SpaceX Applies To Test Internet Service Satellites 50
lpress writes: Elon Musk's SpaceX and Greg Wyler's OneWeb both hope to provide global Internet access using constellations of low-Earth orbit satellites. Neither company plans to be in operation for several years, but Musk's SpaceX is ready to test two satellites. They have applied for permission to launch two satellites that will orbit at 625 km. Time reports: "The application describes two satellites, the first of up to eight trial satellites that are each expected to last up to 12 months. The satellites will likely be built using the $1 billion that SpaceX raised mostly from Google earlier this year. For these first tests, the launch location will likely be Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast rather than Cape Canaveral in Florida, according to the orbital parameters in the application."
GO SpaceX! GO SpaceX! (Score:2)
Dang, am I sounding like a fanboi or what?
Re:GO SpaceX! GO SpaceX! (Score:4, Insightful)
Dang, am I sounding like a fanboi or what?
Maybe, but there are worse things to get behind.
Though years from implementing the the string of geosynchronous satellites that are predicted to make internet access into a truly worldwide web, these first two test satellites are an encouraging step in that direction.
I think many of us like Elon Musk because he represents what we hope we would become if we suddenly became youngish billionaires.
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Yeah, he is the sort of guy you would expect to strap a nuclear reactor to a comet in order to help save the human gene pool
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Then almost having his plan inadvertently demolished by Hillary Clinton. Yep, I just read the novel too.
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Yeah, I really enjoyed it, but I read JBF as a 'what if Carly Fiorina got elected', because Hillary is just too old to take the g-force of launch
To be honest I hope that it is a series like Baroque Cycle
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*SEVENEVES SPOILERS READ IF IT MATTERS TO YOU*
JBF is described as in her early 40's, a Berkeley MBA that headed a tech firm that was acquired by Google, married and actor, got elected as a California Senator and then elected to VP on a unnamed party's political ticket...
So yea, neither Hillary or Carly, but the tech firm and run for CA Senate seat made me think of Carly
I got the impression that the gopers wanted to think it was Hillary the instant that they read about her being muzzled with a bolt through h
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And... these are not going to be geosynchronous, they are in a lower LEO than Iridium so they will require a denser network of satellites to cover the planet
On the good side they will have much less latency than GEO
I remember seeing the assembly line for Iridium satellites and the excitement over the endless launches (on everything from Long March to Atlas) and thinking, "Mother of God, this is what we should be doing!"
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Geosynchronous or not.
It's being reported both ways. The Seattle Times version is they plan to deploy 4000 geosynchronous satellites, and Business Week says 700 low-earth orbit satellites.
It's plausible the test satellites will be a determining factor, and IIRC, Wyler has some advantage in spectrum rights. What I do find interesting is that Musk's chief competitor is Greg Wyler, a former Google hand, and Google/Fidelity committed a $billion US to Musk's company for a 10% stake.
We can perhaps all agree it is a very cool time to
Re:GO SpaceX! GO SpaceX! (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, I think that Seattle Times is confused, here is a decent article from Extreme Tech
http://www.extremetech.com/ext... [extremetech.com]
It comes down to GEO requires fewer satellites to cover the planet (because they have a wider horizon) but sucks because of long latency for travel time, i.e. HughesNet, compared to a lot of satellites to cover the planet in a lower orbit
It would not take 4000 satellites to cover the planet in GEO, but it would in a LEO where each low orbiting satellite has a limited view of the planet. You also get the advantages of shorter latency the closer that the satellite is to perpendicular over your head (closer to 5 thousands of a second than half a second). With a high density you also have easier handshaking between satellites and spread your customers out over more satellites for better bandwidth (both problems that Iridium faced)
I think that Virgin Galactic also made a pre-announcement for building a LEO network
Good times, good times
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It is really a matter of picking the approach that fits your situation
Everybody would love to have fiber to the curb, but if they are in their car wifi or cell towers start to seem acceptable
If you start wanting to slurp up more data than the cell towers can support, or building your house waaay far off the grid and either option starts to look pale compared to a low-latency high speed satellite connection
It will probably become part of a scaled-cost system where you pay more the further you are from a fibe
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Geosync gives you a 250ms one way latency and a 1/2 second round trip latency.
Unavoidable due to speed of light.
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Hmm, speed of light is ~300Mm/sec. a 250ms latency one way to Geosync would set Geosync at 75000 km up.
Alas, Geosync is rather lower than that. Closer to 42000 km, in fact. Which implies a latency of 140ms to 150ms one way....
