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What follows is my opinion and likely will be an unpopular opinion given the fanbase SpaceX has. Again my opinion.

 

I am personally not a fan of the idea of ksp partnering with SpaceX. Why? I honestly dislike how Elon thinks trashing LEO with starlink satellites is a good idea. I am all for reusability do not misunderstand, but his practice of adding hundreds of satellites to low earth orbit that rob deep sky astrophotographers of valuable data (wasted frames, seconds to upwards of 7-10 minute shots) all because of a shiny train of satellites tore through the shot streaking it? I was a spacex fan before starlink, not any more. Yes its great to see NASA crews launch from Florida, but, to me, starlink tainted spacex for me. 100% my opinion. 
 

075108042020

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8 minutes ago, AlamoVampire said:

adding hundreds of satellites to low earth orbit that rob deep sky astrophotographers of valuable data (wasted frames, seconds to upwards of 7-10 minute shots) all because of a shiny train of satellites tore through the shot streaking it?

That's only shortly after launch. They will then raise their orbits to where they will spend about 5 years, before either being replaced, or just deorbiting. And they have coatings that reduce the reflections. And of course, once we get Starship up and going, companies could create telescopes similar to Hubble or JWST, and launch them on Starship, therefore eliminating the need for ground-based observatories.

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29 minutes ago, AlamoVampire said:

What follows is my opinion and likely will be an unpopular opinion given the fanbase SpaceX has. Again my opinion.

 

I am personally not a fan of the idea of ksp partnering with SpaceX. Why? I honestly dislike how Elon thinks trashing LEO with starlink satellites is a good idea. I am all for reusability do not misunderstand, but his practice of adding hundreds of satellites to low earth orbit that rob deep sky astrophotographers of valuable data (wasted frames, seconds to upwards of 7-10 minute shots) all because of a shiny train of satellites tore through the shot streaking it? I was a spacex fan before starlink, not any more. Yes its great to see NASA crews launch from Florida, but, to me, starlink tainted spacex for me. 100% my opinion. 
 

075108042020

I am sorry but this is very shortsighted.

New technology always causes problems, problems we solve.

Yes its a problem now but every new technology is bound to have such issues.

So you have two options here,

First you discover new ways to fix and improve new great things

Second you give up and abandon future important technologies.

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@GuessingEveryDay you misunderstand. I am not talking about professional observatories. Point of opinion I find the idea of removing ground based observatories professional or otherwise repugnant. We are losing our night skies to incessant over illumination at an alarming rate which is also repugnant to me. But that is a rant for another day. My point is this:

Amateur Astronomy. Backyard. Homegrown. Let me use my setup and typical sky conditions as an example. I live about 19-20 miles outside a major city. My skies are bortle class 8. About as bad as it gets. I use a dslr on a celestron nexstar 6se scope, my mount is the AVX. I however, being newish to deep sky astrophotography lack a guide scope or software to drive it so, i hand track. At most I can get 7 seconds before i either lose the track or light-pollution blows the image out. Those issues (weather so not being considered as we assume clear skies for this conversation) give me less than stellar odds I will have usable data. 2 years ago I spent an entire night trying to image M42. Between light pollution, my tree and satellites crashing the party I had maybe 7 solid minutes of data. 7 minutes out of 6 hours of imaging. I however am not the only DSO photographer dealing with it. Others with better setups face it as well. The entire amateur astronomy community is facing this threat. And it is a threat. I am on mobile so linking is hard, but, Id suggest a view of the many videos on youtube about this and how its ruining astronomy, amateur or otherwise. Musk is particularly egregious because he wants thousands upon thousands of these nuisances.

@Boyster then all astronomers are as “short sighted”. They are trashing images and clogging up our skies.  The march forward must not ignore the path that allows that march. We are losing our night sky and thats tragic. Technology can march forward sure, but its HOW we do it with out costing us our connection to the nightsky is what matters. Its on Elon to find a way to keep them invisible to us on the ground. Not on us on the ground being affected by it to just sit back and try to solve it for ourselves. 
 

