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A Eulogy for Iridium
Feed is running a piece written by Bruce Sterling regarding the destruction of the The Iridium Satellite system. We've also linked the folks who are trying to rescue the system, so take a gander for them as well.
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In the interest of full disclosure, I was involved in a project at Harvey Mudd sponsored by Qualcomm to extend a service test system Globalstar. I do not own any Qualcomm stock (or any other stock for that matter).
:-)
Globalstar has a few things going for it. It's a much simpler technical challenge since the satellites themselves are relatively simple "bent pipe" repeaters unlike Iridium which had a lot of cross links (think cell sites in the sky, not routers in the sky). Per minute charges are usually cheaper and their regulatory battles have been easier because they use the public telephone network for most of the journey of the call. The handsets switch to CDMA/AMPS/Globalstar or GSM/Globalstar as appropriate so they are usable within urban areas.
In addition, Globalstar has made a big push for fixed installations, such as a payphone in a remote village. This is a huge market which is underserved and overpriced currently.
This doesn't mean they can't or won't fail.
I don't know much in detail about Teledesic, but I'm hoping it works if it means that I can someday telecommute while sailing around the South Pacific
--
"L'IT c'est moi!"
Your basic point remains though. Iridium was always doomed.
And the brethren went away edified.
Unfortunately, the Iridium project will be looked at by future venture capitalists as evidence of failed non-governmental space ventures. :-)
It would be spectacular to get a small craft back to the moon. If we found the suspected ore-deposits there, rest assured, everyone and their mother would line up to get there.
Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
Iridum burns ... it doesn't hurt me any. In fact maybe if they do it when we're not facing the sun it would be fun to see.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
While I have to agree that Iridium was a fiasco, and that plenty of people are to blame, I have to disagree with your assessment of Bruce's article.
As much as I like Bruce Stirling for all his nifty science fiction, a quote like "when people realized that the Moon is much less interesting than NASA said it was" simply sucks.
I don't know where you were, Bruce, but I know that I and a whole bunch of other folks never found the moon "much less interesting." You might have been busy having your diapers changed, but I was in the middle of a college career based on astronomy done with orbital observatories, and when Congress cancelled all the programs, my dreams died along with a lot of other people's. It wasn't lack of public interest, but lack of the Cold War push -- simple science wasn't worth it, while military superiority was...
Despite this sort of whining, the space program hasn't gone away -- there are still quite a few people who work in it, myself occasionally included. And while there are still mismanaged (and ill-conceived) programs like Iridium, the dream is not yet gone. We just hacked our way back into it.
Look back in a hundred years, and no one will understand why we didn't do it faster -- after all, we had the technology, all we lacked was the will.
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Politics is about making compromises. Religion isn't. --Michael Horton
Man, I'm really bummed. Space was supposed to be cool by the time I turned 30 (just a few weeks ago).
... boredom.
There were supposed to be places I could go on the moon to go 'lunar skiing'. Mars was supposed to have artifacts the size of small mountains for me to go hiking over, marvelling at the wonder of ancient lost alien civilizations, all the while humbly considering the revelation of Humanity in Space.
Mad scientists were supposed to be *allowed* to roam free, conducting Earth-dangerous experiments in the outer orbits on distant asteroids, where nobody would be particularly bothered if a few multimegaton-like nuclear explosions accidentally being set off occurred now and then.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, peace was supposed to have prevaled. Hover crafts were supposed to be everywhere, heck even hover *belts* were supposed to be purchasable at your local Sports Chalet. Medicine and science, given the wide vista's of space for development and research, were supposed to have cured Man of many ills, among them disease, arthritis, old age, and
But no, here we are, all gathering around the feable fire of the modern space "program", occasionally warming our hairy hands on the few sparks and flares here and there, laughing like hyena's every time a piece of wood explodes and propels itself from the measly fire, all the while trying desperately to convince ourselves that we are safer just ignoring the deep inky black night of space.
Drats. I want my Space Civilization, and I want it now, danmit!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
, most of whom have absolutely nothing to do with Iridium or its failure. Yet for some reason the real source of the problem -- people who did plain old poor business planning at Motorola -- wasn't even mentioned.
Did he just write that piece for its "artistic value", that sees the reality as an annoying, unnecessary nuisance? Did he just have nothing better to do, so he had to resort to meaningless witticisms?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Before chasing the unfeasible (like S.O.S)., look into AMSAT These guys have a real amateur satellite system (over 30 satellites, 20 currently operational) going back 30+ years. Their satellites are 'open source' public designs, garage built (none rejected for failing clean room standards) by volunteers and launched by international cooperation in exchange for their collaboration and expertise. They pioneered some techniques used on commercial satellites today!
Consider contributing your efforts here. This is Linux in space, but with a heck of a track record!
They are a 501(3)(c) certified not-for-profit, so Iridium could conceivably be donated with full tax benefits (if any). And it they decide Iridium is unsalvageable, then you can be sure that it truly is. They have the volunteer/hacker base of regulatory and technical know-how and experience that most of us obviously didn't believe existed.
Iridium or not, doesn't his sound like a group you want to join? (I'm currently working on the details of a proposal to test modern era CPUs in space. Most current space-certified CPUs are ancient - pre286)
(from the web page http://amsat.org/amsat/amsat-na/amhist.html)
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (as AMSAT is officially known) was formed in 1969 as a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered in the District of Columbia. Its aim is to foster Amateur Radio's participation in space research and communication. Since that time, other like-minded groups throughout the world have formed to pursue the same goals. Many of these groups share the "AMSAT" name. While the affiliations between the various groups are not formal, they do cooperate very closely with one another. For example, international teams of AMSAT volunteers are often formed to help build each other's space hardware, or to help launch and control each other's satellites.
Since the very first OSCAR satellites (OSCAR stands for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) were launched in the early 1960s, AMSAT's international volunteers, often working quite literally in their basements and garages, have pioneered a wide variety of new communications technologies that are now taken for granted in the world's satellite marketplace. These breakthroughs have included some of the very first satellite voice transponders as well as highly advanced digital "store-and-forward" messaging transponder techniques. All of these accomplishments have been achieved through close cooperation with international space agencies which often have provided launch opportunities at significantly reduced costs in return for AMSAT's technical assistance in developing new ways to launch paying customers. Spacecraft design, development and construction has also occurred in a fiscal environment of individual AMSAT member donations, thousands of hours of volunteer effort, and the creative use of leftover materials donated from aerospace industries worldwide.
__________
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
Got this from a Motorola buddy who
got it from one of the engineers there
(who shall remain anonymous).
Enjoy,
Steve
-------------------------------
Bye, Bye, Miss Iridium Pie
By [snip]
Sung to the tune of:
Bye, Bye Miss American Pie, by Don McClean
Long, long time ago I can still remember how the funding made me smile
And I knew if we had our time that we could make that payload shine,
And maybe make the launch occur on time
But '95 made me shiver with every build that we'd deliver
Bad news in the high bay, I couldn't go one more day.
I can't remember if I sighed when I read how the lawyers lied
Something touched me deep inside the day the funding died.
So bye bye Miss Iridium pie, spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Them good old days have now gone by
Knowing this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies.
Did you write the specs we love and do you have faith in the ones above?
And did you like the shirts we wore, did you believe in the 3 oh 4?
Well I knew the facts and I spoke to Jim, cause I was standing right next to him
They both kicked down the rack and then ran away out back.
I was a lonely old software hack with a stack of cards and a line of jack
But I knew I was on my back the day the funding died.
I started singing:
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Them good old boards are way up high
Knowing this'll be the day that they die
This'll be the day that they die.
Well 10 years have now gone by since the gleam got in Bary's eye
But that's not what was to be.
When investors sang in the court of law in a place where truth brings on awe
In a voice that sounds like Craig McCaw.
And while the team was looking down
The lawyers stole what we had found; the courtroom was adjourned
Bankruptcy was returned!
And while the judge read a book on sharks, the lawyers danced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark the day the funding died.
We started singing:
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Some good old boys paid seventy five
But this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies.