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Yes... this was my intent.
client => GEO => Server = 45000 miles = 0.25 seconds
round trip: Client => GEO => Server => GEO => Client = 90000 miles = 0.5 seconds
Geosync satellites won't work (Score:1)
Geosynchronous orbit is too high and latency is a problem.
The idea is to have smaller and very cheap satellites in a low orbit instead. That gives better signal levels and keeps latency down ( if you can solve the hand-off issues and keep enough birds in the air.).
Maintenance might be less of an issue as well if you just keep replacing/updating them as they drop out of orbit.
If anybody calls for me... (Score:1)
You need to answer "Vandenberg Space Industries" and tell them that we're a Space Textiles Manufacturer and I'm the best Space Latex Salesman you've got.
Thanks!!1!
Re:More Republican corporate welfare (Score:5, Informative)
Um, yeah... I remember having a teacher in the 70's who said things like 'no space exploration until every human is fed' and 'explore the ocean first... blah, blah, blah'
My reply at thirteen was uncouth but similar to my feelings now, which could be summed up as, 'all of this money spent on space systems is a fraction of the annual interest on the money sponged up by the dictators who are preventing food and financial aid from making it to the starving people of their countries'
The benefits, or return on investment, for launching these sort of systems is significant or business people like Musk would never consider it. Compare that to the benefits of making another Mugabe as rich as King Solomon
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You're a little confused. Our plan is to use kittens as reaction mass, not babies.
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Republican corporate welfware? You couldn't even finish reading the summary before you rushed to mouth off in the comments?
The satellites will likely be built using the $1 billion that SpaceX raised mostly from Google earlier this year.
The satellites are privately funded. The rocket is privately funded. The launch is privately funded. The US government didn't spend one thin dime for this experiment, and will in fact get paid to enable the launch (range launch services aren't free, you know).
Quitcher bitchin'.
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I wish to subscribe to your newsletter so I can roll it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
that's a great Low Earth Orbit you have there (Score:2)
Don't spread yourself thin, Elon! (Score:2)
Philosophy of Elon Musk (Score:2)
Elon Musk's philosophy is apparently, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." It seems to be working for him, so I guess you can't argue with it.
I wonder what Iridium thinks, considering they have a launch contract with SpaceX. For which they have undoubtedly put money down, thereby helping to fund this effort.
Permission (Score:2)
Since the application is at FCC and not FAA, I assume the permission is about using radio spectrum within US territory, rather than launching a spacecraft.
That leads me to a question: at what altitude do you get outside of a country national space (and therefore you do not have to ask a regulator for using radio spectrum)?
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If he can get reasonable bandwidth at cheap cost, I would absolutely love it. I wouldn't want to use it for daily internetting - not only would it be slower, I also imagine any satellite-based internet would be, entirely reasonably, "pay as you go" rather than unlimited. I *would*, however, love to have the ability to know that I *could* connect to a satellite service anywhere on the planet, when I was traveling internationally (if it were just "pay for what you use" rather than "pay for what you use and *a
Astrolink. (Score:2)
It's Astrolink all over again - something that failed 15 years ago.
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The Internet was a very different place 15 years ago! Also, satellites were less advanced, bandwidth demand was lower, launch costs were higher, and Elon Musk wasn't behind the project.
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And one of the reasons why Astrolink failed was due to the deployment of land based internet, mainly DSL that did pull the plug on it.
Portfolio Diversification (Score:2)
Buzzword bingo, perhaps, but applicable in this case. What I see him doing is leveraging the specific techs of some businesses that are successful and applying them to other industries. The in-home battery business benefits from the success of Solar City, and the in-home battery business reduces the price of Tesla batteries and reduces the risk of a bad year decimating Tesla. SpaceX reduces the price of satellite launches, but requires constant launches to remain stable. So how about creating a satellit
Ettus and GNURadio in SPACE! (Score:3)
How very cool - they're using an Ettus Research software-defined radio [ettus.com]! I'm not sure if they'll be using the GNURadio stack to interface to the radio or not, but it's nice to see such an Amateur Radio friendly company get some cred.
From their application, they're looking to use 10.95-11.05 GHz downlinks with an transmitter power of 4 W, an EIRP of 1.1 kW (which implies at least a 24.4 dBi antenna), a bandwidth of 85.8 MHz, and a modulation scheme that uses a single channel with amplitude and phase modulation (QAM, likely) and a mix of content - video, phone, etc.
They also have 8GHz low-power downlinks at 11.6 GHz bandwidth.
8027.50000000-8087.50000000 MHz MO 20.000000 W 19.300000 W P 0.00100000 % 11M6G1D