SpaceX Internet Network

[nelson61]

4425 satellites
about 700 mile elevation
25-35 ms ping so essentially seamless service for voip

This is interesting.
They show satellite life is 5 years . Like disposable razer blades.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=1158349

Notify going to PDF Form (details)

 

[harshness]

Like disposable razer blades.

How are they going to dispose of the depleted satellites? With that many satellites, there will be around 885 satellites per year aging out (assuming they can cycle them in).

There's also the dance to deploy new ones to replace them.

Surely not a "push, pull, click, click" operation.

 

[navychop]

LEOs and probably MEOs will be sent into destructive suborbit. Burn ‘em up. GEOs are sent to the beyond earth orbit graveyard, where they slowly drift ever further from earth.

Space is a big place. Thousands of satellites are doable, so long as they remain in predictable orbits.

 

[harshness]

Space is a big place.

Elbow room inside the LEO altitudes is orders of magnitude less than that at and beyond the Clarke Belt. There are just over 400 satellites orbiting in the Clarke Belt. We're talking almost eleven times that number.

Thousands of satellites are doable, so long as they remain in predictable orbits.

750 miles out is a pretty short belt and there's atmosphere (as thin as it is) in the exosphere. Gravity and atmosphere aren't uniform and although gravity is predictable atmosphere is less so. Imagine doing TT&C on eleven times as many birds.

If you think about it, there will be an average of almost three a day of these things coming out of orbit and those are just the ones that come down in a controlled manner.

On the flip side, there's also a lot more obstructions that have to be considered when launching anything into higher orbits.

 

[nelson61]

I did not see a proposed schedule.
It could be one of those vaporware projects that stays on paper until it dies away.

 

[navychop]

Again.