.
@sundogplanets i’d argue they should be limited to cover remote regions and war zones to lessen the risk for negative impacts, and therefore not operated by private entities
@sundogplanets We had a need for a handheld satphone at one place I worked because of the remoteness of location where things were being installed. An iSatPhone Pro that used the Inmarsat geo constellation worked. Iridium could also have done the job too. I doubt there really is a need for the leo spacejunk doing direct-to-cell, other than bragging rights, and the ability to "borrow" earth/space spectrum for terrestrial use (like LightSquared/Ligado tried).
@ingram Agree! There are internet providers that work from geosynchronous orbit (which is highly regulated, yay) and from higher orbits with fewer sats (like iridium - though that constellation has some issues with flares and radio frequency leakage, it was only a handful of satellites)
@sundogplanets MEO is a nice sweet spot for throughput and latency vs number of spacecraft required. The O3b system was trialled at work and was impressive. GEO services (NBN SkyMuster is the main one for outback Australia) are acceptable for streaming, but do suck for anything interactive (but still much better than the shortwave radio alternative). Hopefully higher orbit LEO operators with fewer sats can out compete the incumbent.
@sundogplanets GEO used to be a civilised place, but things are changing. The rendezvous & proximity operations that the US, Russia and China are doing do risk other operators. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-us-and-chinese-satellites-are-dogfighting-in-orbit/ar-AA1SAnEY
The whole ITU approach to orbital fillings needs to change, but it's unlikely because just like every other consensus-based regulation there's no enforcement when a bully decides that 'might make right".
@sundogplanets Another option is long-endurance autonomous aircraft.
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