083408042020

 

for all, a short video, under 4 minutes: Why SpaceX Starlink is bad for Astronomy | Didier Queloz    Channel Bullaki

083708042020

 

these quotes from jurassic park are apt:

“Scientists are actually preoccupied with accomplishment. So they are focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something.“

I learned from Jurassic Park that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

 

084308042020

Edited by AlamoVampire
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9 minutes ago, Boyster said:
42 minutes ago, AlamoVampire said:

What follows is my opinion and likely will be an unpopular opinion given the fanbase SpaceX has. Again my opinion.

 

I am personally not a fan of the idea of ksp partnering with SpaceX. Why? I honestly dislike how Elon thinks trashing LEO with starlink satellites is a good idea. I am all for reusability do not misunderstand, but his practice of adding hundreds of satellites to low earth orbit that rob deep sky astrophotographers of valuable data (wasted frames, seconds to upwards of 7-10 minute shots) all because of a shiny train of satellites tore through the shot streaking it? I was a spacex fan before starlink, not any more. Yes its great to see NASA crews launch from Florida, but, to me, starlink tainted spacex for me. 100% my opinion. 
 

075108042020

I am sorry but this is very shortsighted.

New technology always causes problems, problems we solve.

Yes its a problem now but every new technology is bound to have such issues.

So you have two options here,

First you discover new ways to fix and improve new great things

Second you give up and abandon future important technologies.

Why were the satellites shiny? It's like Elon never thenks further than the launch, then thinks about the problems his shiny new toys might cause for everyone.

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1 minute ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why were the satellites shiny? It's like Elon never thenks further than the launch, then thinks about the problems his shiny new toys might cause for everyone.

Because satellites are always shiny. Unless they're owned by the government, or really far away

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21 minutes ago, GuessingEveryDay said:
24 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why were the satellites shiny? It's like Elon never thenks further than the launch, then thinks about the problems his shiny new toys might cause for everyone.

Because satellites are always shiny. Unless they're owned by the government, or really far away

Not unless you paint the bits that don't need to be shiny black before launching lots of them.

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When things go perfect from the very first time?

Mistakes are made, for various reasons.

Sometimes they are easy to fix sometimes almost impossible.

There is no motive behind it, or that he doesnt care.

Its all part of the proccess.

1 hour ago, AlamoVampire said:

 

@Boyster then all astronomers are as “short sighted”. They are trashing images and clogging up our skies.  The march forward must not ignore the path that allows that march. We are losing our night sky and thats tragic. Technology can march forward sure, but its HOW we do it with out costing us our connection to the nightsky is what matters. Its on Elon to find a way to keep them invisible to us on the ground. Not on us on the ground being affected by it to just sit back and try to solve it for ourselves. 

DUDE, space is gonna be EXTREMELY crowded in future.

Astronomers even now, have techinques and computer programs to overcome such thing.

As we proceed in the future, if all goes well, the space will be full of things, and astronomers will have amazing futuristic tools(they have now as well)

to filter out all the negative stuff.

Omg i cant beleive i am trying to defend something so obvious.

Maybe i am getting trolled.

Things are rough in the start, they wont be perfect but thats the point.

Things need to get better, to advance.

Think about it, astronomy will find ways to observe the stars

through the advancement of technology

and it will do it together with all the satelite companies etc.

Stop being so shortsighted, omg.

