TECH TALK
ground towers in remote areas with minimal or no coverage, seamlessly taking over when there is no ground connection. The company claim that is has engineered a solution that can allow any cellphone to connect with one of their satellites if no ground coverage is available. Their goal is, “In the near future, you will have one device, and one plan, for connectivity everywhere.” Lofty, indeed. This will appeal to not only rural
or remote cell users, but also provide coverage during disaster conditions when cell towers may be un- operational or unavailable. According to their website, over 33 companies, including 24 mobile network operators representing 1.5 billion customers, have signed up to test their service. Lynk will wholesale this to mobile network operators, who in turn will decide if/when/how to offer it to their customers, rather than set up a retail operation themselves. Their software-based approach allows for a cellphone to connect to a satellite the same way it connects to a tower, despite the distance. In perfect conditions, a cellphone
may be able to work with a tower that’s about 45 miles (72 kilometers) away, but in most actual conditions in the real world, it is usually about half of that distance. The Lynk satellites will be ~310 miles overhead, but their solution will override this and make a phone think that is only 12 miles (20 kilometers) away, thus allowing for a stable connection. They also claim that Lynk will use smaller satellites, decreasing costs to develop them, but also in reducing launch and operational expenses.
Their big claim is that customers will be able to use existing cellphones and user terminals and antennas will not be needed to access their satellites, unlike much of its competition. Lynk plans on having between its initial set of 24 - 36 satellites
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in orbit by 2021, providing its customers with coverage anywhere between 55 degrees north and south latitudes. The ultimate plan is that by 2023 their constellation of “several thousand satellites” by 2023 will have continuous coverage, “whether in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the Amazon jungle, or the Pacific Ocean.” Lynk seems to have a unique niche to separate its service from the other forthcoming satellite constellations.
OTHERS Several other companies and groups had made announcements such as Facebook, Samsung, Boeing, China’s Hongyan and others have either been delayed, gone quiet publicly or been put on hold. There are also smaller constellations with more regionally focused efforts as well which we have not been mentioned here. Expect more surprises from other companies. Size and Cost Advantage Goes to the LEOs, at least for SpaceX The newer upcoming LEO constellations differ in general from their legacy LEO and MEO competitors in one primary way: cheaper and smaller satellites that can be launched in larger groups, thus saving on launch costs and their manufacturing expenses. This alone is quite a cost savings as compared to the larger, more expensive satellites in MEO / GEO orbits, with some of these taking years to build. For example, SpaceX has revealed that its satellites weigh around 500 pounds each. The initial batch of 60 Starlink satellites was launched in one mission and were released from the payload bay of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to an initial altitude of 270 miles above Earth. Eventually these satellites will be pushed via boosters to an orbit of 342 miles. From the information provided, these simply drifted out of the bay and their solar
arrays unfolded as they emerged. To reduce costs as compared to traditional satellites (some of which are as big as a city bus and can weigh 13,000 pounds or more), Starlink satellites have a relatively thin flat panel design which allows for a large number of satellites to be stacked together for launch on a single launch vehicle. Each of these satellites has multiple flat-panel antennas that are positioned towards the Earth and a single solar array. Less information has been available about the competition, but, from appearances, SpaceX has used its lead in developing newer lower-cost rockets, with novel satellite designs that are intended for a short life of approximately seven years. The design has been seemingly optimized for cost and performance characteristics, and reflect a departure from legacy satellites. This is quite a design feat for SpaceX, and should pressure the competition with its optimized designs, launch process, and cost structure of the entire enterprise. And SpaceX is also dropping the costs for launches on its rockets, offering anyone with the opportunity to get up in orbit for less. Media reports are quoting SpaceX, “Instead of charging $2.5 million to launch a payload weighing up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds) to sun-synchronous orbit, SpaceX is now advertising a base price of $1 million for launching up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of ESPA-class payload, with the charge for extra mass priced at $5,000 per kilogram (2.2 pounds).” This type of ridesharing opportunity is pretty much like Uber offering Lyft drivers with a discount to get to their car. SpaceX targets for 24 Starlink missions in 2020, and that is in addition to their launches for other customers, such as NASA, the U.S. military and commercial satellite operators.
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