Helter Skelter in the summer swelter the cows pies smell and we seek shelter,
Our cubicles are all in a row, and we go in and pray for snow.
But we know not how it might go
Hacker lined up 20 deep. They try to code but need the sleep.
We all lay down to snooze, but then someone breaks out the booze.
Pizza comes and we go wild, the peppers fly 'cause it too mild.
Do you recall what was the deal the day the funding died?
We started humming:
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Them good old rockets reached the sky
But this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies.
In there we were all in one place trying hard to get in space
With no time left to start again.
So all be nimble, all be quick, the build is due or we'll be sick
'Cause coding is the devil's only due
And as I watched the rocket flare, all eyes left had turned to stare,
Bloodshot, tired , and burned to hell.
Smiling sweet in the fiery swell, flames climbed high into the sky and we all clapped 'till I thought
we'd cry
Before the funding died. We started singing:
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Them good old days are now gone by
And this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies
I met a man who had the "sight:" I asked him if the program might...
But he just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the big high bay where I'd seen the payloads years before,
But the man there said the payloads wouldn't play.
In the halls the techies sighed, the coders laughed, and the testers cried,
Not a word was spoken, the stations all were broken.
And the three things I admire most: beer, cheese, and hot french toast,
I'll be eating out on the coast, the day the funding dies:
And I'll be singing:
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Those crosslinks work but we don't know why
And this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies
Bye bye Miss Iridium pie; spent our millions and our billions but we made them fly
Them good old days are now gone by
And this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies
The urban legend is that some seriously rich person was on his yacht in the Carribean, and his wife/girlfriend/mistress suggested that his inability to place a phone call to her mother/boyfriend/pet rabbit reflected badly on his manliness. So he decided to make global mobile telecomms happen, irrespective of cost. This is not the way to start a successful enterprise.
Enough legends, now some techie stuff.
At the time that Iridium was being designed and implemented, GSM was taking off. Who cares if their phone doen't work in the Rub Al Khali? It works in Boston/Manchester/Kyoto. Very few rich people live in serious wilderness. Those that do can make their own arrangements.
With satellites, you make a trade-off between the number, the altitude and the latency. For useable voice, you *must* have low altidude satellites."Do not exceed the speed of light. It's the law." That has two immediate consequences. You'll need a lot, and they won't last long. The upper atmosphere will eventually cause the final 'Iridium flash'.
Which moves us on to the vandalism of Iridium. The antennae on the sattelites are *incredibly* flat polished surfaces pointing at Earth. So they reflect sunlight *very* effectively. This upsets astronomers. The reflected sunlight flash from an Iridium satellite can do a lot of damage to an astronomical observation.
Then, the choice of frequency for transmissions. Slap bang in the middle of a *critically* important astronomical region. I may be wrong, but I think it's a CO band.
I'm sure this will be said again, but cutting the number of satellites must have irked the gods. It's called Iridium because the number of satellites that they were going to launch was the same as the atomic number of iridium. Then they scaled it down the the atomic number of dysoprasium. My Greek is bad, by dysopraxis is 'inability to speak'. Bad decision.
I apologise for the rant.
The web site has no contact information besides email addresses... if they were serious about raising the kind of money necessary for this project, don't you think venture capitalists might want at least a name and phone number?
This site is full of simple spelling and grammatical errors: "informatiom", "utilise", and my personal favorite "The message board is on it's way". How do they expect to save a bunch of LEO satellites when they can't grasp a fifth grade grammar concept?
The has a link that works called "Hack Iridium". What exactly do they plan to hack? They have no idea. They ask for t-shirt suggestions under this link. Nothing like a funny t-shirt to raise 170 million dollars!
I had a chance to chat with these clowns in IRC a few days ago. I started asking for answers to the same points above and what did I get? Informed replies? A FAQ to look at? No. I got squelched. Apparently, actively trying to Save Iridum involves sitting on IRC and saying things like "yo im going to call you know is that cool?"
It's not hard to see this for what it is: a group of kids trying to get money and attention. Please, hemos, quit posting their utter crap on the front page.
love,
br4dh4x0r