Slashdot Mirror
FCC Fines Swarm $900,000 For Unauthorized Satellite Launch (reuters.com)
Swarm Technologies will pay a $900,000 fine for launching and operating four small experimental communications satellites that risked "satellite collisions" and threatened "critical commercial and government satellite operations," the FCC said on Thursday. "The California-based start-up founded by former Google and Apple engineers in 2016 also agreed to enhanced FCC oversight and a requirement of pre-launch notices to the FCC for three years," reports Reuters. From the report: Swarm launched the satellites in India last January after the FCC rejected its application to deploy and operate them, citing concerns about the company's tracking ability. It said Swarm had unlawfully transmitted signals between earth stations in the state of Georgia and the satellites for over a week. The investigation also found that Swarm performed unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and other unauthorized equipment tests prior to the satellites' launch. Swarm aims to provide low-cost space-based internet service and plans eventually to use a constellation of 100 satellites.
Lets do some back of the envelope calculations.
The total revenue of all ISPs in the world is apparently about 600 billion dollars per year. A falcon 9 launch costs about 60 million dollars. So total worldwide ISP revenue could pay for about ten thousand launches per year. Lets ignore the cost of the sattelites themselves and the availability of radio channels to communicate with them. Lets say that goes on for 10 years making a hundred thousand launches. Lets say each one launches 25 small sattelites that weigh a ton each and are about the size of a car with an area of about 5 square meters.
So in our somewhat ludicrous scenario we have a total of 1.25*10^7 square meters of satellites. The surface area of the earth is about 5*10^14 square meters.
Satellites won't be blocking out the sun any time soon.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
No wonder the FCC is up in arms. A new ISP that is independent from cables down here? That could cut into the profit margins of their masters!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
1) raise funds
2) spend funds on proof of concept. Lie about future costs
3) raise lots more funds.
4) huge pay raise, bonuses and company leases all around.
5( bankruptcy.
Remember, excessive optimism is legally distinct from fraud, even if it looks realllllllllly similar.
America isn't much of a space power anymore. The rest of the world and the corporations it has surrendered its launch capacity to should tell Uncle Sam to just fuck off.
Russia, China and India are already eating America's lunch. No doubt Kim Jung Nukem will soon be putting up satellites whenever they like, and telling the US to take a long, hard suck on his Taepodong.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.