Maybe this is an obvious question, but is spacex allowed to bump / not take orders from its opponents in favor of its own internet satellites? That would effectively force any competitor to launch with someone more expensive, allowing spacex to corner the space-internet market on cost, right?
Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
21–30 of 77 posts
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#22I'm amazed how little coverage Starlink, OneWeb, etc get. It's the next revolution and the most important tech since the smart phone. Think about the great firewall of China. It's dead after this. Having a cell provider and home internet provider. Gone. Poor bandwidth anywhere on Earth - a thing of the past. This is important and huge. Buy rural property that is undeveloped. In 10 years time you'll be able to power i…
Good bandwidth and terrible latency is satellite Internet
Starlink, not having the speed of light slowed down by fibre, should have lower latency over long distances.
26ms lower from new York to London (total 50ms).
Past instances of this sort of speedup have shown that this is worth billions to high frequency traders...
Reddit post that includes includes links to the academic paper that latency number is coming from, and lots of other useful information: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/9sy4q7/starli...
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#23Starlink is highly ambitious. What they're trying to do is basically a miniature version of the o3b network MEO architecture, where every CPE terminal needs to track two satellites simultaneously. The difference is that an o3b terminal starts from about $30,000 , they're trying to build something with a CPE cost under $700. This is literally a "has never been done before" satellite communications challenge. The only…
I love jargon heavy posts. I just dropped an hour learning about o3b, MEO, CPE, low earth orbit, data rates. This kind of googling leads to new hobby pursuits and some times new career thinking.
Now study geostationary c, ku, and ka band transponder capacity, earth stations, vsat modems/dishes/rf chains, to have a better understanding of the current two way satellite status quo.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
...and Iridium famously resulted in the largest US bankruptcy ever, nine months after launch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_Communications#History Initial investment ~$6B, sold to US gov't for $25m. Here's hoping Spacex has better luck.
Yes, and the successor corporation of Iridium which bought it out of bankruptcy, and renamed itself to Iridium, has been wildly successful in the maritime, government, aviation, exploration/expedition, military markets. Which is where having a 2400 to 3600 baud (or voice and SMS) service that functions literally anywhere on the planet, pole to pole, is a highly desirable service. The original 1998-2000 marketing mate…
> where having a 2400 to 3600 baud (or voice and SMS) service that functions literally anywhere on the planet, pole to pole, is a highly desirable service.
I spent a year at the South Pole, where Iridium was, practically speaking, our only link to the outside world for most of the day. The higher bandwidth satellites are only available part of the day, either due to their orbit putting them below the horizon (Iridium uses polar orbits, unlike most communications satellites), or them being booked by other users. As you say, it's priceless for the occasional problem where help is needed from experts up North. Nominally, the station also has 24/7 text email through Iridium, and a couple voice lines, which is mostly a good thing for people's sanity.
Shortwave radio could address some of those uses, and there is a one there too, but it would be a rather different experience without something like Iridium.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and the successor corporation of Iridium which bought it out of bankruptcy, and renamed itself to Iridium, has been wildly successful in the maritime, government, aviation, exploration/expedition, military markets. Which is where having a 2400 to 3600 baud (or voice and SMS) service that functions literally anywhere on the planet, pole to pole, is a highly desirable service. The original 1998-2000 marketing mate…
> where having a 2400 to 3600 baud (or voice and SMS) service that functions literally anywhere on the planet, pole to pole, is a highly desirable service. I spent a year at the South Pole, where Iridium was, practically speaking, our only link to the outside world for most of the day. The higher bandwidth satellites are only available part of the day, either due to their orbit putting them below the horizon (Iridium…
one of the other satellite architectures that could address the South Pole high bandwidth access problem, basically the same thing as o3b, but in 90-degree inclined polar orbits. The o3b meo satellites are generally visible anywhere within plus or minus 45 degrees latitude from the equator, because they are in Equatorial orbits. But if there was sufficient market demand there is nothing to say that a highly inclined orbit, similar system could not be deployed.
the existing starlink test satellites are in highly inclined orbits, so if there were a great deal more of them, this would also be a possible solution.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#26I'm amazed how little coverage Starlink, OneWeb, etc get. It's the next revolution and the most important tech since the smart phone. Think about the great firewall of China. It's dead after this. Having a cell provider and home internet provider. Gone. Poor bandwidth anywhere on Earth - a thing of the past. This is important and huge. Buy rural property that is undeveloped. In 10 years time you'll be able to power i…
the great firewall is not dead. Chinese authorities with spectrum analyzers could easily locate any rooftop customer premise radios. These things need to transmit. and they will need clear unobstructed view to the sky, nearly Horizon to Horizon.
there are already a number of countries in the world where men with guns will come and take your rooftop equipment if you try to operate an unauthorized two-way, small satellite link to the outside world. Uzbekistan for example, go take a small cheap 1.2 meter ku band VSAT terminal there, and operate it...
China is also a perfect example. I could totally go out right now and spend monthly recurring transponder kHz lease money to get a small to medium amount of two way capacity on Russian geostationary satellites that have ku band spot beams covering parts of China, and set up a two way link to a teleport in Germany.
But I give the chances of being able to operate a 1.2 to 1.8m size small VSAT in Xinjiang province for more than a week or two, very low odds. Whoever does this is going to end up in a prison or reeducation camp.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#27I'm amazed how little coverage Starlink, OneWeb, etc get. It's the next revolution and the most important tech since the smart phone. Think about the great firewall of China. It's dead after this. Having a cell provider and home internet provider. Gone. Poor bandwidth anywhere on Earth - a thing of the past. This is important and huge. Buy rural property that is undeveloped. In 10 years time you'll be able to power i…
This seems like one of those mundane-seeming posts that you later look back on, and realize someone accidentally predicted the reason the US and China started World War 3. Or maybe China just keeps really, really close tabs on what goes in and out of the country, and having a receiver is immediate grounds for re-education.
I know India bans satellite phones altogether.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#28Starlink is highly ambitious. What they're trying to do is basically a miniature version of the o3b network MEO architecture, where every CPE terminal needs to track two satellites simultaneously. The difference is that an o3b terminal starts from about $30,000 , they're trying to build something with a CPE cost under $700. This is literally a "has never been done before" satellite communications challenge. The only…
I love jargon heavy posts. I just dropped an hour learning about o3b, MEO, CPE, low earth orbit, data rates. This kind of googling leads to new hobby pursuits and some times new career thinking.
Me too, I've learned so many things by spending a few hours going down the rabbit hole.
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love jargon heavy posts. I just dropped an hour learning about o3b, MEO, CPE, low earth orbit, data rates. This kind of googling leads to new hobby pursuits and some times new career thinking.
Now study geostationary c, ku, and ka band transponder capacity, earth stations, vsat modems/dishes/rf chains, to have a better understanding of the current two way satellite status quo.
Ka, as in, radar?
Re: Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources
#30I'm amazed how little coverage Starlink, OneWeb, etc get. It's the next revolution and the most important tech since the smart phone. Think about the great firewall of China. It's dead after this. Having a cell provider and home internet provider. Gone. Poor bandwidth anywhere on Earth - a thing of the past. This is important and huge. Buy rural property that is undeveloped. In 10 years time you'll be able to power i…
Even for people in this industry that follow the news, you're right. I see hardly anything about it. However, there are a few really good analysts on Twitter that talk about it, and the consensus seems to be that starlink is in trouble. Between taking debt and the questionable status of the satellites that were launched, it seems it needs to be written about more.