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SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

arstechnica.com

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Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#331

Post by schiffern »

chx wrote: post #192

Teledesic. SkyBridge. Probably more. Of course the timing is better with SpaceX having its own rockets but it's curious noone mentions how this have been attempted and failed.

>it's curious noone mentions how this have been attempted and failed

Musk mentioned Teledesic the very first day it was announced (back in January 2015). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHeZHyOnsm4&t=19m25s

>Things to consider about success? Well, I think it's important to assume that terrestrial networks will get much better over time.

>You know, one of the mistakes that, say, Teledesic made was not assuming that terrestrial networks would get much better over time. So we need to make sure that the system we design is good even taking into account significant improvements in the terrestrial systems.

>But I do there there are some important differences between what we're doing and, let's say, Teledesic. In the case of Teledesic they were trying to talk to phones, and that gets back to that problem of a roof penetrating situation. And particularly when stuff is coming from space, like if you're in a skyscraper and it's got to go through 27 floors to reach you, that's not going to happen. There's nothing that will... you know, short of like a neutrino [laughter] ...a neutrino phone [laughter].

>In the case of Teledesic there were some fundamental issues there.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#332

Post by metafunctor »

Something1234 wrote: post #313
metafunctor wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the heat would be just radiated out passively. Most space hardware, I'm told, needs to operate at -10°C – 50°C, and withstand continuous temperature fluctuations between those extremes caused by solar heat.

I thought that space would have a low thermal conductivity, meaning that things with a high tdp (big iron) would just hold the heat, and not much would transfer. As I remember from high school physics, radiation is the least efficient form of heat transfer.

Correct. That's why I said the way to lose heat in a satellite is by radiation.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#333

Post by placebo »

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #240
wott wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others). Come on... It was very fine to say this 15 to 20 years ago, but now we have had the ability to see what Internet…

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/articles2/X0095_The... >The Internet is a perfect reflection of the world at large. It has everything in it except homeless people and that's only because they can't afford the monthly hookup charge. The Internet is scary to people because it TRULY makes everyone equal. All the people who are invisible in the normal world (the world run by the rich and powerful), all those peo…

I think the quote contradicts itself: I find that "The Internet is a perfect reflection of the world at large" and "it TRULY makes everyone equal" are not compatible. I think the internet has gradually become a good reflection of the world at large, with plenty of its beauty and plenty of its ugliness and the person you responded to was just expressing sadness that we couldn't filter out the ugly.

Also, the word "equal" deserves some attention. There's "equally powerful" and "equally wise". The two are not necessarily related and today's internet does not guarantee either. While the internet levelled the playing field for a while (at least for those who had access to the field), things are getting back to their "natural" state of "whoever has the gold (or power) makes the rules". Venting one's beliefs on the internet (whether wise or moronic) is possible for everyone but the amount of impact it will make will usually depend on the amount of resources one has.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#334

Post by mikeytown2 »

onion2k wrote: post #325
mikeytown2 wrote: post #320

Thinking about this as a model for the Mars internet and I wonder if there should also be powerful optics's on the satellite for live video streaming and weather. Put a reflex lens on a small sensor and you could get something like a 10,000mm equivalent in a fairly small package. With a lot of satellites you would want a very narrow field of view in order to have a high ground resolution. If you can have a utility sa…

Live global video stream sounds pretty awesome. Or a privacy nightmare.

On mars awesome, earth you are correct

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#335

Post by rconti »

cwkoss wrote: post #135
andars wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely. It will be a phased array so they will need some spacing between the antennas. I've heard mention of ~pizza box size

"I'm getting bad reception, hold on while I put on my antenna sombrero"

Great, now I need a tinfoil sombrero so they don't read my thoughts.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#336

Post by the8472 »

flukus wrote: post #214
subway wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oversubscription isn't exactly a rare thing in the ISP world.

No, but cables can be duplicated, wireless bandwidth can't.

lasers are wireless and don't compete for spectrum. beam-forming with phased arrays is not quite as good, but still gives you more capacity than naively shared spectrum would.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#337

Post by Anasufovic »

yxhuvud wrote: post #321
manachar wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spreading true (well, at least less wrong) information is a noble goal. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we're not seeing such information availability providing avenues towards a smarter, more progressive planet. Instead, the internet seems to be helping people create cocoons of ignorance and "evidence" to support even the most specious claims - such as the world being flat. Knowledge does not seem to be enough. Wisdom a…

Don't worry - give it a few generations and the people in charge will have accumulated enough experience to handle the access to knowledge.

Mainstream social media is pretty much curated at this point.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#338

Post by Tempest1981 »

ortusdux wrote: post #145
31reasons wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might primarily be for their autonomous vehicles. It makes sense for them not to rely on 3rd party for cost/reliability reasons.

Heck, the leap in positioning accuracy 4.4k satellites would make gps obsolete. Civilian gps accuracy is low enough that you cannot distinguish between lanes on a highway.

Do you need to track/tune them all at the same time, or can you mux between them? 12 channel receivers used to be common.

Edit: Maybe this has some answers: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/11884/how-man...

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#339

Post by akamaozu »

katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

When one doesn't know what they don't know, where do they intuitively begin learning when given the firehose of data that is the internet?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#340

Post by rconti »

legolas2412 wrote: post #103
ctchocula wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competition makes a big difference. Just over a year ago with Google Fiber rearing up, my ISP offered 150Mbps for $35. This year with Google Fiber downsizing, the big American ISPs are back to their duopoly: 25Mbps for $40 or 10Mbps for $30. Hopefully SpaceX is able to force them to lower rates for everyone.

It's not going to replace internet for cities/towns. Think of the latency! It is directed towards middle of nowhere areas where nobody provides fiber.

30ms of latency is mentioned in the article, due to the low orbital altitude.
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