VAST chooses SpaceX to launch their Vast-1 and Haven-1 missions to Low Earth Orbit. Haven-1 is scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station and will be visited by a crew of four aboard a Dragon spacecraft during Vast-1.

ergzay · 2023-05-11T00:05:34+00:00

BTW, technically you don't need any sealing to have a non-rotating section. The non-rotating section can be entire encapsulated within the pressurized volume of the rotating section.

ergzay · 2023-05-11T00:01:26+00:00

Sure you don't have any obstructions?

ergzay · 2023-05-10T23:56:21+00:00

Being able to return to earth without having to exercise for an hour every day just to maintain bone mass seems like a nice idea. Tourists like zero G, but I think they would enjoy being able to switch between zero G and non-zero G. I've always wanted to re-create those scenes in some movies where someone climbs up the access ladder and enters the zero-G section of the vehicle/station.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T23:55:04+00:00

SpaceX isn't really interested in doing their own space station unless NASA pays for it. Remember that they bid Starship as a station and NASA rejected it. However if you look in the SpaceX press release they mention this:

Vast’s long-term goal is to develop a 100-meter-long multi-module spinning artificial gravity space station launched by SpaceX’s Starship transportation system. In support of this, Vast will explore conducting the world’s first spinning artificial gravity experiment on a commercial space station with Haven-1.

So Vast is already planning on using Starship for station construction.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T23:47:17+00:00

One of the major differences between Axiom and Vast here though is that Axiom needs to follow NASA-based human rating standards in order dock with the ISS and has a lot of ex-NASA management. You should look to how easily SpaceX certified the Cupola for the Inspiration-4 mission. Vast also seems to have the full support of SpaceX which is probably more experienced than NASA now on manufacturing things for space.

Axiom also isn't doing the manufacturing of the their station from my understanding. It's all farmed out to Thales. Axiom is mostly a systems engineering and management house, similar to how NASA operates.

I'll note again, there is no "human rated" outside of NASA, which is all that mattered before, but these types of things are the beginning of that not applying. There is no international or US legislated standard about what needs to be done for humans to occupy a station in space.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T23:43:40+00:00

Hopefully it's not a single ring like Gateway's farce. The biggest nearterm reason to go to a station in LEO (whether for manufacturing or tourism) is microgravity. Have a composite station with a spinning component, if it's not too difficult, but if it's one or the other, a station really needs to be all zero G right now, if it wants to attract customers.

Actually this is one of the biggest unanswered questions in space human biology right now. We know the effects on the body of zero G and full G, but we don't know the effects on the body of low G.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T18:38:51+00:00

The current track runs exclusively through the coastline which is densely populated.

The link I posted is to the recently built track that's opening very soon. Zoom in and you'll see it (Google maps is out of date and doesn't show that the track is already completed though).

With the upcoming westward expansion

The expansion is already complete.

Granted, it has limitations, but providing Internet to this small area (that is only like 7 miles away from the outskirts of Orlando isn't an unsolved problem and countless cheap commercial solutions doubtlessly exist to address exactly this niche that wouldn't require satellite links

If it was cheaper then brightline would have gone with it. That's the part people keep missing.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T18:31:34+00:00

Still, it seems to be wrong to launch satellites in order to fix land-based networking.

I mean I think you're thinking about this a little backwards. Conceptually I agree with you, however what's actually going on is that Brightline probably found that cell hardware operators and resellers were overcharging versus what it actually cost (going for high margins) and found Starlink the cheaper option. This probably means that while it SHOULD be much cheaper for them to go with cell phone signals, it currently isn't. This means that Starlink is acting as it should and providing options against overcharging. As this happens more it will bring down the costs of the cell service equipment.

for countries/continents/islands with better railway coverage the railway-based internet could actually form the BACKBONE of the countrywide internet.

Fiber is actually often buried adjacent to rail, as it has always acted a thoroughfare for easy burying of communications lines. I remember reading Brightline had to dig up and move some fiber lines as part of the process of double tracking (much of the existing freight line was single track).

ergzay · 2023-05-10T10:41:36+00:00

Jokes on you I got the special edition from best buy, so it should arrive nicely on time.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T10:34:50+00:00

How do I get my play time to transfer to a new switch? I bought an OLED Switch and did the account transfer as part of new system setup which deleted my accounts on my original switch, but now I see that none of the play time has transfered (other than it showing up in my user account data). For example all games are listed as "Not Played" under "Manage Software" now that I re-downloaded them all and the sorts in the "All Software" list don't work. (Also it wiped my SD card, other than my photos/videos, when I moved it over. Which I'm not sure if that's normal.)

ergzay · 2023-05-10T09:34:39+00:00

5G lies? I was able to reliably and regularly get >80 Mbps in the "real world" back in 2015 and even now I get similar speeds over bog-standard LTE (I just tested, 120 Mbps). These speeds are competitive with starlink for a fraction of the cost, and the idea that in one of the most metropolitan areas of the US, the cell infrastructure can't easily beat starlink is silly.

