Has anyone been following SpaceX's Starlink?

[Jdege]

Has anyone been following SpaceX's Starlink?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star...constellation)

SpaceX launched their first batch of 60 satellites on Thursday.

https://www.space.com/spacex-launche...atellites.html

They say they'll need six launches before they can turn on the network, and twelve before they will have sufficient coverage to begin operations.

They made twenty-some launches last year, so that may not take that long.

And what will it mean for cruisers?

“This will not only provide internet access to areas that don't have it, but provide competitive access to areas that already have connectivity,” Musk said in the May 15 telecon.

Currently, we rely on wireless cell towers or cables routed into our homes and offices to provide internet access. This means that rural, remote areas around the world are often without access. Many other options for satellite-based internet exist, but are very expensive and offer very slow connecting rates. (Remember dial-up?)

That’s because the satellites that provide this service are too far away. SpaceX wants to change that, and it's not alone. Several companies (including OneWeb, TeleSat, and now Amazon) want to provide internet to the masses by deploying a network of small satellites in low-Earth orbit, hovering much closer to the Earth than the satellites providing internet services currently.

[Dave_S]

There has been a couple of threads on it.

I don't think the first 60 have gone yet, a software problem I think.


http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ow-218149.html

[MartinR]

They are up and running!

[Jdege]

SpaceX Starlink Satellites spotted over Netherlands

[northwestsailor]

Sign me up, Scotty.

[kendalk]

The first 60 birds are indeed flying.

If you want to see them, go to the following website
https://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx

Identify your location (Upper Right Corner), then select STARLINK under Satellites

[Emouchet]

Yes, getting fairly good.
There is a general blog post about those potentially 100kb/s satellites at:
https://techreport.com/review/34605/...net-initiative

[a64pilot]

https://apple.news/A-ooTf_9BQqeUbbZOHOOgNg

[Rorzech]

Originally Posted by Emouchet

Yes, getting fairly good.
There is a general blog post about those potentially 100kb/s satellites at:
https://techreport.com/review/34605/...net-initiative

100kb/s may be good for email so thats no better than even my little Inreach . 1mb/s is almost useful and 5 mb/s is streamable. 20mb/s is really nice and 100mb/s is smoking hot racing speed !

[UFO]

Couldn't see anything about 100kb/s in the article, but I did only skim read it - But I did notice:


"From a bandwidth standpoint, Elon said SpaceX are estimating about one terabit of bandwidth for the 60 satellites that are launching. Hypothetically, 10,000 simultaneous test users would each get 100 Mbps at that rate. As the number of satellites increase, the available bandwidth increases as well. For a lot of people served by Starlink, it will be the highest-throughput transfer option available."

Originally Posted by Emouchet

Yes, getting fairly good.
There is a general blog post about those potentially 100kb/s satellites at:
https://techreport.com/review/34605/...net-initiative

[Simi 60]

So hold off on my HF radio OR iridium go purchase.

[Chotu]

How does one get permission to destroy the sky, littering it with 120,000 reflective objects?

Goodbye ground based astronomy.

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by Chotu

How does one get permission to destroy the sky, littering it with 120,000 reflective objects?

Goodbye ground based astronomy.

12000 small objects that will only be lit at dawn and dusk.
This is one object for every 40000 square kilometre of earth surface. Normally only very few will be visible for a telescope. Yes, it will make it a little harder for ground based astronomy, but luckily we are in the digital age and satellites can be filtered out. Some loss of data, of course.

We have about 4000 satellites/objects out there now, and it is not easy to spot one. many of them far larger than Starlink.

I would be much more worried about the effects on radio astronomy.

[GordMay]

Thanks for the “Axios Space” link, a64pilot.
I wasn’t aware of the site, or of it’s cable version, of "AXIOS" on HBO.

As to "getting permission to destroy the sky /w 120,000 reflective objects" ...
It's the law of unintended consequences.

[hellosailor]

I've heard suggestions that since most astrophotography is digital these days, many systems can be programmed to remove the satellites from the imagery. And that perhaps that cost can be roughly broken out, and added as a "disrupting astronomy" tax on each satellite, to be passed on back to the observatories.

But when SpaceX is talking about 1200 or 3000 or 12000 satellites, even at 60 per launch that's a LOT OF LAUNCHES they will have to make to complete the constellation. It would be years even if they had a successful launch every week. That's a long time to hold your breath and hope it all works out.

More suggestions are that Tesla plans to move their telematics from the cellular companies (who must be charging them a small fortune by now, considering every car is online so much of the time) to their own satellite network, which would give them a very real financial return, give SpaceX a guaranteed income stream for the new network (assuming Tesla doesn't go broke) and give Tesla the opportunity to move into streaming services, videos in the cars, music sales, audiobook sales...all sorts of possibilities.

But still...this is kinda like building the Hoover dam. An incredible amount of concrete that ALL has to be delivered to the right place at the right time. i wonder how that launch schedule matches up with their launch capabilities, using all equipment on all launch sites?