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Drifting Satellite Could Knock Out Cable TV

Posted by kdawson on from the chance-of-heavy-snow dept.

A few days back we discussed some of the problems caused by the demise of Intelsat's Galaxy 15, including possible degradation of GPS and its WAAS refinement. Now reader crimeandpunishment writes in with another damage scenario, one which could affect vastly more people — interference with cable TV programming across the US. "A TV communications satellite is drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another satellite's orbit... Galaxy 15 continues to receive and transmit satellite signals, and they will probably interfere with the second satellite, known as AMC 11, if Galaxy 15 drifts into its orbit as expected around May 23... [A spokesman] said one option would be using AMC 11's propulsion system to shift that satellite about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away to an orbit that's still within its carefully prescribed 'orbital box' but as far away as possible from Galaxy 15."

30 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Cable? by lymond01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Okay. Even I know that you can't run a cable from a satellite to my house. This whole article is fake.

    And while I'm on the Internets, I'd like to bring up the issue about birth certificates again...

    1. Re:Cable? by sahonen · · Score: 5, Funny

      *whoosh*

      --
      Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
    2. Re:Cable? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

      close call. you shoulda adjusted your orbit a bit more.

    3. Re:Cable? by ozbird · · Score: 3, Funny

      In space, no one can hear you go "*whoosh*".

  2. Demographics by cosm · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, on May 23, experts are predicting the possibility of a 10 point jump in the average US citizen's IQ.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
    1. Re:Demographics by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Informative

      List of tenants on the threatened bird, as I mentioned yesterday.

      While this is going to take out almost all of the East Coast feeds of MTV Networks... it's also going to down Discovery Networks and C-SPAN too.

    2. Re:Demographics by jd · · Score: 2, Informative

      They've also ditched a lot of the good content, I check anything I hear in their documentaries against known urban legends (a lot of it turns out to be suspect), and the definition of "history" is a little... odd at times. Repeats are also frustrating. I get the impression that History and HI have maybe a half-dozen DVDs between them per season, and that they assume their audience has such a short attention span they can get away with rotating endlessly between two or three shows a day. There's more documentary footage on YouTube.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    3. Re:Demographics by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 2, Funny

      The monk bought lunch.

      --
      "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  3. Fuck, this would be a disaster. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This would be a complete disaster for Americans. They might have to resort to reading, playing board games, or even going outside and playing some sports. Shit, they might even get some exercise.

    1. Re:Fuck, this would be a disaster. by eln · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't be absurd. Other than DVD rentals and Internet usage increasing, this won't affect anything.

  4. The only downside.. by Anrego · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that now all the people who spend their time watching reality TV all day will be out in public interacting with others..

    It's like myspace and facebook.. evil .. but at least contained! Better than the anglefire/geocities days!

    And yeah.. this is totally a troll.. but it's Tuesday and I just got back from work and I really need to make something for dinner but I don't have anything and I'm too lazy to go to the store..

    1. Re:The only downside.. by blair1q · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Find yourself a local pizzeria and get some real pizza.

      Not always an upgrade. I remember what "local pizzeria" pizza was like before Domino's was invented. Wood-fired? not. Semolina? not. Non-greasy muzz? not. Domino's got popular fast because it was quite a bit better than the local stuff in most places.

      It wasn't until the late 90s/early 00s that local shops started opening offering product with serious consideration for quality. Domino's had already had to fight a price war with Pizza Hut, which forced a reduction the cost and quality of their ingredients on both sides. That allowed Papa John's to enter the market with a mediocre (sugary sauce and bland toppings) product.

      Domino's claims to have given its food a facelift. I haven't tried it yet. But that's because I know of some not-so-local places, one of which is VPN certified, to get perfect pizza, and I drive past several "locals" and Dominos and PJ's and PH's to get to them.

  5. ham radio by FuckingNickName · · Score: 3, Funny

    Stories like this make me happy to be a ham. I don't need a complex infrastructure and global political stability to communicate with anyone, woohoo!

    1. Re:ham radio by Yvan256 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah but you're always watching your back because of wolves. Must be stressful.

    2. Re:ham radio by ls671 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Funny you mention this, I have thought of buying a ham radio for that very reason. I already have deep cycle batteries and a generator ;-))

      We could even run tcp/ip over ham radio and set up an emergency network to enable data transfer in case the internet becomes unavailable ! :

      http://www.febo.com/hamdocs/intronos.html

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    3. Re:ham radio by GoodNicksAreTaken · · Score: 2, Informative

      Stories like this make me happy to be a ham. I don't need a complex infrastructure and global political stability to communicate with anyone, woohoo!

