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Comment by vasili111 | Hacker News Reader

Also do not forget that SpaceX is not the only company that wants to launch low orbit satelites. I do not think it is possible to find any other real solution other then to move telescopes to space.

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With James Web having an decently sized mirror on a space telescope that's not as ridiculous as it once was. Still we should search for cheaper solutions first.

https://www.eso.org/public/usa/images/eso1617z/?lang

JWST still hasnt launched after all these years. Building space based telescopes that will last years without maintenance is hard.

For some added context, JWST costs about 10x more than the most expensive terrestrial telescope ever built.

Sure there is another solution: we ban them, or at least highly regulate them.

The idea that private companies can just do whatever, and there's nothing we can do is just so cliché HN.

I am a big fan of astronomy, but satellites are doing a lot more for humanity than ground-based astronomy.

What does an Internet access satellite network do for science? Those scientific uses SpaceX talks about are speculative and clearly secondary (or tertiary behind military use).

By contrast, earth-based telescopes are doing lots and lots of science right now.

> What does an Internet access satellite network do for science?

One example: https://www.usap.gov/technology/1935/

> Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station uses communications satellites that serve as relay stations, receiving radio signals from one location and transmitting them to another. The United States Antarctic Program utilizes the satellites for the transfer of South Pole science, operational, and weather data, as well as Internet, telephone, and email services.

Nobody has jurisdiction over space. We can try to create an international agency and get all space fairing nations to submit to its regulations and rulings, but even if that was politically viable it would take years. Meanwhile Starlink will be deployed mid 2020 if no major delays happen

Great, so any of the hundred-something countries on earth are free to destroy those satellites? ;-)

I was thinking about what would be the easiest way to destroy those satellites. A highly collimated microwave beam could do the trick. Or may be a really high powered Argon Ion Laser which are rather easy to build. Maybe somebody can come up with a neat DIY solution.

Generally destroying other people's property isn't looked kindly upon, even if done in international waters or in space.

You broke the site guidelines badly with this flamebait and generic tangent, which predictably started a wretched flamewar. Then you perpetuated it.

You do a lot of good for HN with your interesting submissions, but you've also been vandalizing HN with destructive comments for years. We've asked you not to do this many times.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356880

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18887148

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17952388

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17441941

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17432633

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17113849

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17111984

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14693327

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11705439

Eventually the cost outweighs the benefit. I definitely do not want to ban you, so would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and fix this? All users here need to have self-control, and experienced contributors more so.

How is this comment flamebait? First time that I have really thought you missed the boat.

Please don't censor people just because they criticize HN or the community.

"The idea that private companies can just do whatever" distorted the other comment into something ideologically inflammatory (which the site guidelines explicitly ask not to do), and took the thread on a generic ideological tangent. Those routinely turn into flamewars. Posting something that predictably induces a flamewar is flamebait.

I was also surprised but then I read up on the rest of The comments from that account in this thread as well and think that it something like that might be justified.

I also read the rest of the comments linked as examples and some of them where obvious to me and some were not.

I'm not a native speaker though and I realize dang has a huge advantage there as well as access to see detailed voting statistics to see what riles people up.

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