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An interesting fact is why the name Iridium? When they were in the planning stages for this set of satellites, they estimated that they would need 77 of them t
by donarb 8y ago
An interesting fact is why the name Iridium?
When they were in the planning stages for this set of satellites, they estimated that they would need 77 of them to completely cover the Earth (including the poles), evoking an image of 77 electrons circling the nucleus of an atom. The atomic number for the element Iridium is 77. The number of satellites needed was paired down to 66, so the satellites should actually be named Dysprosium.
- somerando 8y agopared down
- cup-of-tea 8y agoAs in the thing you do with a paring knife.
- basementcat 8y agoI pointed this out when I interviewed for a job at Iridium. I didn't get an offer.
- jcims 8y agoYa miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
- codinghorror 8y agoYou may not have gotten an offer, but you do get something else of incalculable value: my upvote!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- magduf 8y agoDidn't that company end up going out of business and getting bought out for pennies on the dollar by another company which is the one operating it now? You might have dodged a bullet there.
- Justin_K 8y agoProbably wouldn't want to work there if they couldn't take the joke!
- dane-pgp 8y agoAnd for completeness, the name of the element comes from the name of the Greek mythological personification of the rainbow. With rainbows being something of a "heavenly" phenomenon, the name was doubly appropriate.
- rkangel 8y agoCambridge Consultants designs a lot of their subscriber equipment - modems, handsets etc. Their internal project name for the Iridium work is Dysprosium for exactly this reason.
- azswcowboy 8y agoYes, original Motorola design called for 77 which drove the name, which stuck.