Comment by bob1029
11 hours ago
I think it could become economically viable to physically send storage devices back and forth. You can put a lot of bits in a kilogram of mass.
If we get to the point where we can reliably make a round trip to LEO once per day every day, I think some new bandwidth options open up.
Transmitting information through the air seems very obvious, but there are certain advantages to physical transport.
In other words: a return of the Keyhole spy satellite's film drop pods!
If you need to regularly move so much data that fiber can't cope with it, and simply sending hard drives in the post or using traditional courier services isn't fast enough, that's probably an indication that there's something wrong with the whole design and approach to what you're doing.
Just run a network cable already.
... no, it won't be. We will just switch to laser links.
What is the cost per bit of a laser link to the ground over the total lifetime of the system? What is the typical availability? Lasers don't work very well through thick cloud layers.