On Thu, 20 Apr 2023, Daniel Schien via Starlink wrote:

> I assume any object in orbit will be hidden from the sun some of the time. So, the machines will require some pretty big battery to go up with them.

less than you would think, as you get further away from the earth, the shadow of 
the earth is smaller (think about a lunar eclipse, the shadow of the earth is 
barely the size of the moon, and the eclipse doesn't last very long)

> I'd like to also know what the launch cost is.

Shuttle was ~50k/Kg
pre-spacex expendable rockets were ~$10k/kg
Falcon 9 has driven costs down into the ballpark of $1k/Kg (with indications 
that SpaceX internal costs may be significantly lower, but they price their 
launches at what the market will bear, under their competitors pricing)
Starship could get this down to under $10/Kg

David Lang