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Category: satellites – Page 120

Starlink Digital Illustration Created By: Erc X @ErcXspace via Twitter.

SpaceX is building its Starlink broadband internet satellite network in low Earth orbit. To date, the aerospace company has deployed 708 satellites out of the 4,409 that will initially make-up the network. Company officials state the main focus of the network will be to connect rural areas on Earth to the internet, areas where internet access is unreliable and inaccessible. Starlink customers will receive service from space via user terminals that look like a ‘UFO on a stick’. The wireless service will be easy to install at home, just ‘plug-in and point at sky.’

The company has not made public how much the internet service will cost per month. Regarding the pricing, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters last year – “All I know is you will be far happier with the value of the Starlink service than you are with your current service. You will, for sure, get way more bandwidth for the same price, or way more bandwidth for less…You’ll be far happier with this. The value will be far greater.” Starlink customers would be supporting missions to Mars; the revenue will provide additional funding towards the development of a Starship fleet that would enable humans to live on the Red Planet.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to carry what will soon become the International Space Station’s first privately-built airlock.

The company has previously built standardized boxes for space-based experiments and tiny satellite deployers, The Verge reports.

The Bishop is shaped like a bell jar and attaches itself to the outside of the space station using a number of clamps and latches.

“Once it’s there, it’s just extra real estate until we want to use it,” Mike Lewis, Nanoracks’ chief innovation officer, told The Verge. “We can use it in a number of ways, the first of which is to bring things outside.”

Continue reading “The ISS Is About to Get Its First Commercial Airlock” | >

Featured Image Source: Merrillan, Wisconsin resident r/ darkpenguin22 via Reddit.

SpaceX is building its Starlink internet network in low Earth orbit. The aerospace company plans to fund its space program by offering affordable, low-latency, broadband internet globally. SpaceX initially plans to deploy 4,409 internet-beaming Starlink satellites, according to a recent letter the company sent to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These satellites will operate at altitudes between 550 to 570 kilometers above Earth. To date, there are approximately 708 Starlink satellites already in low Earth orbit.

Company employees are actively private beta testing the Starlink network via user terminals that look like a ‘UFO on a stick’ and Wi-Fi router. – “They show super-low latency and download speeds greater than 100 [megabits] per second [Mbps],” SpaceX Senior Engineer Kate Tice shared during the latest deployment broadcast, “That means our latency is low enough to play the fastest online video games and our download speeds are fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once.”

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Orbion is a four-year-old startup in Houghton, Michigan, that specializes in Hall-effect plasma thrusters for small satellites.

WASHINGTON — Small satellite manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies announced Sept. 15 it selected Orbion Space Technology to supply the electric propulsion system for the U.S. military’s Blackjack constellation.

Blue Canyon is producing four satellites for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackjack program. DARPA plans to launch as many as 20 small satellites to demonstrate that a mesh network in low Earth orbit can meet military requirements at lower cost and shorter design cycles than traditional Pentagon programs.

DARPA in October 2018 selected Colorado-based Blue Canyon as one of the satellite bus suppliers for Blackjack. The agency in June 2020 awarded the company a $14.1 million contract to manufacture four satellites, with options worth $99 million for up to 20 satellites.

Continue reading “Blue Canyon selects Orbion electric thrusters for DARPA’s Blackjack satellites” | >

Scientists analyse images over seven decades.

German and Russian scientists say they have documented the life cycle of a volcano for the first time, revealing that it has a kind of “memory”.

The volcano in question is Bezymianny, an active stratovolcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia which suffered a collapse in its eastern sector back in 1956.

Photographs of helicopter overflights from Soviet times have now been analysed alongside more recent satellite drone data using state-of-the-art methods at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam.

Continue reading “Watching a volcano make a comeback” | >

The FCC authorized Microsoft to perform proof-of-concept demonstrations of a service that would connect its cloud computing service Azure with a ground station the company proposed to build.

“If the demonstrations result in significant market interest, Microsoft will file an application for regular earth station authority with the International Bureau (IB) to support future commercial operations,” the company wrote in the filings.

The company’s strategy will put it in competition with Amazon, which in November 2018 launched its similar AWS Ground Station service.

Microsoft is looking to compete with Amazon with a service that connects satellites directly to a cloud computing network.

Continue reading “Microsoft wants to take on Amazon in connecting satellites to the cloud” | >

Singapore-based blockchain data firm CyberVein has become one of 12 firms participating in the construction of China’s Hainan Wenchang International Aerospace City. Construction commenced last month, with the site previously hosting a satellite launch center. Described as “China’s first aerospace cultural and tourism city,” it will be a hub for the development of aerospace products and support services intended for use in Chinese spacecraft and satellite launch missions. The 12-million-square-meter facility will host the country’s first aerospace super-computing center, and will focus on developing 40 technological areas including big data, satellite remote sensing and high precision positioning technology. CyberVein will work alongside major Chinese firms, including Fortune 500 companies Huawei and Kingsoft Cloud, and will leverage its blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data technologies to support the development of the city’s Smart Brain Planning and Design Institute.”

Blockchain firm CyberVein is partnering with the Chinese government to build a blockchain-powered governance system for its aerospace ‘smart city.’

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My latest publication in Satellite Markets and Research, with significant contribution of Ms. Zoe Shahid.

by Muhammad Furqan and Zoe Shahid

Brisbane, Australia, September 4, 2020 —Exponentially increasing numbers of announced ambitious NGSO (Non-Geo Stationary Orbit) or LEO-HTS (Lower Earth Orbit – High Throughput Satellites) Mega Constellations have been creating waves in the world of technology. Their success will not be a mere disruption to the existing system, it will be a whole new system altogether.

With regular revisions in numbers of satellites from existing players and entrance of new players, these mega constellations will redefine the dynamics of Space Race 2.0, Industry 4.0, 4th, and 5th Dimension Warfare. With the rollout of a complete extra-terrestrial network there will be multiple challenges faced by the new ecosystem. With multiple revisions of filings with FCC (Federal Communication Commission) OneWeb (Qualcomm, Virgin, Airbus) leads the race with 48,000 satellites followed StarLink of SpaceX with 42,000 and Project Kuiper of Amazon with 3300 (1st numbers, may revise with the trend of the competitors) odd and other multiple constellations of smaller numbers. Recently, Huawei also announced its arrival with China Unicom with numbers of satellites not yet publicly announced. Security Challenges.

Continue reading “Challenges to LEO HTS Megaconstellations” | >