Why SpaceX is Making Starlink
Why SpaceX is Making Starlink on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2019–2020.
Real Engineering explains why SpaceX is building Starlink, including the economics of satellite internet. It covers the latency advantage of light in vacuum over fiber for long-distance links.
What HN commenters said
7 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
hangonhnSep 2020Recommends
Right, so if you can't go through the crust then going up would be another option. Over long enough of a distance, say NYC to London (or even farther), the overhead of going up first and then a "straight" line horizontally (it's not completely straight because it has relay between the satellites via LOS laser but each arc would be fairly long) and back down would be shorter than a line following the curvature. (Edited: This is wrong. I had conflated the lower latency with shorter distance as others have pointed out.) BTW, I want to give full credit to my source: ▶ this video It also does a much better job of explaining it than I have but it is a convincing argument for how Starlink can be useful and why traders would be willing to pay a lot for it.
in “Amazon drivers are hanging smartphones in trees to get more work” · View on HN
PopeDotNinjaAug 2020Recommends
Light travels 47% slower in a fiber optic cable than it does in the vacuum of space. [1] [1] ▶ this video (the whole video is worth watching, but that timestamp answers your specific question.
in “SpaceX Starlink average speedtest is 42.3Mbps down / 9.7 Mbps up” · View on HN
bearcobraOct 2019Recommends
Real Engineering has an interesting video on why it would be useful for firms trading internationally ▶ this video
in “Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet” · View on HN
NicanJul 2019Recommends
Real engineering made a video on it: ▶ this video I recommend watching. The channel does really good explanations.
in “Amazon Seeks Permission to Launch 3k Internet Satellites” · View on HN
coolandsmartrrOct 2020Cites it
This video[1] speculates that Starlink will achieve lower latency than fibre Internet. Latency-sensitive industries like finance are very willing to pay a lot for improved latency. [1] ▶ this video
in “Invites sent for Starlink beta” · View on HN
hangonhnAug 2020Cites it
▶ this video According to this Engineering Explained video, it may be possible to achieve a lower latency using Star Link than over fiber if the points are far enough. People like high frequency traders might be willing to pay a ton for such a thing.
in “Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps” · View on HN
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PopeDotNinjaJul 2019Cites it
Someone smarter than I made this, which you may or may not agree with... "Why SpaceX is Making Starlink" ▶ this video TL;DR -- satellites can be faster than cables in certain cases
in “Google’s Equiano Cable Will Extend to the Remote Island of Saint Helena” · View on HN