this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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[–] Mwa@thelemmy.club 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

No, that works well with Starlink for example. But only because it's in low earth orbit. In geostationary orbit You do in fact have a horrible ping.

Not being familiar with the details of this Elon brain fart I would hope they didn't aim for geostationary... Because why?? Then again who knows with that idiot.

[–] Mwa@thelemmy.club 1 points 6 hours ago
[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

If it's close enough for respectable latency, it's close enough to experience drag. Given the maddeningly high power/cooling and resultant large surface area, then that satellite will have a tendency to incur re-entry.

So either close enough for "ok" latency but will burn up relatively soon or high enough to keep an orbit longer but terrible latency.

[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 1 points 6 hours ago

Hmm. Assuming you have some small hydrazine or whatever booster you could maintain a low orbit for a while. But yes not endlessly. That bring said there is a middle ground between 400km and 34000km that might provide for a good orbit and acceptable ping. That all depends on the application of course.