Russian cosmonaut spots 'space guests' amid dazzling auroras in video. They're not aliens.

Aug 24, 2020
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They "could be" sattelites. they "could be" meteors, but they "are NOT" aliens...? Based on what? Could be's? Wanna be's? They are just as likely aliens as Space junk based upon the author's scientific methodology.
 
Jan 31, 2020
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Duh... It's Elon Musk's space junk.
Elon Musk's "space junk" as you call it is going to bring internet to lots of people who otherwise won't be able to get it. It is socially ugly for people who already have internet to put down technology that helps others get what they already have. How tacky can you get? You may as well have just have said "Let them eat cake." or rather "Let them use floppy discs."
 
Aug 25, 2020
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A typical F...book addictive answer... Or you forgot to write the warning: "This is a place for an ad!"
WHO cares about having net in jungle? It is SO important for the vital functions, or?
I wonder, where all the night-sky lovers, astrophotographers are now?!? You don't mind, that the light pollution is growing daily, and now this Musk's garbage... It doesn't matter, that we soon won't be able to see the Sun, but we will have an Elon-net Paradise!!! :-@@@
 
Jan 31, 2020
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A typical F...book addictive answer... Or you forgot to write the warning: "This is a place for an ad!"
WHO cares about having net in jungle? It is SO important for the vital functions, or?
I wonder, where all the night-sky lovers, astrophotographers are now?!? You don't mind, that the light pollution is growing daily, and now this Musk's garbage... It doesn't matter, that we soon won't be able to see the Sun, but we will have an Elon-net Paradise!!! :-@@@

"WHO cares about having net in jungle?" Jungle Resident's Lives Matter!!! How dare you think otherwise!!! People EVERYWHERE have a right to participate in society and commerce and in this day and age that means having access to the internet. Based on your tone, I'd say that most jungle residents are more civilized than you are and could teach you a thing or two about how people should be treated.

As for loss of the night sky, those star-link satellites are generally only visible during twilight, when astronomical viewing is sketchy at best anyway. Remember, satellites only shine when illuminated by the sun. Those satellites are in low-earth-orbit so when it is deep into the local night, they are in the earth's shadow as much as the viewer is so you cannot see them. Publication editors and "authorities" are afraid to say this because of fear of flack from people like you, but I'm a mere foxpup and have no status or dignity to lose so I can speak the truth freely. There's an upside to being almost nothing. :) Your complaint is much-ado about nothing. You could be so much better than being just another idle complainer trying to get in the way of people who are actually trying to get good things done.
 
Apr 18, 2020
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They "could be" sattelites. they "could be" meteors, but they "are NOT" aliens...? Based on what? Could be's? Wanna be's? They are just as likely aliens as Space junk based upon the author's scientific methodology.
Based on what we know is there. They are "just as" unconfirmed--for the moment--but not "just as likely," by any stretch.
 
Apr 18, 2020
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Elon Musk's "space junk" as you call it is going to bring internet to lots of people who otherwise won't be able to get it. It is socially ugly for people who already have internet to put down technology that helps others get what they already have. How tacky can you get? You may as well have just have said "Let them eat cake." or rather "Let them use floppy discs."
Seems to me he could have done much the same with balloons, or drones, or some such--or even towers--rather than the expense (to be recouped from users, of course) and multiple complications of launching thirty thousand (!!!) satellites.
 
Aug 25, 2020
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"WHO cares about having net in jungle?" Jungle Resident's Lives Matter!!! How dare you think otherwise!!! People EVERYWHERE have a right to participate in society and commerce and in this day and age that means having access to the internet. Based on your tone, I'd say that most jungle residents are more civilized than you are and could teach you a thing or two about how people should be treated.

As for loss of the night sky, those star-link satellites are generally only visible during twilight, when astronomical viewing is sketchy at best anyway. Remember, satellites only shine when illuminated by the sun. Those satellites are in low-earth-orbit so when it is deep into the local night, they are in the earth's shadow as much as the viewer is so you cannot see them. Publication editors and "authorities" are afraid to say this because of fear of flack from people like you, but I'm a mere foxpup and have no status or dignity to lose so I can speak the truth freely. There's an upside to being almost nothing. :) Your complaint is much-ado about nothing. You could be so much better than being just another idle complainer trying to get in the way of people who are actually trying to get good things done.

If I'm not mistaken, the whole amount will be about 12 000. WHERE will you "put" them in the night? As I see, you rather watch your display, than the beauties of the nature... :-(
I know several small-minded, selfish persons, who under the "doing good things done" are doing good for nobody else, than THEMSELVES!
And I'm really crossing my fingers for Russian guys to hack that pollution.

