Do you mean this animation? https://youtu.be/m05abdGSOxY

Yes! Thanks for finding it again. I now have it bookmarked!

He's the one who made the animations.

They're incredible :)

Indeed, what a fantastic skill both in animation but also in communicating a complex concept. I missed this the first time around, so much appreciated.

This seems overly ambitious, and not likely to translate to laser satellite comms links. Remember these sats are in low LEO, so there is at least some amount of non-uniform atmospheric medium to create optical distortion that you wouldn't have in a tightly controlled environment from your link (chip, datacenter, what have you).

Then there's the issue of signal attenuation at distances like these, along with the power budget from the solar panels to ensure that you aren't burning all your power just on laser comms.

I can't imagine these links would be anything more than 1:1 at any given time, at least not at first. Maybe later they might be able to handle simultaneous laser links from 1:3 or something like it, but I highly doubt that's their current capability.

Even some of the best latest ground-to-sat laser comms links are on the order of ~7 gigabits per second. [1] I imagine those are far larger sats than Starlink, and their entire power and thermal budget is likely spent on comms. And the ground stations can be orders of magnitude larger and power hungry in relation to a Starlink sat. Note also that this is from GEO, so you aren't likely having to handle substantial relative movement either.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_communication_in_space#2...

Seems like a LEO-to-LEO laser link would be shorter, lower noise, and lower power for the same bandwidth as a GEO-Earth link.

The link between neighboring satellites in a 22-satellite-per-plane constellation at 550km altitude comes at its closest 480km above the ground. The link between next-farthest-neighbors comes at its closest 270km from the ground. The link to the second-farthest-neighbor is not in line of sight. Optical effects at 270km or 480km altitude are negligible; 99% of the atmosphere's mass is below 30km altitude. In theory you could go all the way down to an 8-satellite plane at 550km and still maintain line of sight and freedom from most of the atmosphere's interference.

Satellite-to-ground optical laser links are another matter, but you can always route a few hops around weather systems.

Space to ground is a lot harder than space to space. There is no atmosphere to deal with and in most cases the relative velocity is lower.

So, why not apply? You certainly have the required skillset and with your experience level I'd assume they would jump at the opportunity.

Indeed, why not! We have an absurd number of software job openings now, both on the Starlink network side and the flight software / simulation side. Bonus points if you have a top secret clearance.

https://www.spacex.com/careers, category "software development".

I imagine ChuckMcM's reasons may be similar to my own: when last I checked, SpaceX didn't have any positions open for Bay Area residents unwilling to relocate.

But I do see on the careers page there's now a (single) Palo Alto based Software Engineer position open.

Intriguing!

Well there are a couple of reasons one might not, but the biggest one is that given people with a wide range of experience in both individual contributor and management roles it is often difficult to figure out how to match the skillset with the role. Send me an email (profile has it) and I'll send you a resume you can dump into the ATS system to see if anyone thinks I'd be a good fit. (And no, I don't send my resume to head hunters to shop around).

The second challenge is that I am in a position to be reasonably frank when the biggest threat one can hold over me is to be fired. I have found that some managers don't appreciate employees for whom their "hire/fire power" over them doesn't give them any leverage. This combined with a general perception that I am a good manager, means that I tend to develop a followship whether or not I'm in a leadership role. This can lead to "issues" no matter how hard I try to prevent them.

There's some jobs in there that are absolutely my dream job. But unfortunately, I probably can't due to ITAR requirements, I'm not from the U.S.

Or does the "eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State" apply?

It is possible to get ITAR authorization without being a US citizen or permanent resident. However, it is a long and arduous process, and even then those employees are restricted from some information. For that reason, it probably won't be considered unless you are very highly qualified.

If I were you, I'd read up on ITAR qualification and, if you think you would be eligible and are highly qualified, just apply.