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Satellite Glitch Leaves Northern Canada In the (Internet) Dark
zentigger writes "At approximately 06:36 EDT Thursday, October 6, 2011, the Anik F2 satellite experienced an attitude control issue and lost earth lock, affecting C, Ku and Ka services. The satellite went into safety mode and moved from pointing to the earth to pointing to the sun. This has put most of Northern Canada in the dark as all internet and phone services come in over F2."
So they will politely and patiently wait out the problem.
This is the perfect chance to find out the real cost of a first world nation not having internet access. We need these numbers to make better laws about internet access restriction and even to decide whether it should be a right.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Yes, just tie it to the back of white fang, say mush, and watch the spool unreel.
Nullius in verba
Residents on the Sun say their reception has gone up 100%
Mod me down, I shall become more off-topic than you could possibly imagine.
It's as if a hundred voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Ok, sorry that was in bad taste. I love my frosty neighbors to the North (I've spent a lot of time in Canada and really do love the place and the people). I hope they get interwebz back soon.
The Digital Sorceress
Simple: economics. It costs money to support and maintain. In a country as large as Canada there's a lot of infrastructure (rail, roads, air traffic, mail, and in some cases telephone) that is paid or subsized by the federal (or provincial) government. For instance, there's a a beautifully maintained ~200km highway stretch between Barrie and Sudbury (Ontario) with very little in between. You have very limited wireless coverage as well (not even talking cell phones here, just old-fashioned radio/CB), important for things like emergency services. Who is paying for that?
In some parts of the world it's not viable to have a small community on the larger "grid". I've been to many locations in Vancouver Island, northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta where your communications and even utility options are very limited.
I've also seen that in parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Quintana Roo that are isolated. I'm sure Russia has the same challenges.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
Only those communities that are remote enough to depend solely on satellite are affected. FTA: "Northwestel said all communities across Nunavut, N.W.T. and Yukon that receive their long distance calling and data service via satellite are affected."
This only effects remote northern communities where fiber is unfeasible. It's around 60% of the area and much less than 1% of the population.
Dont they have undersea fiber connections to the country, and DSL and stuff?
Or even dialup?
Why would half the country use only Satellite as thier Internet connection?
99.999999% of Candians live within 100 miles of the U.S. Border, in towns and cities, with cable and dsl.
There are 6,784 people living north of about 52N. Even some of these people may have cable and satellite in their towns, but the towns rely on satellites for their uplinks.
Remember, Canada is a big place. 75% of all Canadians live within 90 miles of the US border. So keep this in mind while you read all of the comments saying what a calamity this is for Canadians. Northern Canada -- and I say this as a Canadian, though some may disagree (like we disagree about what it means to be in Eastern Canada or Western Canada) -- generally are those who live above 55-60 degrees N which is an exceptionally small percentage of the total population.
I'm in Canada and I received you loud and clear. Now brace yourself while I write letters to my local newspaper about how offended I am.
Should probably read....
Remote communities in Canada's far north without internet.
Any major populated area connected by land line will not be impacted... In fact I would argue that nothing larger than a "Town" is likely impacted impacted.
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
Anik F2 satellite experienced an attitude control issue
Great, so now we have self-aware machines with personality disorders orbiting us? Who's gonna capitalize on the budding satellite anger-management industry?
Won't work. Hikers in the Canadian wilderness have long carried a piece of fiber optic cable with them. If they get lost, they just bury the cable and hitch a ride back when the backhoe comes to dig it up.
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http://www.nwtel.ca/media/images/operating_map_full.jpg
Check your atlas. I'm pretty sure there are no roads above the 75th parallel because there is a dearth of land up there upon which to build roads. :-) I think you mean 55th parallel, which would be accurate.
If you want reliable backup comms in the wilderness you use radio.
The reliance on phones and internet is convenient, but if you can afford those you can afford radio gear and spend some time learning how to use it.
Amateur radio operators were the original nerds long before computers existed.
http://www.rac.ca/
http://www.arrl.org/
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Just bring fiber to the North, damn it.
No need for fiber. I believe copper is a superconductor at those temperatures.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Safety means safety for the life of the satellite, i.e. you give up on the mission and try to keep the satellite alive until someone can diagnose and fix the original problem.
If you lose attitude control (or lose track of your orientation) you need to orient the spacecraft to get power with no a priori knowledge of your orientation. At Geosyncrhonous altitude, the Earth is only 18.75 degrees wide, and it is surprisingly difficult to find by searching, and while you are searching, you likely have no power from the solar array - and are thus running down the batteries. Because the Sun is absurdly easy to find, it's fast to find it, and once you find the Sun, you can have power and thermal control. Then, you can have someone figure out what caused the original problem and fix it, and restore service.
Most satellite safety modes involve pointing some primary axis at the Sun because it ensures solar power gets to at least part of the solar arrays while minimizing the liklihood that the communications fixtures would interfere with instruments on other satellite platforms. It's a good, "safe and minimally powered," mode to try to recover from.
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