Musk says Starlink will work on boats

[Llarian]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Thanks for this. 12 inch square antennas might be light enough I could just bolt them to the sides of our solar panels (above the davits) & be done with them.

From the 2nd article:

"For Starlink to provide connectivity to ... remote parts of the ocean, far from ground stations, will require inter-satellite links — a capability in which satellites talk to each other using laser links without first bouncing signals off ground stations. The next generation of our constellation, which is in work, will have this inter-satellite connectivity."

I wish Starlink would have been more specific on the timeline for this.

We can make some inferences. Only the polar orbit satellites have laser links right now and the first orbital shell is complete as of a week or two ago.


Musk said all satellites launched from probably 2022 will have laser links, which means they're probably the 53.2 degree shell that sits 10km below the current one.



The 53.2 degree shell is about the same size as the current 53 degree one and that took about 18 months to launch. At their current cadence though they can launch that many satellites in around a year.


So, maybe early 2023, with the polar orbit satellites having functional laser links from the get go?

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Llarian

We can make some inferences. Only the polar orbit satellites have laser links right now and the first orbital shell is complete as of a week or two ago.

Musk said all satellites launched from probably 2022 will have laser links, which means they're probably the 53.2 degree shell that sits 10km below the current one.

The 53.2 degree shell is about the same size as the current 53 degree one and that took about 18 months to launch. At their current cadence though they can launch that many satellites in around a year.

So, maybe early 2023, with the polar orbit satellites having functional laser links from the get go?

You seem to have access to better info than I do. Thanks for this. The joys of collaborative forums.

• Do you know how many birds are in a given orbit, following each other?
• And how far apart (in degrees) each orbital plane is?
• That would give us the number of planes/shell, as well as the total number of birds/shell.

I heard they've got 10,000 users now. At $100/month, that's $1M/month. Still in the red, but that's starting to be serious money.

It's a shame they're launching all those birds that don't have sat/sat capability. It's not cheap building them or getting them up there. But I guess they're more like beta-birds, so maybe their performance will improve with the next generation.

I was wondering why Starlink is investing so much in ground stations. If they had the sat/sat laser links running, which was the plan from the beginning, they'd only need a few ground stations.

SpaceX likes to test real, live hardware, & doesn't seem to mind (much) it blowing up if/when it fails, so maybe the whole system is just beta HW now, & due to be replaced in the future. But it still seems to be a waste, especially since they don't really have any competition to race against (yet).

One of the (older) videos in the articles posted above says that Bezos isn't going after consumers, but wanting to supply signal to ISPs instead, & One Web also seems to have more of a corporate orientation. Which is too bad, really. I was hoping for better competition, to keep everyone honest.

[Llarian]

The latest FCC approved change is here:


https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-48A1.pdf


Relevant section is II.4


The info about the laser links future timing is largely from Musk's tweets, so take it with a grain of salt, but we know the polar orbital satellites all are launching with laser interconnects.

[NaClyDog]

This may pose a problem for use in the warmer climes...


https://arstechnica.com/information-...e-for-7-hours/

[dannc]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

This may pose a problem for use in the warmer climes...

https://arstechnica.com/information-...e-for-7-hours/

Yeah, that is scary. I am hoping/planning to install the dish about 10-12 feet off the ground but it will be near the roof. Shutting down at 122F seems like a very low threshold for much of the southern US and in the hot deserts out west. Wonder if an external fan would help....

Later,
Dan

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Llarian

The latest FCC approved change is here:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-48A1.pdf

Relevant section is II.4....

Thanks, Llarian. The relevant parts say that as of April 2020 Starlink wants the following constellations. They've also filed for some more in higher orbits, & some lower orbits as well, but for now:

Const . Height . Inclination . Planes . Birds/plane . Total birds
. . 1 . . 550 km . . 53.0° . . . . 72 . . . . . 22 . . . . . 1,584
. . 2 . . 540 km . . 53.2° . . . . 72 . . . . . 22 . . . . . 1,584
. . 3 . . 570 km . . 70.0° . . . . 36 . . . . . 20 . . . . . . 720
. . 4 . . 560 km . . 97.6° . . . . 06 . . . . . 58 . . . . . . 348
. . 5 . . 560 km . . 97.6° . . . . 04 . . . . . 43 . . . . . . 172

This is only the first 4,408 birds. Many more have been requested since April 2020.

