Agreed on the downlink.
I thought this was about the node to node communications. Blue origin and probably others are also using it for in orbit communication.
Agreed on the downlink.
I thought this was about the node to node communications. Blue origin and probably others are also using it for in orbit communication.
If nobody is in the driver's seat, then it doesn't matter if the brake pedal exists. If someone does happen to be sitting there, but isn't paying attention to driving, they might accidentally hit it. And it would be in the way most (hopefully all) of the time.
Sounds like this doesn't include it, but I think it would be better to have some centrally accessible thing to manually activate the brakes. Then you could do it regardless of where you sat.
The machine can print a human and machine readable copy. Then feed that into another machine after verifying and you have two independent digital counts that can verify each other. You also have the paper that can be manually counted if you need to be extra sure.
This is what we had for a few years. Now the first step is replaced by manual bubbling. Still have the scan for the instant digital count though.
Depends on density. I think Scott Manley's analysis is probably correct. SpaceX knows how to deal with a few thousand watts of heat per satellite from starlink.
Then the question is whether a few kilowatts is enough compute per node to be worth the trouble.