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Amazon To Offer Broadband Access From Orbit With 3,236-Satellite 'Project Kuiper' Constellation (geekwire.com)
Amazon is joining the race to provide broadband internet access around the globe via thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, newly uncovered filings show. From a report: The effort, code-named Project Kuiper, follows up on last September's mysterious reports that Amazon was planning a "big, audacious space project" involving satellites and space-based systems. The Seattle-based company is likely to spend billions of dollars on the project, and could conceivably reap billions of dollars in revenue once the satellites go into commercial service. It'll take years to bring the big, audacious project to fruition, however, and Amazon could face fierce competition from SpaceX, OneWeb and other high-profile players.
Project Kuiper's first public step took the form of three sets of filings made with the International Telecommunications Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Washington, D.C.-based Kuiper Systems LLC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and eventually will have to sign off on Kuiper's constellation. The filings lay out a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit -- including 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers); 1,296 satellites at a height of 379 miles (610 kilometers); and 1,156 satellites in 391-mile (630-kilometer) orbits. In response to GeekWire's inquiries, Amazon confirmed that Kuiper Systems is actually one of its projects.
Project Kuiper's first public step took the form of three sets of filings made with the International Telecommunications Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Washington, D.C.-based Kuiper Systems LLC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and eventually will have to sign off on Kuiper's constellation. The filings lay out a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit -- including 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers); 1,296 satellites at a height of 379 miles (610 kilometers); and 1,156 satellites in 391-mile (630-kilometer) orbits. In response to GeekWire's inquiries, Amazon confirmed that Kuiper Systems is actually one of its projects.
As long as this product competes fairly with all other products and said company doesn't use it to unfairly advertise to or unduly influence any segment of society to their own products, then I'm all for this. Otherwise this will just turn into the same situation of Spotify versus Apple, where Spotify is automatically at a competitive disadvantage, but now it's because they can't afford their own satellites.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
...not included in post at time of posting this comment:
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/...
Are they going to comply with specific government requirements for content censorship? That is, if someone in China going to get satellite internet, are Amazon going to roll over and censor it?
So far track record for big tech on this is abysmal, even "Do no evil" Google working on censored search engine for China. I don't see Amazon behaving any differently.
now they'll be significantly adding to the junk in space
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Time to move all serious astronomy to the far side of the moon.
Ya know, this does kinda sound like the evil plot from a James Bond movie. I can't remember which one, though.
The surface area covered by low Earth orbit is 10s of millions of square kilometers. I don't think about 3,000 satellites would be all that crowded if moving in a stable path.
They already drop their packages from too high on my porch.
Have gnu, will travel.
On the other hand - unlike municipal and other laws that prevent you from stringing your own cable on telephone poles or under roads: absolutely nothing is stopping you from putting up your own satellites.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
All it would take is caching hardware, and Prime customers with Amazon satellite service could get timed pre-downloads of popular Prime shows. Without affecting their cap if it's part of a multicast. I'm surprised that nobody is piggybacking on data satellite off-peak hours already, so maybe they haven't thought of it yet.
Will Amazon offer traffic to China, Russia, possibly the UK and other countries that want to create their own walled off internet? Or will all the sats only be above the US?
Look, I'm in favor of LEO satellite internet as much as anyone else but I have VERY serious reservations about Amazon operating it in any capacity. They've shown, time and again, that they're not willing to do the Right Thing (tm) if it means any kind of hit to their bottom line. Going further, they seem quite intent on weaseling their way into our lives and using data about us all as a competitive advantage, both to their direct competition as well as to ourselves.
And, last I checked, this is at least the second proposal that's offering to launch a constellation of LEO satellites to provide internet services. Didn't SpaceX propose exactly the same service no more than a few months ago? If Amazon manages to do this alongside SpaceX, that's TWO separate and distinct constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit to contend with. The complications of getting ONE constellation in place without interference are quite high, let alone two. Plus, as more and more nations flex their satellite-hitting technology for military purposes, it can only lead to trouble with regards to dangerous space debris.
Let's nationalize - no, GLOBALIZE this project so that a single constellation of satellites can serve multiple providers. That way, if China wants to censor content, that provider can do that for their territory. Heck, it wouldn't be that difficult to geo-lock signals to prevent, say, a North American provider out of Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. But - one of the advantages of a global constellation of internet-providing satellites is that you could, in theory, get your internet subscription from your home territory and travel literally anywhere int he world and still get access.
Regardless - this seems very much like a "Me too!" move from Bezos to counter Musk. They seem to be fighting over how much control one hyper-wealthy billionaire can have over the rest of us plebes. And I'm already tired of it.
