Starlink and it's application to sailing, navigating?

[Rorzech]

Each starlink satellite has it's own guidance system equipped with it's own ion engine and is linked to the US military space junk monitoring system so they can move out of the way of any other junk threatening collision automatically. When the satellite is near its life's end, it just fly's down to the atmosphere and vaporizes itself on re-entry. There will be approximately 1,400 of them buzzing them around in a very low earth orbit all connected by lazers to at least 4 others so they always stay connected. Who knows maybe they will program them to connect to real junk and drag pieces to re-entry for burn-up, cleaning up the space around earth .

[Rorzech]

It'll still involves a pizza sized dish antenna, but it may not have to be aimed. Just as long as it's pointed up. Each satellite has a directional antenna pointing straight down cone shaped radiation. I think he will price it at what ever the market will bare. He's not doing this for the good of his health. He wants to make 30 to 50 Billion annually with this venture to help finance his manned trip to Mars. He's got 120 satellites up now and needs more than 10 times that amount to add to the grid up there. This will be fantastic !

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

Each starlink satellite has it's own guidance system equipped with it's own ion engine and is linked to the US military space junk monitoring system so they can move out of the way of any other junk threatening collision automatically. When the satellite is near its life's end, it just fly's down to the atmosphere and vaporizes itself on re-entry. There will be approximately 1,400 of them buzzing them around in a very low earth orbit all connected by lazers to at least 4 others so they always stay connected. Who knows maybe they will program them to connect to real junk and drag pieces to re-entry for burn-up, cleaning up the space around earth .

All hype, as usual for them.

https://spacenews.com/esa-spacecraft...ink-satellite/

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

Each starlink satellite has it's own guidance system equipped with it's own ion engine and is linked to the US military space junk monitoring system so they can move out of the way of any other junk threatening collision automatically. When the satellite is near its life's end, it just fly's down to the atmosphere and vaporizes itself on re-entry. There will be approximately 1,400 of them buzzing them around in a very low earth orbit all connected by lazers to at least 4 others so they always stay connected. Who knows maybe they will program them to connect to real junk and drag pieces to re-entry for burn-up, cleaning up the space around earth .

You were doing great up until that last sentence, then things kinda went sideways .

[J Clark H356]

I’m looking forward to Starlink. I do a good bit of work from my boat and this is the missing link. At $80 a month or even more for a large, huck of bandwidth, it sounds exciting. I think the pizza box antenna will be easy to deal with.

[Chotu]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonatha...y-galaxies/amp

Absolutely disgusting.

[Morgali]

Originally Posted by Orion Jim

Component costs and current draw will determine suitability.

I will be one of the ones beating a path to their door, assuming that these costs are equivalent with current equipment costs for home internet devices (higher end cable modems, etc) or better. But I am thinking they will probably start people off with a "leased equipment" plan because the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) will just be too expensive and new to be affordable by the average subscriber. Even if that's the case, if we can top 50 MBit we can stream 4k HD video to 3 separate displays on that bandwidth.

[chowdan]

Originally Posted by Morgali

I will be one of the ones beating a path to their door, assuming that these costs are equivalent with current equipment costs for home internet devices (higher end cable modems, etc) or better. But I am thinking they will probably start people off with a "leased equipment" plan because the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) will just be too expensive and new to be affordable by the average subscriber. Even if that's the case, if we can top 50 MBit we can stream 4k HD video to 3 separate displays on that bandwidth.

Agreed, to me personally, even if we are talking 1-3k initial cost and recurring cost is same as house hold internet - I will be beating doors with cash in hand!

I also suspect they will subsidize the initial cost by doing lease options. The real question is how well they can handle the CPE units moving and not being stationary

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by chowdan

The real question is how well they can handle the CPE units moving and not being stationary

The antenna is stationary, and uses waveguide technology to "point" at the desired satellite. Also, I'm sure they'll use some kind of feedback loop to keep the waveguide "pointed" at the satellite as the underlying platform (in our case a boat) moves. In addition, if they have to transition to a different satellite (which will be frequently), the slew time is measured in microseconds. With the current technology, the mechanical nature of the antenna results in multiple seconds of slew time.

It's exciting technology, and there will be inevitable teething problems. But it sounds like a real game-changer!

[zboss]

The first set of customers are large enterprises, commercial vessels, cruise ships, etc. The system will include a 4G and 5G LTE repeater and wifi so that you can access the network in the traditional manner without a large antenna when an equipped commercial vessel or tractor trailer is in range.

The antennas requirements for small vessels and vehicles, which won't appear for a good two-three years, is not bigger than the new thales devices.

"In a media briefing last week Musk described it in slightly more specific terms: “It’s like a flat disc, but unlike a, say, a DirecTV satellite dish which has to point in a specific direction, has to point very precisely at the geostationary satellite. In the case of a Starlink dish, you can basically kind of put it at almost any angle that is reasonably pointed at the sky.”

[Wireless1]

Originally Posted by Chotu

All hype, as usual for them.

https://spacenews.com/esa-spacecraft...ink-satellite/

As usual, they usually pull off the hype just fine. I just about lost my mind when I saw that first Falcon fall to earth and land on the floating platform. I knew things would never be the same after "that" hype. Just wow...

[goodlime]

Originally Posted by chowdan

Agreed, to me personally, even if we are talking 1-3k initial cost and recurring cost is same as house hold internet - I will be beating doors with cash in hand!

From what I've read Elon stated that the expected hardware purchase cost will be $100-300.


As a software engineer, this will be a total game changer for me. I'll be able to work remotely anywhere. I'll be leaving a medium-size-pizza-box sized space on the solar arch I'm going to have built for my next boat, ready to slap that bad boy right on there!


With regard to the comments about light pollution and it's negative effects on astronomy, I agree, that is a drawback. But SpaceX are working on ways to mitigate that currently. The next launch will include at least one satellite with 'sun-shade' technology to lower the reflective qualities of the satellites in orbit moving forward. I recommend watching a launch on YouTube if you haven't. It's mind blowing, and in some ways, quite frightening, where technology is at now.

[Qismat]

I've been watching starlink for a long time. Will definitely be getting set up with it. I'm in the PNW so it will be perfect to get set up with it on launch. I'm planning on mounting the antenna on the top of the mizzen mast to give it the best view of the sky.