[Starlink] Starlink "beam spread"

[tom at evslin.com]

I think manufacturing orbital datacenters in space is absolutely necessary. Then, at no point, is a heavy set of frames needed to hold the weight of the boards. Producing the chips in a real vacuum no gravity environment may also allow radically different design

-----Original Message-----
From: Starlink <starlink-bounces at lists.bufferbloat.net> On Behalf Of Michael Richardson via Starlink
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2022 3:54 PM
To: Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz>; starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
Subject: Re: [Starlink] Starlink "beam spread"


Is there any orbit other than GEO that would make CDNs in space useful?

While current Starlink don't have lasers that could reach up to higher orbits, maybe a subsequent generation could have such a thing.  Maybe there could even be a standard which OneWeb/StarLink/??? could all agree to, and CDN satellites (with bigger solar panels and longer service lifetimes) could be built to.

Having said all of this, it sure seems that the better place today for CDNs
is within satellite serviced villages.    Some may even remember the Internet
Cache Protocol (ICP), which never really got anywhere (RFC2186).

There are perhaps energy arguments for moving datacenters to space, but stuff just isn't reliable enough, and I'm sure it's a fail until you manufacture in space.