Ben Reynolds / is on Nostr

(he/him)
Computational Earth Science masters student at University at Buffalo
Former aerospace engineer and (briefly) forest service wilderness ranger

Website: https://breynoldsportfolio.wordpress.com/

Last Notes

2024-08-09 18:37:53

A personal story and request for your "signature": In 2019, I was an intern at SpaceX and helped run software checkouts on the v0.9 starlinks. At the time it was super exciting, getting to touch something going to space! Since then, aided by spending a lot of time outside in pretty places, I've become a lot more suspect of the promises of technology mega projects. When we go somewhere with a dark sky and look up, we're connected to all human history. The fact that now, no matter where you on earth, that experience is marred by dozens of visible satellites is reason enough to restrict mega-constellations. This was my experience backpacking in Joshua Tree: on the LA flight path the number of satellites was starting to rival the number of planes. I'm a casual night sky looker-upper, but for professional astronomers the impact is far worse as sub-visible satellites matter. Astronomy is one of those beautiful things humans do out of love like art and music. It is invaluable. Finally, the pragmatic concerns of satellite collisions, far more metal coming into the atmosphere, and impact to near earth asteroid searching also call for caution. Industry has a long history of fucking around before evaluating the "find out", and this seems no different.
And to be clear, the benefit has long ago been reaped. By definition rural areas don't have a lot people, so you don't need a lot of satellites to provide adequate coverage. The increase in satellites is to compete with conventional internet providers in more urban areas and will not be the reason someone does or does not have internet. (https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlinks-massive-growth-results-in-congestion-slow-speeds-for-some-users)
Here's a petition you can sign to request environmental review: https://pirg.org/edfund/take-action/tell-the-fcc-satellite-mega-constellations-need-environmental-review/
And to learn more follow @npub1dgc…cla4 and @npub1qu9…8ycg .
To quote from Dreaming of Jupiter by Ted Simon: "We have engineers willing to risk grave consequences to build the biggest dam, and if they can't do it in their own backyard, they'll do it in India or China. There are scientists with grand ideas for changing the nature of life itself. I am not talking about the pursuit of knowledge, but the pursuit of effect. The must see their hubristic ideas carried into effect through any means available - which usually means bribing us (or our leaders) with the promise of equally exaggerated profits. As for the risks? Who cares! We'll fix it later."
Space is every human's backyard.

2024-07-31 21:20:02

- reply

here’s my ~1980 takara road bike
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/112/883/190/468/127/876/original/2ce87b254c3edace.jpeg