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Japan Launches "Super-Speed" Internet Satellite
A number of readers wrote in about the launch this morning of a Japanese H-2A rocket carrying a Kizuna ("Winds") satellite into orbit. Kizuna is intended to provide "super high-speed data transmission" for Japan and Southeast Asia. The news stories on the launch, such as the AP's linked here, are short on technical detail. For example they say the satellite successfully achieved orbit 175 miles above the earth — hardly suitable for Internet communications to a specific area on the surface (remember Teledesic?). Reader nebulus4 provided a link to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency site with an illustration and a little more detail. Such as the fact that Kizuna is destined for geosync orbit, and that a 45-cm antenna will equip eventual users for 155 Mbps down / 6 Mbps up, whereas a 5-m antenna will allow enterprises and ISPs to tap into 1.2 Gbps down. Given the latency to geosync orbit, you probably wouldn't want to use Kizuna to play an online shooter.
...the RIAA and MPAA today announced a plan to knock the satellite out of orbit with a missile to "protect the public".
The connection sucks for anything interactive
Except, possibly chess.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
is something to solve the last "175 mile problem." Okay. What if we replace all of that empty space with something that we'll call "FIBER". Only instead of running all of the fiber to the satellite and back we could just run it over land. Barring any service interruptions by 30 story lizards breathing fire all over the data center this might just work!
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Unless you're pushing the button from your newly colonized extraterrestrial planet with a nice self-sustaining biosphere of its own =)
Ice Cream has no bones.