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AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

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Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#101

Post by dragonwriter »

samstave wrote: post #28
nil_pointer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to Azure talking about developing underwater datacenters

Did you know that eric schmidt funds a deep sea drone submersible project out of alameda to map and sensor the oceans... its funded under his and his wifes foundation, but basically its a secret project to map the oceans. They want to be first to own all that data

A 501(c)(3) dedicated to open sharing of data is an odd vehicle for trying to competitively own data.

Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#102

Post by Qworg »

nil_pointer wrote: post #26
jeletonskelly wrote: post #16

Imagine Amazon building and launching satellites like space based data centers. AWS in orbit. You could provision VMs on a satellite equipped with an array of general sensors, cameras, etc.

Similar to Azure talking about developing underwater datacenters

Underwater data centers make a great deal of sense - close to customers (low latency), fast deployments (decision to power on in 90 days), and, of course, cooling efficiencies. I expect them to actually happen if Phase 2 goes well.

Then again, I'm a bit biased - I worked on both Phase 1 and 2.

Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#104

Post by Rebelgecko »

tzakrajs wrote: post #17
garmaine wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no “export laws” requiring encryption of satellite transmission data. Export laws wouldn’t apply anyway. As a constructive counter example, there are plenty of free services you can tune into.

Of intelligence data there is. Read up on ITAR and EAR. So you don’t think that the satellites AWS will interface with will be facing earth with sensors?

ITAR is pretty limited in what it considers intelligence/military. Unless you're looking for missile launches or doing remote sensing with technologies that are better than what's available to the general public, it probably won't apply. There's plenty of interesting things you can do without running afoul of ITAR/USML definitions.

Some telemetry and sensor data may be EAR99, which is as far as export restrictions go is about as nonrestrictive as it gets. For example iTunes is EAR99— that's why the EULA says you're not allowed to use it to develop nuclear or biological weapons.

Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#107

Post by matchagaucho »

patrickyeon wrote: post #66

I'm... not convinced this is a decent offering. At the same time, I'm repeatedly wrong with this whole cloud computing, so maybe I'm just that person stuck with the old ways and telling everyone else they're doing it wrong. But it seems like a recipe that combines so many of the worst parts of running a groundstation. The setup can't easily be specialized enough to really milk capability (say, different ways to corre…

Looks like AWS announced this capability to beef up their DoD JEDI contract position.

"Give us $10B to build your datacenter, and we'll throw in a ground station for free!"

Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#109

Post by mmaunder »

patrickyeon wrote: post #66

I'm... not convinced this is a decent offering. At the same time, I'm repeatedly wrong with this whole cloud computing, so maybe I'm just that person stuck with the old ways and telling everyone else they're doing it wrong. But it seems like a recipe that combines so many of the worst parts of running a groundstation. The setup can't easily be specialized enough to really milk capability (say, different ways to corre…

You're probably right. I'd guess this will evolve and improve over time as the the AWS team better understands market needs. It's also quite likely that satellite designs will evolve to take be more compatible with AWS Groundstation. In fact, once the service has been around for a few years, I wouldn't be surprised if we see purpose built sats that aim to use this exclusively. The 12 planned stations could also provide much better coverage i.e. save the sat owner having to build stations around the globe.

Re: AWS Ground Station – Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites

#110

Post by mmaunder »

Anyone know how big or sensitive their dishes are? I wonder if they could be used for some fun astronomy stuff when not being used to talk to sats. Also curious about the transcievers and so on. Not sure if they'd disclose any of this due to security concerns.

Also, I'm guessing you need to provide your NORAD ID and FCC license so these dishes don't get used for sigint.

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