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porphyrayesterday at 6:37 PM2 repliesview on HN

One cool thing about Starlink is that it can potentially improve latency across the world. In optical fibers the light travels only two thirds as fast due to the index of refraction. But in space you can use a laser to send the data in a straight line in a vacuum.


Replies

downrightmiketoday at 6:00 PM

basic math says light travels faster across the surface shorter distances than orbit.

wolvoleoyesterday at 11:05 PM

Um yeah but the transmission path is longer and the equipment and signal processing on each hop also adds latency. I really doubt it'll make much of a difference.

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