By the way, this could be an interesting reading: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/...llite-constellation-astronomy-light-pollution
 
Jan 31, 2020
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If I'm not mistaken, the whole amount will be about 12 000. WHERE will you "put" them in the night? As I see, you rather watch your display, than the beauties of the nature... :-(
I know several small-minded, selfish persons, who under the "doing good things done" are doing good for nobody else, than THEMSELVES!
And I'm really crossing my fingers for Russian guys to hack that pollution.

By the way, this could be an interesting reading: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/...llite-constellation-astronomy-light-pollution
First, you don't "put" the satellites anywhere at night or in the dark. They just keep going along their established orbit while providing their needed communication function. The fact that you cannot see them because they are in the dark is unimportant consideirng they only need to be seen in whatever radio bands are involved.

During most of my satellite watching you see such objects rise up off the horizon (if you know it's coming) or later (if you didn't) it veers across the sky usually seemig to get brighter as it heads into the darker part and then suddenly goes dark and invisible when it enter's the Earth's shadow. At no point along that trek is it in a part of the sky where decent deep space photography can be made because twilight just isn't good for that. Later in the evening satelites are only seen close to horizon where the sun went down (also a bad astro-photography location) and eventually you are enough in the dark that EVERY low-earth-orbit object above you is also in the Earth's shadow along with you. Then, maybe (if it isn't cloudy) you can get some astrophotography done.) The glow of satelites just isn't going to be a problem then.

OK, lets assume that you have rejected the point made in the previous paragraph. Let's also assume it is the 21st century and we are not using classic film photography. You've got a decent CCD camera attached to your scope and you have a point in the sky of interest to photograph. Let's say it is a dim object and you need to do a fairly long time exposure. If you take just one long picture, any streaks from satellites or airplanes might show up clearly and you can do little about it because it is your one single shot. Break up you photo shoot into a multitude of shorter exposures and you will find that the streaks are only in a handfull of the images. You can just throw away those images and stack the rest. Using mulitple shots also greatly reduces blurring from any tracking and even atmospheric issues you might have although it does introduce baseline black-level noise into the data, something that can be compensated for with enough images being stacked. I see no reason why programs couldn't automatically recognize streaks and remove images in the set that have such streaks. Make the interface right and it will be an efficient process with or without controller approval. Also, there is no reason why StarLink cannot provide live data on the exact position of all it's satellites (along with all others as a kind service) Astronomy software, with that fresh data and knowing local time and location could know exaclty when NOT to look and avoid having to do any filtering. (It's also obvious how that data coudl be delivered) You could even have a mechanical iris in place so that the telescope "closes-its-eyes" when a satellite would be in its field of view and reopens when it is gone. In that context you might even be able to contintue a long single exposure. Lots of technical solutions can be found including some very simple ones.

Also, the same business putting all thos satellites up in space can also put other things up there too LIKE TELESCOPES!! Put enough up there, and even the public could aquire observing time with them. Seriously, given the chance, wouldn't you really like to be able to choose and see objects in space without having to deal with the Earth's atmosphere as a filter? I know I would.

And last, and most important. There really are people who's livelyhoods compel them to live out in remote places where internet is poor at best, or such places could simply be those people's native homes. We really need to be inclusive here and help them connect to the rest of humanity. We need their uniqueness and they need channels of communication to help them with thier live's problems. Imagine trying to troubleshoot a malfunctioning [insert any device here] and not being able to do a search engine query or watch a video or even ask someone a quesiton. In this day and age, EVERYONE should have access to that kind of thing. Urbanites are spoiled, expecting that kind of thing to be there all the time and fast, but that just isn't the situation for everyone. It isn't reasonable to bury 10 miles of fiber in the ground just to service a few households in some cases. Even cellular fails in the remote areas. Satellite is the only viable option there....And forget about fast-charging your electric vehicle if you have one. :)

Resistance if futile. These kinds of satellite based communications nets are going up be it StarLink, Amazon, or anything else. It is what the world needs and it really will be much, much more good than a problem.

Did I mention that these satellites are being placed in low enough orbits that they are guaranteed to come down quickly even if they fail completely so there will be no accumulation of junk up there over time. They are even designed to fully burn up on re-entry so don't worry about them falling on you. :)

Also, this whole industry is going to make launching payloads into space MUCH cheaper making expansion of our civilization outward into space much more doable so it isn't end-of-line for us if/when the next really big asteroid comes hurdling towards the Earth.
 
