SpaceX plans to launch satellites that deliver internet

[RV_]

I've been posting in the Financial forum here about the many projects that are coming into deployment stage just recently. Google fiber stalled after they realized the costs for digging and laying fiber in rural and remote areas of the US. In Jan 2015 Google gave Space X $1 Billion to develop and source custom made mini sats for a worldwide deployed Internet from Satellite that will have less to the same latency as ground based Internet . Source Wired and Motley Fool: https://www.wired.com/2015/01/google-spacex-investment/

https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/14/why-did-google-invest-1-billion-in-spacex.aspx

There is a lot of confusion with folks who think all satellites are in the same fixed orbits. This is true only for Geostationary orbits high above the earth. Examples are the Hughes net and Echostar satellite two way services for Internet,. The drawback to not having to replace satellites or have hand off protocols, and always being in the same spot is that latency or lag times. There are no ways around the physics and even at light speed it takes a fraction of a second or so to make the round-trip from earth to satellite and then back again. Geo orbits make voice communications difficult and fast action games can't work with that latency. LEO are the same r less latency than some cell phone services, not noticeable unless you have the sender and receiver in the same room.

Here is a picture of the different distances:

This idea is not new but the ability to launch more cheaply, and the tech to do seamless appearing hand-offs from one sat to the next, like traveling and talking on a cell just ten years ago would drop more often than now, the same tech can make the new LEO sat systems to work acceptably.

In the 1990s through 2002 Bill Gates backed a company called Teledesic to do a full LEO earth covering satellite constellation. The lack of the mini sat development and the extreme cost of launches with only one or two satellites per launch defeated even Gates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledesic

Space X announced today the beginning of the pre-orbital planning and coordination to start sending over 4000 satellites up to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) http://thehill.com/policy/technology/331933-spacex-plans-to-launch-satellites-that-deliver-internet

Once launched, we will not only have coast to coast Broadband here, but everywhere in the world and at sea.

We live in exciting times.

[Jim & Alice]

Thanks, Derek.

All I can say is... Wow!

Jim

 

[freestoneangler]

I'd love to buy some Space-X stock if it's ever offered.