My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating. -- Ashleigh Brilliant
On the other hand - unlike municipal and other laws that prevent you from stringing your own cable on telephone poles or under roads: absolutely nothing is stopping you from putting up your own satellites.
Actually, no, there are laws saying that you can't put up your own satellites without permission from your government. Even if you don't launch them from your own country. https://www.technologyreview.c...
In the US, you need FCC permission to operate, and FAA permission to launch.
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/
How, exactly? If you put 3,236 satellites into a 300km orbit and spread them evenly over the surface of the planet, you'll still only have one satellite per 172,816 square kilometers. The chances of collision for something passing through to a higher orbit would be very small, particularly if you timed the launch to reduce the chances further.
If over the next 50 years there are 50 companies that can afford satellites, will we have the room to put their in space and compete on an even footing?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Getting them all up there with no mistakes/debris might be a challenge though.
Failure rate for that many satellites will be high, too. They'll need constant replacement/de-orbiting.
No sig today...
Blue Origin?
Has yet to reach orbit even one time.
Because when people try to visualize the problem of space debris, they often look at a very small picture or animation of earth, forgetting that the globe represents an entire planet. Yes, it's a problem, but people are terrible about conceptualizing anything at that scale.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The speed of light from geostationary orbit to Earth is 119 ms, so time two (up and down) that is 440ms or almost a 1/2 second. Wouldn't that be hard to play streaming games with that sort of lag?
Starting to wonder whether an improved ground based communication network may be called for as a backup plan? Or maybe forcing companies to cohost on satellites?
With the amount of satellites being put up, we are rushing to make the Kessler Syndrome a reality. So much of what we take for granted has some dependency on satellites, so if shit happens up there we a screwed.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Why do you think we're suggesting that we throw those things away? Even under programs like UBI you still earn more if you work, and even more still if you innovate.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Well... that's what we need Space Force for, obviously. We need those Big, Beautiful space drones with their Big, Beautiful lasers protecting the Walmart satellites from the Chinese and Amazon.
...will soon cut off satellite broadband access to the whole world for a very long time. Just wait for the first collision among Amazon, SpaceX & co. satellites.
3263 more pieces of space junk in orbit
It was interesting to me reading that Blue Origin has contracts with Telesat and OneWeb to launch satellites for their competing broadband products. That makes me think of Amazon being paid to do the distribution for companies who sell the same products sold by Amazon.
I'm ok with this as long as they don't do more than 3236. Because we all know, 3,236 satellites ought to be enough for anybody.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
I think there are at least four distinct large constellations planned. I have mixed feelings. Competition = good, right? I don't think a Kessler Syndrome is likely, but it's likelihood increases with every single thing we put in orbit.
SpaceX Starlink is roughly 12000 satellites.
Amazon Kuiper is 3200 satellites
Boeing 3000 satellites
OneWeb 2000 satellites
So roughly 20,000 new satellites. That's seems like pretty crowded sky. However, I just did some napkin math. With Earth's radius at 3950 miles and the satellites operating at a maximum altitude of 850 miles, 20k is roughly 1 satellite for every 145k square miles if distributed perfectly evenly at that altitude. So maybe not so bad?
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
When someone hacks their satellite system (which is more-or-less inevitable, given the shitty state of IT security these days) and takes control of it, locking Amazon out of it, how will they press the Reset button and fix the problem? Is Bezos planning on having his own private space fleet to go up and run antimalware scans on them? </sarcasm>
Failure rate for that many satellites will be high, too. They'll need constant replacement/de-orbiting.
Fortunately they get free Prime shipping.
#DeleteChrome
Failure rate for that many satellites will be high, too.
No, the failure rate won't go up, the number of failures may go up, but the rate won't likely change.
They'll need constant replacement/de-orbiting.
OK, so what? Roads need constant repair, so do train tracks, as well as airplanes and almost everything else? The upside is they'll likely find cost savings in volume production.
Ken
Or they can work with dish / directv to push movies / shows to the local DVR disk (wait dish and directv do that now)
Yes, Satellite TV operators already do this. I'm talking specifically about Satellite Internet providers with no live TV services.
"Failure rate for that many satellites will be high, too." The _rate_ will be the rate regardless of number of satellites, no? I'm sure they hadn't thought of replacement issue until some random Slashdot reader alerted them. Is the still a thing?
The launch accuracy will have to be nearly perfect
Hmm, Lex Luthor vs Tony Stark? This could be a great movie. I better get some popcorn.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }