Very Low Orbit Comms?

[BirdUp]

Good Afternoon ya fine humans,

Are any of you hip to the ‘mega constellations’ that have recently taken orbit?

Starlink - Wikipedia

SpaceX’s Starlink is now the most prolific as the company is now the largest single entity operator of satellites thus far in history (with Bezos close on their tail).

Here’s the skinny for commo dudes, I believe most of these satellites are gonna be in the 12-100ish GHz band depending on which company is being referred to (amazon and one web being the other two big players). There is some DoD stuff in the works (I’ll leave it at that). The system is exponentially ‘better’ when compared to the geo-stationary birds we are used to because the satellite is so much physically closer; such that latency is dramatically lowered.
I foresee this bringing many IoT devices to the soldiers toolbox and a probable lamentable amount of oversight because of increased bandwidth with ‘the rear.’

Thoughts? Discussions?

 

[RackMaster]

Starlink is a game changer for rural communities and I'm looking forward to making the switch from LTE.

 

[BirdUp]

Starlink is a game changer for rural communities and I'm looking forward to making the switch from LTE.

Have you signed up for the open beta?

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Good Afternoon ya fine humans,

Are any of you hip to the ‘mega constellations’ that have recently taken orbit?

Starlink - Wikipedia

SpaceX’s Starlink is now the most prolific as the company is now the largest single entity operator of satellites thus far in history (with Bezos close on their tail).

Here’s the skinny for commo dudes, I believe most of these satellites are gonna be in the 12-100ish GHz band depending on which company is being referred to (amazon and one web being the other two big players). There is some DoD stuff in the works (I’ll leave it at that). The system is exponentially ‘better’ when compared to the geo-stationary birds we are used to because the satellite is so much physically closer; such that latency is dramatically lowered.
I foresee this bringing many IoT devices to the soldiers toolbox and a probable lamentable amount of oversight because of increased bandwidth with ‘the rear.’

Thoughts? Discussions?

The technology is certainly interesting in regards to opening up net access to parts of the world with poor infrastructure or rampant corruption. Not to be a stick in the mud, but with the low orbital altitude of these satellites couldn't some asshole blow a nuke high enough in the atmosphere to brick them?

 

[BirdUp]

The technology is certainly interesting in regards to opening up net access to parts of the world with poor infrastructure or rampant corruption. Not to be a stick in the mud, but with the low orbital altitude of these satellites couldn't some asshole blow a nuke high enough in the atmosphere to brick them?

Yes, some asshole (probable state actor) could. However the resilience of the system is that the network is distributed amongst thousands of low mass satellites that are proving to be very cheap to manufacture and launch (thank you reusable launch vehicles!)
So the idea is that you can simply replace them. I’d be willing to be that a rapid launch capability DoD contract is not so far off.

Also the network is pretty reconfigurable as each of these spacecraft has its own propulsion. So let’s say your actor EMPs the section of sky above their nation. You could simply re task birds on the other side of the planet to create new coverage based on your now-smaller deck of cards... yeah it’s pretty much magic the gathering actually.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Yes, some asshole (probable state actor) could. However the resilience of the system is that the network is distributed amongst thousands of low mass satellites that are proving to be very cheap to manufacture and launch (thank you reusable launch vehicles!)
So the idea is that you can simply replace them. I’d be willing to be that a rapid launch capability DoD contract is not so far off.

Also the network is pretty reconfigurable as each of these spacecraft has its own propulsion. So let’s say your actor EMPs the section of sky above their nation. You could simply re task birds on the other side of the planet to create new coverage based on your now-smaller deck of cards... yeah it’s pretty much magic the gathering actually.

Huh... so these satellites essentially act like one of those fancy blue decks, but with the ability to generate a shitload of 0/1 tokens. Pretty nifty! Especially when the mana requirements to give them all flying gets smoothed out.

What's the possibility of them becoming space junk? Are they low enough to fall outta the sky when they run outta juice?

Add on: The tech and possibilities are amazing, but it would suck donkey balls if we ended up seeding the atmosphere with more space junk. Unless they're low orbit enough to where that doesn't matter.

 

[BirdUp]

Huh... so these satellites essentially act like one of those fancy blue decks, but with the ability to generate a shitlod of 0/1 tokens. Pretty nifty! Especially when the mana requirements to give them all flying get's smoothed out.

What's the possibility of them becoming space junk? Are they low enough to fall outta the sky when they run outta juice?

Yes. All new spacecraft have been required to have a deorbit capability on board for a while. These spacecraft will end up in an orbit where their propulsion systems will be necessary to compensate for tenuous atmospheric drag.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Yes. All new spacecraft have been required to have a deorbit capability on board for a while. These spacecraft will end up in an orbit where their propulsion systems will be necessary to compensate for tenuous atmospheric drag.

