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TLDR: Starlink is super awesome, will result in mega mega joy joy for all internet users, but also faces some hard issues to get approved by governments. Introduction If you don't know what Starlink is,  Wikipedia  has a pretty good explanation. But I want to focus on some major 'pros' vs other current internet choices and what I think could be a big problem. Starlink is a peer to peer satellite based internet service. Each user has a 'ground station' that uplinks to the satellite (SL) network. The SL network routes the data across itself rather than the ground and only goes back to earth for the final leg of the journey. If you were communicating with another SL customer this would mean the data would never go over any earth based wires. Pros Latency The SL network, being in space, can reduce the hops required to route your data. Each router that your data has to pass through introduces a little bit of lag. Therefore less hops = less lag. ...

Why? I wanted to model how to fire something at the earth-moon L1 Lagrange point and have it enter a stable earth orbit. Also for fun. Goals: Use high school maths plugged into C# with some kind of UI that lets me specify a speed, angle, and height to fire a projectile to be caught by the moons gravity and dragged into a stable earth orbit. Add frictional simulation to model the effects of the earths atmosphere. Planned steps: Create a Newtonian calculator that returns gravitic forces given object of specified mass and distance. Use temporary unit tests to verify outputs. Create a vector calculator that can calculate a final vector given a number of input vectors. Use temporary unit tests to verify outputs. Create models to represent bodies including vectors and influences. Create a UI and controller classes that can specify bodies and vectors Create a calculator class that loops through the specified bodies and calculates new positions given the starting vectors...

Today I received the following message from Lyndall, the social media manager at Riversimple . I wanted to post their message in full and write a proper response which is below. Their message: Dear Sam, I manage the social media for Riversimple. We love the fact our channels are full of passionate dialogue; but are finding the persistence and volume of your posts hard to understand. I can tell you from a personal and professional perspective that I know the following about Riversimple: it was founded by someone who puts the environment first – all choices on powertrain made are guided by this, not to mention the business model and governance structure. The whole team are guided by the cornerstone of the business: “Mobility with zero cost to the planet.” Riversimple are not against measures to get people walking and cycling more; they aren’t anti people owning BEVs if they wish to. There is no campaign to derail these options. The path to a sustainable future is not an eith...

Prologue [Updated 02/03/2019 with new information] It was my opinion that FCEV technology missed the boat (for personal transportation), if it had been where it is now 15-20 years ago I would've been very excited, but advances in Li-ion battery technology has made it a non-starter. Having had some interesting debates on twitter about this and with the Riversimple Rasa nearly here I thought I'd try to figure out what would happen if Riversimple ditched the FCEV for the Rasa and switched to Li-ion. I'll try to document my sources where I remember. The specifications for the Rasa were taken from here:  arstechnica.com Specifications for supercapacitors and Li-ion batteries were taken from  wikipedia.org Li-ion cars are too heavy and inefficient But are they?  Riversimple haven't released details of the specific components they have used so I have to investigate and guess a little. The Rasa has 1.5kg of hydrogen @ 33kwh/kg  giving tota...