      Except for band allocations and licensing. Even if you operate as a 'pirate' you have to rely upon repeaters, which even if you set up illegal repeaters you've got to worry about access to a suitable location. For DX you've got to worry about sun spot cycles and/or the time of day and ionosphere conditions. Even if everything is in YOUR favor, you've still got to rely upon someone at the other end having access to equipment to receive and/or transmit back. I'm lucky enough to live near a Ham Radio Outlet where I can deal with a bunch of attitude because I'm a ham under 50 years old. Before moving to this state the nearest brick and mortar was this same HRO, over 1000 miles away from where I lived. I can walk a few hundred yards from almost anywhere to a convenience store, Wal-mart, etc. and buy a pay as you go cell phone for $50 USD and talk to my parents who have a cell phone and are currently volunteering at a clinic in rural Romania.

    4. Re:ham radio by FuckingNickName · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For DX you've got to worry about sun spot cycles and/or the time of day and ionosphere conditions.

      Over the past few thousand years, these have all been more predictable than geopolitics.

      I can walk a few hundred yards from almost anywhere to a convenience store, Wal-mart, etc. and buy a pay as you go cell phone for $50 USD

      Indeed. And you'd be reasonable to choose it today. Since the Great War was the war to end all wars, you'll always be able to choose it.

  6. Sat that breaks the BACKBONE.... by LostCluster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AMC-11 (the threatened satellite) is a major backbone in the pay TV infrastructure for the Eastern USA. What that means, is that channels like MTV, VH1, G4, NESN, and many more use AMC-11 to get the content from their master control to your local cable system, DirecTV, and Dish in order for them to replicate the signal on their platform. If AMC-11 is jammed, ALL platforms will lose the affected channels... and there's no one place in space with enough free space to hold them all, so relocating for a temp outage isn't really an option.

  7. If only we had... by Daswolfen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A reusable space vehicle which could be launched to retrieve or repair the satellite...

    --
    Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
    1. Re:If only we had... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A reusable space vehicle which could be launched to retrieve or repair the satellite...

      ...which could fly to geosynchronous orbit. Apollo would have been the ideal vehicle for the job because it had legs in the sense that you could send it practically anywhere and it could aerobrake to a safe landing. A flight to mars would not have been out of the question and an asteroid mission was seriously discussed.

      The shuttle was designed for low earth orbit and could only fly there.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:If only we had... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      A reusable space vehicle which could be launched to retrieve or repair the satellite...

      For the record, the space shuttle gets just over 250 miles altitude. The satellite in question is at an altitude of about 22,236 miles.

      The amount of fuel needed to transit the space shuttle between these orbits is prohibitive. It was never designed for general purpose satellite repair; it was just a demo.

    3. Re:If only we had... by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe we could put a 100-ton concrete dome over it...

  8. Terrible, possibly fatal blow to the economy by StefanJ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Without the 8 or so hours a day that cable channels broadcast mindless infomercials, retail activity in the U.S. will grind to a halt.

    Meanwhile, I'll be sitting pretty with crystal clear reception of the two dozen or so locally broadcast channels, thanks to the home brew dipole antenna I made with plans from MAKE magazine.

    Cut the coax!

    1. Re:Terrible, possibly fatal blow to the economy by LostCluster · · Score: 2, Informative

      Only problem is that those local channels use satellites to get the network and syndicated programs they air.

  9. Way to go Galaxy 15! by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many other slashdotters are actually rooting for Galaxy 15? The thought of it possibly knocking about cable television is just far too amusing to me (unlike cable television ;).

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  10. Great, now we can finally... by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 3, Funny

    make some progress on the orbital debris problem. Nothing like taking away an American's television to spur the democracy into action.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  11. Re:Satellite Fight! by mangu · · Score: 4, Informative

    Could this be ... the first ... Satellite fight?

    Nope, happens all the time. There's a bunch of derelict satellites up there and we must maneuver the operating satellites to get out of their path.

    The problem with AMC-11 is that Galaxy-15 failed just recently and its transponders are still operating. Normally they shut down the transponders when a satellite fails, but in this case the command decoder itself seems to have failed, so Galaxy-15 is not accepting any commands.

    Given enough time, the on-board computer will take over and shut down the transponders. This will happen automatically when the sun and earth sensors detect the orbit has deviated too much from the nominal conditions.

  12. AMC 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.lyngsat.com/amc11.html

  13. Re:Satellite Fight! by blair1q · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's really bizarre is that it's still operating.

    Usually when a satellite fails to communicate properly with its ground control system, after a set period of time it assumes something is wrong and goes into Safe Mode. In Safe Mode it would shut off everything except a basic command and control system and the comms needed to get commands from the ground. It hasn't done that.

    The big question is, why not?

  14. Get China to knock it out of the sky by mlawrence · · Score: 2, Informative

    Easy solution.