That's what I mean about 5G being no faster than 4G LTE in most cases.

Also, how is this "one of the most metropolitan areas of the US"? https://www.google.com/maps/@28.4438301,-81.009692,17884m/data=!3m1!1e3

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:36:42+00:00

Indeed. Super commuting at a whole new level.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:35:51+00:00

I mean what they said is accurate, the trains ARE killing a lot of people, but the nuance is important.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:25:11+00:00

Yes, but I'm not sure how that relates to my comment.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:20:26+00:00

Most of that cost is from the vehicle itself. If you dunked a 787 into the ocean every time you flew across the ocean, you'd be paying $10,000 per pound to fly too.

Also your numbers are out of date. It's closer to $1,800 per pound right now to get to low earth orbit.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:10:25+00:00

No not really. People have run the numbers and burning fuel all that way can end up costing more than a one time boost followed by a coast. Remember you're not burning fuel for most of the distance.

There's also the "time is money" equation. Cutting down an almost 20 hour flight down to around 30 minutes can save a lot of money. Not to mention the exhaustion.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:03:30+00:00

Elon does not have "control" of the internet. Starlink is an internet service provider, just like any other. Also Elon panic is a reddit thing that has infected some people. Take a few deep breaths.

ergzay · 2023-05-10T02:01:35+00:00

To be clear, this no fault of Brightline. These are all from drivers driving past closed gates trying to beat trains to the crossing. These deaths are basically suicides. Nothing is malfunctioning. (Some actually are suicides, there's some videos of people leaping in front of the train.)

Also Brightline is working to improve safety, by installing new gates that are more difficult to drive around and also adding radar detectors to the gates to detect if a vehicle is blocking the rail.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:48:46+00:00

which I doubt contains that much lying as it is something easy to verify and something cell providers are very competitive about)

They're commonly lied about. They use signal reception from devices that are much better than cell phones. They also assume things like signal measuring from the air or away from any obstructions. I think you don't have much familiarity with US telecom companies common practices.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:47:34+00:00

Even in the US where some people say trains are slow, and some others - that it's not a thing, trains still run on metal rails, and metal rails conduct electricity. A train could have a permanent connection to a land-based network since land-based networks existed. With minimal latency. No mobile or satellite technology needed.

You can't run high speed internet through rails, especially not regular rails that have regular electrical isolation gaps in them, which is what Brightline uses. They're already used for communication anyway, low speed communication of rail signaling inside each segment.

I also wish Starlink all the success, but trains are just a very weird application case. Much like using a microscope to drive nails into wooden boards.

I don't understand why you think it's such a weird application. It's a very good application for Brightline and makes all the sense in the world.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:44:00+00:00

I'm from Europe and know well how 4g internet sucks in trains.

You should know that 5G in Europe is not the same as 5G in the US. The frequency bands are different which causes different performance characteristics.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:42:41+00:00

I really don't think Kuiper is going to end up getting sold to the end user. I feel like they're going to go for the higher margin business plays like OneWeb does.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:38:36+00:00

If you look on a coverage map, like that from T-Mobile, you can see that the entirety of the area that the Brightline rail network runs through is in what is classified as "5G Ultra capacity", the highest grade of 5G/coverage that the map shows. This means speeds of up to 3Gbps, with typical nationwide average end-user speeds of 75-355 Mbps.

You're believing the 5G lies. 5G in practice never gets anywhere near those speeds. It's around the speed of 4G LTE in almost all cases, or sometimes even worse because of how short range it is.

This blows Starlink out of the water, considering that a single Starlink terminal gets between 100-200 Mbps on a good day. Someone with a modern consumer smartphone creating a hotspot while on the train would result in faster and cheaper service than using Starlink.

So you're claiming that a commercial company chose something (according to you) that's slower than what they had available for free and are paying for it because.... why exactly? Step back and think a bit. Also Starlink isn't 100-200 Mbps in cases where you have priority or where there's low usage. And Brightline will obviously have priority.

This is ridiculous. The more I look into this, the more this seems like a stunt or something.

Or maybe it's just more and more obvious how wrong you are? This is hilarious. Try asking questions instead of assuming things.

ergzay · 2023-05-09T23:34:38+00:00

Brightline isn't running through high density neighborhoods. Most of the land surrounding the track is low density industrial or commercial.

Also I'm not sure you realize how short range it is.

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