Jan 31, 2020
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Seems to me he could have done much the same with balloons, or drones, or some such--or even towers--rather than the expense (to be recouped from users, of course) and multiple complications of launching thirty thousand (!!!) satellites.
Sorry, "999999 Rot Balloons" (you would need much more because they are lower) just isn't going to cut it and such balloons will be visible in the dusk sky too. Also there isn't enough helium in the world to meet that need uness you want to do it Hindenberg style. :) I don't see such baloons staying up for years, either like satellites do. Bad actor nations or individuals might make sport of destroying any balloons flying over their airspace and who says they won't bunch together in some places while failing to gather densly enough in others. I really don't think it is viable, but it would be fascinating reading/viewing to see them try, not as an alternative to satellites mind you. :)
 
Feb 3, 2020
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Time for my "what could go wrong" stock comment.

1. Internet available to everyone on the planet. Sounds good.
2. 5G available to everyone on the planet. Sounds good.
3. AI with unknown objectives accessing and using those two technologies in a complimentary fashion. Sounds made up.

What could go wrong?
 
Aug 25, 2020
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Thanks for the lecture!
From these words I read, that you have never stood next to your camera below the clear night sky. Because you have NO idea, what a feeling it is!
Have you ever made at least ONE picture capturing (for example) the Perseids!?!
Yes, Hubble, Kepler, and other scopes can make wonderful pictures, but they will NEVER be MINE!

You know, I somehow cannot stand those greedy snobs, who think, when they have money, can have everything. The nature (or what we have not devastated yet) MUSTN'T belong to one person! And I hope, the scientists will have enough goodwill to stop that idiot.
 
Jan 31, 2020
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Time for my "what could go wrong" stock comment.

1. Internet available to everyone on the planet. Sounds good.
2. 5G available to everyone on the planet. Sounds good.
3. AI with unknown objectives accessing and using those two technologies in a complimentary fashion. Sounds made up.

What could go wrong?
Perhaps I can reassure you with something. It IS great that the entirety of humanity will be able to join in to the global internet community. Also great is the technology of cryptology. The internet is getting "darker" very quickly over time. An ever increasing amount of traffic flows through encrypted channels and the trend will continue with deeper and deeper encryption. Big corporations do gather Shatner-loads of data but only so much and over time I expect more and more "doors" and "windows" will be locked from would-be onlookers. I haven't even mentioned the liberating potential of putting out large amounts of dis-information to obscure the real information, further enhancing privacy. AI is over-rated. It will be a long time before it could think up, on its own, the idea of sticking a potato in the tailpipe of one's car to make it stall so it doesn't run out of gas before the lock smith comes to unlock it for you. Steam engines have an artificial kind of strength. Computers have an artificial kind of intellect, but neither are actually someone. As to what it means to be "someone", that's one of the biggest mysteries of the universe...what binds body and soul? We know so little about such things that I'm not worried about machines becoming fully funcional people and taking over. I also think we should be able to overcome any "paperclip optimizers" that might try to run. Come to think of it Facebook and social media are a kind of "argument optimizer" but we can recognize that and change the dynamics so it doesn't function that way while still socializing online. Try not to lose any sleep about AI. It's "mostly harmless". We've got much bigger, nearby, problems to deal with right now, all of which we CAN deal with also. :)
 
Aug 22, 2020
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Elon Musk's "space junk" as you call it is going to bring internet to lots of people who otherwise won't be able to get it. It is socially ugly for people who already have internet to put down technology that helps others get what they already have. How tacky can you get? You may as well have just have said "Let them eat cake." or rather "Let them use floppy discs."
Au contraire! I'd rather pay taxes to help poor countries install cable networks and cell towers just like first world nations and the US does . Yes I contribute several thousand dollars every year to environmental causes I believe in and all Elon Musk is doing is compromising the usability of a big important chunk of orbital space.

If we want to stop over-polluting space, why not shift and pay some of the world's unemployed workers to building towers and laying cables rather than just handing out unemployment money and welfare?
 
Jan 31, 2020
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Au contraire! I'd rather pay taxes to help poor countries install cable networks and cell towers just like first world nations and the US does . Yes I contribute several thousand dollars every year to environmental causes I believe in and all Elon Musk is doing is compromising the usability of a big important chunk of orbital space.

If we want to stop over-polluting space, why not shift and pay some of the world's unemployed workers to building towers and laying cables rather than just handing out unemployment money and welfare?
I'd be willing to bet 10:1 that you are an urban resident or at least sub-urban. Go out in the real rural areas and you will see how little communication infrastructure there is out there. It just isn't practical to bury the massive quantity of fiber lines to serve the few people living in each square mile. Cell phone towers don't cut it because radio bandwidth is a shared medium and consequently very limited. Also, they always have holes in their service due to tower sparcity and land topology. You get way out there and satellites are the way to go as the most practical option. As for the issue of space junk, Starlink has that matter well addressed. Those satellites are in such low orbits that they will naturally deorbit in only a few years even if something happens to one making it completely braindead. I wouldn't call useful communication equipment "polution" as you call it. Of course if you just don't care about rural citizens and their needs I can see why you would have that perspective.
 

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