That's awesome!

Any fears about our enemies using these systems to expand their reach or operational influence? Cause it'd be mighty ironic if this tech gets hijacked, by someone like the chicoms, to expand intelligence gathering capabilities and push an Orwellian nightmare to the less developed parts of the world.

Apologies for the post add on.

 

[BirdUp]

That's awesome!

Any fears about our enemies using these systems to expand their reach or operational influence? Cause it'd be mighty ironic if this tech gets hijacked, by someone like the chicoms, to expand intelligence gathering capabilities and push an Orwellian nightmare to the less developed parts of the world.

Apologies for the post add on.

Most of these spacecraft are being tasked for things like @RackMaster ’s internet connection. So I would say that this provides a physical medium to continue the kind of information campaigns we’ve been seeing so effectively used this past millennium. Heck you even get better coverage.
On the flip side, this dramatically increases State Dept ability to put indirect pressure on places like North Korea because the Information firehose of the Free world is drifting overhead.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Most of these spacecraft are being tasked for things like @RackMaster ’s internet connection. So I would say that this provides a physical medium to continue the kind of information campaigns we’ve been seeing so effectively used this past millennium. Heck you even get better coverage.
On the flip side, this dramatically increases State Dept ability to put indirect pressure on places like North Korea because the Information firehose of the Free world is drifting overhead.

Yep, that's what I was thinking was going happen. At this point, with the proliferation of this sort of technology one wouldn't be able to say fuck it and disappear into the woods. That's gonna suck. Streaming the Legend of the Galactic Heroes in the middle of Alaska would be cool as hell, but the secondary and tertiary effects are a bit of a buzzkill.

I know that people love the IoT, but wouldn't those features end up adding a shitload of weight to the soldiers gear load out? Until exo skeletons become common gear I'd figure that the IoT might be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

 

[BirdUp]

Yep, that's what I was thinking was going happen. At this point, with the proliferation of this sort of technology one wouldn't be able to say fuck it and disappear into the woods. That's gonna suck. Streaming the Legend of the Galactic Heroes in the middle of Alaska would be cool as hell, but the secondary and tertiary effects are a bit of a buzzkill.

I know that people love the IoT, but wouldn't those features end up adding a shitload of weight to the soldiers gear load out? Until exo skeletons become common gear I'd figure that the IoT might be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

Exoskeletons are one my upcoming threads. What other stuff do you guys want? The only other one I have planned is earth to earth space travel as a strategic/tactical discussion

 

[RackMaster]

Have you signed up for the open beta?

Absolutely but right now, it's limited in Canada with massive interest.

 

[Gunz]

Exoskeletons are one my upcoming threads. What other stuff do you guys want? The only other one I have planned is earth to earth space travel as a strategic/tactical discussion

Isn’t Earth to Earth for civilian applications already on the drawing board at SpaceX (Starship; SuperHeavy) and elsewhere? It would follow that military applications are advancing along those lines at or beyond pace.

I’d find a thread on this interesting.

 

[Xenophon]

Exoskeletons are one my upcoming threads. What other stuff do you guys want? The only other one I have planned is earth to earth space travel as a strategic/tactical discussion

A thread on the forecasted survivability of different constellations by phase and stage during a peer conflict would slap.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict during the first few days were insightful but I fear too many people are going to think that "the lesson" is to protect the constellations themselves instead of flexing to non-SATCOM transmissions pathways.

 

[Teufel]

It’s a good system. We played with a terminal at work. This wouldn’t be the first time the military used commercial satcom. BGAN and iridium come to mind.

 

[compforce]

Here's the future... This is about AST's stock, but she does a good job of breaking down what AST Spacemobile is all about and the difference between it and Starlink. They are scheduled to start launching in June on SpaceX

disclosure: I own some of their stock (ASTS)

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Here's the future... This is about AST's stock, but she does a good job of breaking down what AST Spacemobile is all about and the difference between it and Starlink. They are scheduled to start launching in June on SpaceX

disclosure: I own some of their stock (ASTS)

While nifty, this tech is terrifying. No place on earth will be safe from cellular technology or the internet.

Gonna be a brave new world out there.

 

[compforce]

and for those that missed my hint... it was trading at 6.50 when I posted the video above. Launch is next month, satellite has been moved to Florida (prompting the current price move). There is probably still time to get in if you're willing to risk losing in the event of a catastrophe.

 

[BloodStripe]

The Hacking of Starlink Terminals Has Begun

Here’s the bigger issue with Starlink and similar programs. They are low hanging fruit and as evident in the article, easy to hack into. They need to shore this up before any large investments into them are “safe.”