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One small nitpick - the satellites mentioned are much larger than cubesats - they're talking about a 250 kg satellite - or about 50 times larger than a large 3u
by natosaichek 12y ago
One small nitpick - the satellites mentioned are much larger than cubesats - they're talking about a 250 kg satellite - or about 50 times larger than a large 3u cubesat. We're talking mini-fridge sized satellites here, which are much more capable beasts.
- dogma1138 12y ago"Using small (100-200KG) LEO communication satellites means 100's of launches over a decade and unlike GEO's the constellation will have to be constantly refreshed due to their short life span." I understand that cube sats are not a candidate, i some how doubt that 100KG sats are even a candidate. The closest we have so far to non GEO orbit satellites are MEO's like the KA-SAT's and other Ka-Band satellites these orbit at 7500-9000 KM orbits which is about 4 times higher than LEO and they weight 6 tonnes of about half is fuel intended to keep them in orbit for about 15-20 years. Out of those 4 remaining tonnes 3 are used by satellite bus it self which includes the power plant and all "space" components. The payload is under 1000KG and that is barely sufficient to house enough communication equipment to provide about 400Mbit bandwidth. How are they planning on doing the same with something that weight as much as keg i don't know.