[ExI] De-Orbiting Gold

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Dan
Subject: Re: [ExI] De-Orbiting Gold

>>... Good luck and evolutionspeed SpaceX.   spike 

>...And what rate is that? :) Geez, some might interpret that as you wishing
them to moving at a slower than glacial pace. :/   Regards,  Dan

_______________________________________________

Hey, at least at evolution speed, change does happen, eventually.  

Oy vey.  For those of us in the space biz, it does seem like the pace of
change is glacial at best.  But if SpaceX is successful, I can imagine a new
line of space business: a network of low-flying satellites that shave a few
milliseconds off of the latency for currency trading and computer stock
exchanges.  Note that there are big pounds being spent to drop a shorter
fiber optic cable between London and Tokyo, 1.5 billion dollars to cut
latency by 60 milliseconds.  Look at the path of this cable:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/122989-1-5-billion-the-cost-of-cutting-lo
ndon-toyko-latency-by-60ms

If we had a series of satellites at about 800 km altitude and figured out a
control system of sufficient accuracy to reflect a signal directly, as
opposed to receive and retransmit, we might be able to shave off anther few
dozen milliseconds.  If so, another trader could beat this new cable, and if
so, it would start a new race to create a still faster satellite network.
And of course it would be the satellite control system engineers'
playground, for it would be one hell of an interesting challenge.

As the latency approaches a theoretical minimum and the algorithms that
decide on currency trading approach optimum, the net effect is to erode the
profit of the economic parasite of the currency trading industry, which
profits greatly while producing nothing.  This frees up funds and talent for
the investment industry, which profits greatly while producing a great deal:
it funds and enables the world's most viable businesses.

A nice side benefit might be a phone system with lower latency.

This represents the real gold in orbit, and perhaps the most important
future space development.

spike