SpaceX expects to launch 4,425 LEO satellites:
SpaceX plans to launch first internet-providing satellites in 2019
SpaceX plans to launch first internet-providing satellites in 2019
" the wheels are falling off of satellite TV"
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That is three times the number of sats in earth orbit right now. Talk about a mess.
So, if they launch one every other day (unlikely), it would take about 25 years to launch them all. By then, the first half of those satellites would already be starting to fail.
Then there's this:
"potentially cluttering up the space around Earth, making future launches potentially difficult and dangerous."
I don't see it.
Then there's this:
"potentially cluttering up the space around Earth, making future launches potentially difficult and dangerous."
I don't see it.
These are mini satellites that come off an assembly line. I don't know how many per launch, but SpaceX's plan is 4000 by 2020.
They must be expecting a HUGE number of rural subscribers, but that's after the fact. Who will fund the capital investment in the satellites and equipment? The very reason many people don't have broadband now is because companies don't see a ROI. Otherwise I'd have Comcast 150mbps in my small town.
Of course my crystal ball is too cloudy today for me to predict what will actually happen, but Elon Musk has a pretty strong history of making things happen that others said couldn't be done. I wouldn't count him out.
And for "dare2be", the satellites they'll be using are quite small, allowing for multiple unit deliveries with a single launch. This is not new technology. SpaceX is currently delivering 75 LEO satellites for voice and data satellite communications company Iridium in groups of 10 per launch.
And for "dare2be", the satellites they'll be using are quite small, allowing for multiple unit deliveries with a single launch. This is not new technology. SpaceX is currently delivering 75 LEO satellites for voice and data satellite communications company Iridium in groups of 10 per launch.
I hear people complaining that they only have local cable covering their area (monopoly by fiat) or, maybe a telecom in competition. Everything I have read says that this service will be very robust. I can see them advertising "Why pay Comcast $100 per month when you can have faster speeds and lower latency at half the price?" If their market is the whole world, that would include metro areas. Musk sees this as a cash cow to finance his Mars plans. He HAS to win to beat Bezos.
Are you kidding me?
Place 4000 refrigerators on the surface of the Earth. (and just on the land) and there is a whole bunch of room left over. Heck, make it 10,000 houses, and you still have taken up a miniscule area. "Gravity" was a movie.
SWAG TIME
Let's see 4,425 over five years. That's 885 per year and about 17 per week. Let us "assume" that they will put up 34 per shot. Maybe. And "assume" $100M per launch. That's what, about $13B just for launch? At least double (or triple) that for the costs of the satellites, and gosh knows how much more for the ground stations.
Let's be outlandishly charitable and "assume" the system can be built out for $25B. And essentially no revenue will come in until complete, or very nearly complete.
Let's cough and say they get a million customers. $25,000 per customer to recover. Even if it were a fifth of that, it seems unreasonable. Ten million customers? Well, maybe we're getting the total per revenue unit down. But it sure seems it'll be an EXPENSIVE service.
I would have to "assume" that since they have the go ahead to proceed, someone has figured it does not present a hazard.
Let's see 4,425 over five years. That's 885 per year and about 17 per week. Let us "assume" that they will put up 34 per shot. Maybe. And "assume" $100M per launch. That's what, about $13B just for launch? At least double (or triple) that for the costs of the satellites, and gosh knows how much more for the ground stations.
Let's be outlandishly charitable and "assume" the system can be built out for $25B. And essentially no revenue will come in until complete, or very nearly complete.
Let's cough and say they get a million customers. $25,000 per customer to recover. Even if it were a fifth of that, it seems unreasonable. Ten million customers? Well, maybe we're getting the total per revenue unit down. But it sure seems it'll be an EXPENSIVE service.
I would have to "assume" that since they have the go ahead to proceed, someone has figured it does not present a hazard.
Are you kidding me?
Those refrigerators aren't whizzing by at thousands of miles an hour in multiple directions at multiple altitudes. There would have to be quite a bit of density coverage in the sky for a particular fixed user on the ground to reach a satellite at any given moment.
You do understand LEO, right? These satellites won't be geo-stationary.
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Engineers are worried about this problem.
If we’re not careful, new satellite swarms could destroy one another
Who's paying for it? Who is providing the capital for such an ambitious project?
Elon Musk (among others). I think Musk has the advantage because he owns the rockets. While others pay $10 million per (to him) or more to other lift services, his own are probably less than one million.
