SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

Re:SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit by londons_explore on Sunday May 31, 2020 @03:30AM (#23367905)

For regular data transmission, I can't imagine it to be worth it - far bigger gains could be made by just making repeaters smaller and cheaper by iterative design improvement.

Perhaps there are scientific uses where loss in fiberoptics makes a project infesible? Or perhaps quantum entangled photons, which one can't amplify?

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Re:SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit by thu2111 on Sunday May 31, 2020 @05:26AM (#23368318)

I suppose the issue is no matter how small and cheap the repeaters get, they will still need power, backups, replacements and all the complexity that implies.

I also have a feeling I've read the power needed for the repeaters generates magnetic fields that attract sharks. Shark bites are a not entirely trivial source of fiber cuts, which require very expensive fleets of cable repair ships to be maintained on standby and simply driving down the number of fiber cuts could be a fairly significant source of cost savings.

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