Edited by Boyster
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I'm not sure that a satellite constellation to provide high speed internet is Elon's idea. Kinda like the Wright brothers didn't come up with the idea to fly. If SpaceX didn't start Starlink, you would be complaining about Amazon and Project Kuiper. In fact, you might even say Elon is late to the game. Check out the options currently available if you want Satellite internet in Canada that isn't Starlink:
https://www.canadasatellite.ca/Satellite-Internet-Canada-Internet-Satellite-Providers-s/411.htm

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5 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

I'm not sure that a satellite constellation to provide high speed internet is Elon's idea. Kinda like the Wright brothers didn't come up with the idea to fly. If SpaceX didn't start Starlink, you would be complaining about Amazon and Project Kuiper. In fact, you might even say Elon is late to the game. Check out the options currently available if you want Satellite internet in Canada that isn't Starlink:
https://www.canadasatellite.ca/Satellite-Internet-Canada-Internet-Satellite-Providers-s/411.htm

There is a major battlefield out there, with old powerful kings, fighting every single day.

I am not saying Elon is the only righteous fighter out there, but he certainly isnt the most liked.

For example in youtube, there are certain channels that they try to find every single detail when something goes wrong with SpaceX.

Which is FINE.But when things go very wrong for other companies they have a very high diplomatic explanation.

Which is imbalance, they prefer certain things.

Edited by Boyster
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1 hour ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

That's only shortly after launch.

For now. They want to have 1500 up by the end of next year, and 12000 are approved (says wikipedia).

I'm a city-dweller with a limited field of view. Back-of the envelope, I can still expect to see a starlink every couple of minutes by late 2021, and if they ever get up to the approved number, I'll have a 30% chance of seeing one of them at any given moment. When outside on a good hillock, they will be impossible to ignore.

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48 minutes ago, Laie said:

For now. They want to have 1500 up by the end of next year, and 12000 are approved (says wikipedia).

I'm a city-dweller with a limited field of view. Back-of the envelope, I can still expect to see a starlink every couple of minutes by late 2021, and if they ever get up to the approved number, I'll have a 30% chance of seeing one of them at any given moment. When outside on a good hillock, they will be impossible to ignore.

But the Starlink satellites orbit at 550 km, which for the Americans is 341.75 miles above Earth. The ISS orbits at 254 miles. And often the ISS is tricky to see.

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2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Not unless you paint the bits that don't need to be shiny black before launching lots of them.

On this point it isn't so simple. Heat management when exposed to sunlight is a very tricky thing for satellites. Painting it black would possibly cause a lot more thermal loading that has to be negated with other hardware that are likely to be heavier and more expensive than simply leaving the surface shiny enough to reflect a lot of that light away. And that's not even considering the solar panels that obviously cannot be painted, which will be reflective from certain angles. Visible reflections from satellites are usually from the solar panels anyway as they tend to have the greatest surface area.

Having said all of that, I'm also concerned about the light pollution of the night skies and the difficulties that Starlink will introduce to observations. I used to be very interested in backyard astronomy until I became so frustrated with the light pollution in my area (Dallas/Ft.Worth) that I simply just gave up. I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who's having their observations ruined by this new satellite network.

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9 hours ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

And of course, once we get Starship up and going, companies could create telescopes similar to Hubble or JWST, and launch them on Starship, therefore eliminating the need for ground-based observatories.

I doubt this'll be the case - it doesn't matter how cheap or effective your rocket launches are, space telescopes are fundamentally just super expensive. Both Hubble and the JWST have development and operating costs measured in the billions of dollars, while even the most expensive rocket launches are in the hundreds of millions - even if Starship gets that down to the tens of millions, I can't see that leading to a boom in orbital telescopes. Ground-based observatories are gonna be around for a long time, if only because using them is so much cheaper than orbital stuff can ever be - there's plenty of great research that gets done down on the ground, purely because they either don't need the incredible resolution of a space telescope, or because what they're doing would take up a significant amount of time. If Starlink is as bad as it seems to be, those types of research are gonna get frustratingly more expensive at best.

Edited by GluttonyReaper
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Eh. I'm not a big fan of Elon and his ventures (for a variety of reasons). 

I would rather KSP work with more space programs and scientists, as well as focus on graphics and bugfixes. Maybe a few more DLC if they think they can add new and fun gameplay elements (a colony DLC would be interesting, though that might be better understood as an expansion and perhaps better left to KSP2). 

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