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Amazon’s Project Kuiper books 83 rockets to launch internet-beaming satellites
- onphonenow 5y agoThe cost of the launches would be great to know
- einpoklum 5y ago
- elliotpage 5y agoThey should rename it to Amazon Project Kessler because thats what they are going to cause.
- donkarma 5y agodo you realise how small one satellite is?
- frayesto 5y agowell, the kessler syndrome [1] is a real phenomenon and has real consequences. More satellites == more debris == high probability of collisions which can create a positive feedback loop. It requires real management and processes ahead of time, not after the fact. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
- tengbretson 5y agoWhat about it is a real phenomenon at this point?
- onion2k 5y agoIf they're comparable with Starlink satellites they're 1/4 of a ton each, and made of a lot of parts that could fragment on impact. That's small in satellite terms, but you wouldn't want to try to pick one up.
- bryanlarsen 5y agoWhen a satellite collides with a different satellite in the same orbit, none of the parts move to a higher energy orbit, and most move to a lower energy orbit. Given that the original orbit is 380 miles, almost all fragments will immediately deorbit due to atmospheric drag.
- Aachen 5y agoWait, starlink sats are 250kg? Given their number and all they have to do is forward some packets (no big equipment like a telescope), I kinda figured they'd be a few kilos each, like a bit more fancy than a cubesat.
- onion2k 5y agoI'm actually a little out of date - the newest ones are about 300kg. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink
- terafo 5y agoIt won't. Any sat can't be on LEO long without constant orbit corrections. And bunch of scrap that is created by few sats colliding will just burn in atmosphere in just few months(maybe years).
- mabbo 5y agoEdit: terafo pointed out I've got BO rocket's names wrong! Fixed! And most of these launches on rockets that have never flown. > The satellites will fly on powerful rockets currently being developed by European launch provider Arianespace, US-based United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin Arianespace: probably the Ariane 6, which might get a test flight this year if all goes perfectly. ULA: 9 launches planned on the Atlas V, but afaik the rest will have to be on Vulcan. But Vulcan is still waiting on Blue Origin to provide it's new BE-4 engines, which are years late. Blue Origin: New Glenn uses same engines as Vulcan, the BE-4, stuck by the same delays. Plus, if BO uses the BE-4 on New Glenn before delivering to ULA, ULA will get very upset. My guess is that the Atlas V launches will launch a few test satellites for Kuiper to prototype with, and nothing else will launch until mid-23. Meanwhile SpaceX is launching almost weekly right now, and offering a real product today.
- oses 5y agoThe engine situation actually looks even more grim for New Glenn than what you portray. The differences between making an engine survive flight once and one that can be reused are not insignificant.
- terafo 5y agoYou confused New Shepard and New Glenn. New Shepard uses BE-3 and performs sub-orbital flights for rich tourists. New Glenn is heavy reusable orbital rocket that uses BE-4.
- mabbo 5y agoThanks, my mistake. Sheppard was the first American in space, Glenn the first to orbit, so it should be easy to remember.
- loudmax 5y ago> New Glenn is heavy reusable orbital rocket That's "will be a heavy reusable orbital rocket". New Glenn hasn't flown yet, even in prototype. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action. But I'm not holding my breath.
- 5y ago
- hotpotamus 5y agoI'm of many minds about this whole thing. Increased competition for Internet access is nice - gone are the days where I had one choice for Internet access. I have the option for 2 cable providers, ATT Fiber or DSL, and T-Mobile Home Internet (I've used it at a relative's and it's quite good). Presumably I could sign up for Starlink too. But the thought of Amazon controlling Internet access is not ideal. Also I worry about the effect on astronomy which is I think one of humanity's more interesting pursuits.
- throw_nbvc1234 5y agoIf you already have a reasonable option for internet then you're probably not the target audience for this.
- hotpotamus 5y agoProbably not, but I do think that more options will push legacy ISPs to up their game which will be a benefit to all consumers of Internet.
- guhidalg 5y agoYour confusion is well founded, these products are not for you and the true customers don't care. LEO Satellite network connectivity is every military's wet dream: impossible to deny without triggering global condemnation for creating space debris; only accessible to those with the most money (and access to launchers); allows you to run operations without deploying large power-hungry ground infrastructure. Why do you think Amazon fought so hard to take away the JEDI contract from Microsoft?
- throw_nbvc1234 5y agoDidn't Russia jam starlink in Ukraine with 50 year old tech? or was that debunked? Also DoD announced their own project a month or so back https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/28/pentagons-sda-awards-transport-layer-satellite-internet-contracts.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/28/pentagons-sda-awards-transpo...
- rootsudo 5y agoI wonder if in the end this will be like another Eternal September as with the introduction of Cell Phones w/ 3G+ and AOL.
- Aachen 5y ago> like another Eternal September I'm not sure what you're saying. Am I misreading your comment when it sounds to me like you're afraid of the situation in which currently-poorer places can have Internet access, as though they'll be less civilised than the mostly rich constituents of today? (Assuming that Amazon or whoever figures that the sats have virtually no load while over those countries anyhow and they might as well make it cheaper than a land connection would otherwise be.)
- rootsudo 5y agoNo, in the same sense that carrier/telecom deployed cheap phones, and more and more people online without understand what they are leaving on the table. Then they'll assume the "internet" is really just "facebook" as there is no net neutrality in "currently poorer places" to use your vocabulary. Then their Internet experience becomes paywalled, or gatekeeped and dependent on foreign businesses instead of local infrastructure, meaning that if USA demands/wishes to drop content or dns resolving such as youtube dropping Russian News regardless of opinion, it just doesn't follow Alphabet/Google's Narrative to the point of USA not having a direct hand in manipulating how searches work and such per demand of USA based ISP's such as Starlink, Amazon and etc.
- Aachen 5y agoOkay, but that is not what eternal September means: > The only exception to this was September of every year, when large numbers of first-year college students gained access to the internet and Usenet through their universities. These large groups of new users who had not yet learned online etiquette created a nuisance for the experienced users [...] lamenting what they saw as an increase in low quality posts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September (Phrasing it less politically correctly, it sounded like you thought the poor countries would be savages coming without our western etiquette norms to invade our Internet. Apparently you found an entirely different definition of ES somewhere that isn't about etiquette.)
- QuadmasterXLII 5y agoArianespace: 18 launches Blue Origin: 12 launches United Launch Alliance: 38 launches Total: 18 rocket launches and 50 lawsuits