This is a business that Apple should get into as well. They have the capital and Phones+internet would have great vertical synergy.
Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
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Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#12I thought sats in LEO have fundamental issue that they can’t stay up too long. In rather short time, their fuel would run out and they will burn off in atmosphere. Does this mean you have to keep replishining them at regular intervals like less than a year or two?
Pretty much - I think Starlink satellites will have an estimated lifespan of 5 years, not bad.
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#13I assume there are a finite number of these swarms that we can deploy in LEO, both in economic terms as well as dedicating space and spectrum? I’ve heard of three companies now that want to achieve this. I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly distinctive about one versus the other, other than SpaceX is the only one with the proven launch capacity to bring that much mass to orbit. I have a lot less faith in Bez…
Yes, there is a finite limit, but the number is much higher than you would suppose.
First, in terms of spectrum, realistically all the satellites in a constellation can (and should) share a small number of relatively narrow frequencies. You can almost imagine it ma be the equivalent of one more cell tower in your area per constellation (at worse).
In terms of space, astronomy aside, the actual space these satellites are flying in are “huge”. As a perspective if you hold your thumb up to the sky, the distance “covered up” by your thumb (if I did my math right) is approximately 480 miles [1]
Yes things travel very quickly at those orbits, but the point is that even if we throw a ton of satellites up, they will remain fairly sparse.
That said, possible reflection and how noticeable they will be, that is a whole other question.
[1] assuming orbits of 366 miles up, higher orbits would be even farther apart
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#14I thought sats in LEO have fundamental issue that they can’t stay up too long. In rather short time, their fuel would run out and they will burn off in atmosphere. Does this mean you have to keep replishining them at regular intervals like less than a year or two?
This used to be a huge issue when satellites had to be very big and expensive to launch. But today satellites can be much smaller (several hundred kg) and are much cheaper to launch, making this approach viable.
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#15If you think this is anything other than post-capitalist market capture disguised as philanthropy, I have some bad news for you.
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#16If you think this is anything other than post-capitalist market capture disguised as philanthropy, I have some bad news for you.
What's "post-" about it?
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#17If you think this is anything other than post-capitalist market capture disguised as philanthropy, I have some bad news for you.
They all want to go to space because guillotines need gravity to work.
Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#18Re: Amazon's Satellite Project Will Cost Billions, Jeff Bezos Says
#19I assume there are a finite number of these swarms that we can deploy in LEO, both in economic terms as well as dedicating space and spectrum? I’ve heard of three companies now that want to achieve this. I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly distinctive about one versus the other, other than SpaceX is the only one with the proven launch capacity to bring that much mass to orbit. I have a lot less faith in Bez…
Amazon shareholders do not earn a dividend. SpaceX is not public, but rather would enrich a much smaller set of investors (and particularly Musk). What’s your point?
Fidelity has a biyearly traded SpaceX fund.