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SpaceX Hits Two Milestones In Plan For Low-Latency Satellite Broadband (arstechnica.com)
SpaceX is about to launch two demonstration satellites, and it is on track to get the Federal Communications Commission's permission to offer satellite internet service in the U.S. "Neither development is surprising, but they're both necessary steps for SpaceX to enter the satellite broadband market," reports Ars Technica. "SpaceX is one of several companies planning low-Earth orbit satellite broadband networks that could offer much higher speeds and much lower latency than existing satellite internet services." From the report: Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed approving SpaceX's application "to provide broadband services using satellite technologies in the United States and on a global basis," a commission announcement said. SpaceX would be the fourth company to receive such an approval from the FCC, after OneWeb, Space Norway, and Telesat. "These approvals are the first of their kind for a new generation of large, non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems, and the Commission continues to process other, similar requests," the FCC said today. SpaceX's application has undergone "careful review" by the FCC's satellite engineering experts, according to Pai. "If adopted, it would be the first approval given to an American-based company to provide broadband services using a new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite technologies," Pai said.
Separately, CNET reported yesterday that SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch on Saturday will include "[t]he first pair of demonstration satellites for the company's 'Starlink' service." The demonstration launch is confirmed in SpaceX's FCC filings. One SpaceX filing this month mentions that a secondary payload on Saturday's Falcon 9 launch will include "two experimental non-geostationary orbit satellites, Microsat-2a and -2b." Those are the two satellites that SpaceX previously said would be used in its first phase of broadband testing.
Separately, CNET reported yesterday that SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch on Saturday will include "[t]he first pair of demonstration satellites for the company's 'Starlink' service." The demonstration launch is confirmed in SpaceX's FCC filings. One SpaceX filing this month mentions that a secondary payload on Saturday's Falcon 9 launch will include "two experimental non-geostationary orbit satellites, Microsat-2a and -2b." Those are the two satellites that SpaceX previously said would be used in its first phase of broadband testing.
The SpaceX constellation is essentially global, and the intent is to undercut most global wired broadband connections on both speed and price; it'll be capable of up to 1Gbps per user, and the costs of the service will be spread around the globe. Previously this would have been unthinkable, but over the past decade there's been both a massive advance in satellite capabilities (per unit mass) and a massive reduction in launch costs (per unit payload mass). And it's all to be in LEO (nearly 12000 identical, mass-produced, mass-launched satellites), not GEO, so latencies are as low as or lower than traditional net service.
They may well pull it off. It's become so clear that such a service is now possible to implement that SpaceX's biggest problem is getting theirs in place before the competition; Samsung proposed such a constellation in 2015, and OneWeb (funded by Virgin Group and Qualcomm) is actively working toward one.
One interesting theory that's been batted around is that Teslas (and presumably other cars) will quickly switch over to it for their connectivity rather than relying on 4/5G service. You can't switch phones to it because the receiver is a phased array antenna about the size of a pizza box - but you can certainly have such a receiver in a car.
Point of interest. Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.
The most interesting part of the article was towards the bottom:
SpaceX has said it will offer speeds of up to a gigabit per second, with latencies between 25ms and 35ms. Those latencies would make SpaceX's service comparable to cable and fiber. Today's satellite broadband services use satellites in much higher orbits and thus have latencies of 600ms or more, according to FCC measurements.
The demonstration satellites will orbit at 511km, although the operational satellites are planned to orbit at altitudes ranging from 1,110km to 1,325km. By contrast, the existing HughesNet satellite network has an altitude of about 35,400km, making for a much longer round-trip time than ground-based networks.
Don't just inform SpaceX - inform OneWeb, Qualcomm, Samsung and Lockheed; I'm sure they'd love to hear your lecture on how you know more than them.
Lastly, junk is, by definition something that is useless. A satellite constellation providing internet services to the entire globe is pretty much the opposite of "junk". Furthermore, unlike "space junk", the constellation's satellites are all designed for deorbit procedures at end-of-life. Lastly, even if they didn't deorbit, they're LEO; "junk" doesn't persist at LEO for protracted periods of time like it does at GEO. ISS loses up to a tenth of a kilometer altitude per day (although it's an exceptional case because of its large cross sectional area)
Point of interest. Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.
I mean, completely ignoring the article and referring to basic definitions of GEO and LEO
GEO: 36,000km (72,000km round trip minmum)
LEO: 1,000km (2,000km round trip minimum)
Light flitters about at 300,000km/s
Basic math here says GEO requires 240ms just to bounce a signal to GEO and 6ms for LEO.
So THERE. It's two orders of magnitude better and I've fed a troll today to help prevent their extinction.
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