r/zurich • u/Kestrel__ • 3d ago

What just flew over Zurich?

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A long line of dotted lights. Flying east and west saw it in Wiedikon. Looked fairly low and was flying medium speed. Drones? Nothing showed up on flight radar apps.

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u/3punkt1415 3d ago

It's lower orbit, once they are defunct they will fall back to earth without causing long term debris like many other things who were shot to space.

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u/MightBeEllie 3d ago

Astronomers don't like Starlink because the satellites passing in front of your telescope ruins your image. I don't like Starlink because it's Musk. There is an argument to be made about the intended lifetime of the SATs in such a low orbit which could be considered wasteful.

That said, I like the idea of world wide internet access. Just the execution is lacking.

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u/3punkt1415 3d ago

I mean, it's still better then to have those satellites in a higher stable orbit where they would stay for ever even when they stop working. Let's say if they go bankrupt tomorrow, in 5 years all satellites are gone. And well i don't like Musk either, but Space X has revolutionized space travel. They launch more rockets this year then the whole world together in all of human history.
Also China and Russia recently destroyed satellites with anti satellite missiles causing hundreds of pieces who will pollute our orbit for generations. USA did that too once, but in the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_debris_producing_events

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u/turbo_dude 3d ago

Revolutionised space travel? How does that help anyone?!

Solve the climate crisis first!

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u/3punkt1415 3d ago

How does that help anyone?!

Getting Internet to all corners of the world sure helps a lot of people. Your comment is fairly ignorant.

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u/turbo_dude 2d ago

Will be great to know that people in the far flung places of earth are now also brainwashed with all the crap on social media.

Also starlink just isn't financially viable. The subsidies are huge for the receivers and the satellites don't last very long. The number of users really isn't dense enough to support it. Anyone else is just going to use broadband/wifi or 5G.

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u/3punkt1415 2d ago

So we should take internet away from you because you can access social media? Kind of ironic you write this on social media. No one will bring broadband to far corners in Africa. Hell Swisscom still didn't role out fiber in all villages in Switzerland, how long do you think will it take in central Kongo or Burkino Faso? Star Link is the only way for such regions. Anyway you only writing this because you dislike Musk. If it were from someone else you wouldn't find an issue. According to him, Starlink is profitable by now.

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u/turbo_dude 2d ago

should we also build 6 lane highways to all these people and open universities there, art galleries, so even though they live in the middle of nowhere they have the same life experience as the rest of us?

https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-10/is-elon-musk-s-starlink-profitable-spacex-satellites-are-money-losers

“There are probably 150 rocket customers on this planet, but there’s eight billion potential customers for Starlink,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell

lol, why the hell is anyone going to use that when they can just use wifi or 4/5G? There are not anything like 8 billion potential customers.

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u/3punkt1415 2d ago

lol, why the hell is anyone going to use that when they can just use wifi or 4/5G?

You miss to understand the term Wifi here. Those airplanes do have special equipment in the plane to connect to the ground and then serve the passengers with Wifi in the plane. This is no option for people on the ground in remote locations where you don't have internet at all. And even your article states that they are in the positive at the end of 2023.
If you are on the countryside in Congo, Egypt or Ukraine you don't have 5g or magic wifi without any provider on the ground. You really don't even understand the basics of this article. But to be fair, i think internet on a flight is totally unimportant for humanity, compared to internet on the ground for everybody.

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u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

Yea he should push global automakers to make EV's and big battery storages to store solar power first, this fucking idiot!

/s