4 ms·
One of these things is not line the others.
by qmarchi 10y ago
One of these things is not line the others.
- DiThi 10y agoSpaceX just launched and landed an orbital-class booster for the second time in history, a few days ago. It's not unfeasible to think they'll be able to launch their own satellites for very cheap, with the upcoming Falcon Heavy, with block 5 (improved version of the rocket for quick reuse) and after refining their inspection procedures.
- mirimir 10y agoCare to elaborate?
- sp332 10y agoThey are each about a factor of 6 apart from each other.
- mirimir 10y agoI'm guessing that it's a power vs number tradeoff.
- xenadu02 10y agoLaunching with SpaceX is already 50% cheaper than other providers, sans reusability. If SpaceX owns the network they can launch at cost. Let's say that puts them at a 70% advantage (When they perfect reusability maybe 90%). Satellite technology is also cheaper and smaller so you can put a lot more tiny satellites up with each launch. I have no problem believing SpaceX can blanket the globe with 4000 satellites at reasonable cost. As bandwidth needs increase they could simply launch more of them. For the sake of competition in the US (and access in other parts of the world) I hope they succeed. The only other risk I see (beyond losing money if the venture doesn't gain enough customers) is that nations like North Korea, China, Iran, etc will not be happy that their citizens can subscribe to an ISP they can't control or filter and without any way to block it. I can definitely see China (credibly) threatening to blow up the satellites if SpaceX sells access to Chinese customers.
- mirimir 10y agoBack in the day, some of us had that dream for the US too. SWANsat LEO network with WiMax, plus a VPN. So you get anonymous VPN connection via satellite. Pretty cool, no?