So the first 2 have 5° orbital (plane) spacing, although the birds are 16.4° apart in their orbits.

Constellation #3 has 10° orbital plane spacing, & the birds are 18° apart.

97.6° of inclination for constellations #4 & 5 make no sense at all to me, but that's what the document says. I think these last 2 are essentially polar orbits. Orbital planar separation is quite big (36°) as there are only 10 planes between them, but the birds are only 6.2° & 8.4° apart in their orbits.

PS: Sorry about all the dots. Does anyone know a better way to do a table in CF posts?

[h20man]

Interestingly... The Starlink's president Gwynne Shotwel was quoted by Reuters saying full global coverage should be working by Sept this year!

[steve77]

I understand the Starlink receiver consumes 100 Watts, but is there any reason that it must stay on 24/7? If the unit is being outfitted in mobile applications I would think that it is reasonably easy to power on and off.

So even if it does consume 100 Watts, can we simply turn it on only when needed, say for an hour or two each day?

Cheers!

Steve

[bcboomer]

I shut mine off every day.
It takes a few minutes to connect after being turned on.

[steve77]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

I shut mine off every day.
It takes a few minutes to connect after being turned on.

Good to know, thanks!

Steve

[zboss]

Originally Posted by dannc

Yeah, that is scary. I am hoping/planning to install the dish about 10-12 feet off the ground but it will be near the roof. Shutting down at 122F seems like a very low threshold for much of the southern US and in the hot deserts out west. Wonder if an external fan would help....

Later,
Dan

Its not really. This is just first generation. They will develop smaller dishes with better heat management systems.

[GordMay]

Elon Musk discuss Starlink Internet at MWC 2021
➥ https://youtu.be/RcnVTgrgThE
➥ https://youtu.be/gSJrf45IBIA

Starlink, an array of low-orbit satellites offering high-speed, low-latency connectivity, is already offering a trial service and aims to cover the world starting in August, Tesla CEO and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk told the Mobile World Congress [MWC].

It has more than 1,500 satellites aloft and is operating in about a dozen countries, adding more every month, with Musk forecasting that total customer numbers would reach half a million over the next 12 months, from 69,000 now.

Without disclosing details, he also said Starlink has “two quite significant partnerships with major country telcos” that could help the SpaceX division plug the gaps in fifth-generation mobile and cellular networks.

More ➥ https://interestingengineering.com/e...bal-five-weeks

[NaClyDog]

For anyone thinking they are going to get Starlink to work in the middle of the ocean(s) this year, it might be worth investing 10 minutes of your time to watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh_cJK3A6kI

TL;DR - LEO satellites required to make this work will only begin launching in 2022.

[Davidhoy]

[QUOTE=NaClyDog;3449119]TL;DR - LEO satellites required to make this work will only begin launching in 2022.[./QUOTE]

Not entirely true, but certainly mid-ocean access is still a little way off. SpaceX launched 10 satellites with the necessary inter-satellite laser links into polar orbit on the Transporter-1 mission in January, plus another 3 on the Transporter-2 mission in June. Plans are to begin launching another 338 laser-equipped satellites from Vandenburg starting as early as this month (though it looks likely to slip a bit, as the month is nearly over).

[Tillsbury]

Well I have to say it's just like magic. I got one a while back, and took it down to the boat. Placing the dish down on the side deck, pointing at a dirty great furled Genoa, sheets, lifelines and what-have-you, it gives me 150M down and 30M up. I haven't been far offshore yet but for coastal NZ it's a transformation. Now to fix up a decent pole mount for the dish.

By comparison, we get 4G coverage in the marina and "free" 1Mb wifi which is close to useless, but by 3 miles from the harbour the phone is down to "G" (not even 3G) which can send a text if you're patient, and by 5 miles there's absolutely no signal of any kind to be had in any direction, which is usual around NZ unless you're right next to a city.