Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX Says Its 60 Starlink Satellites Are All Phoning Home (and Fading Out) | Space

Sun, 02 Jun 2019 15:17:22 -0700

There are whole bunches of risk factors.

Assuming the satellite-mesh system works (and that is still an if; note that this first batch does not include the sat-sat laser link capability), I have not seen a real estimate of the system capacity. I would presume there would be separate earth stations for each orbital plane. There could even conceivably be multiple earth stations for each orbital plane, which would make the system capacity flexible.

IDK if they're making money or not, but they are serving body blows to the competition.

There was open speculation that the Falcon heavy was going into a limited demand situation, but now that it seems to be working (so far), that market opportunity may be shifting as well.


bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 6/2/2019 12:52 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:

You’d think that SpaceX is highly profitable and is using those profits to expand into the satellite Internet business.  But actually there is debate whether SpaceX is profitable without accounting tricks, and even if it is profitable, the margins are very thin.  Reportedly the geostationary launch business is softening, and SpaceX is actually looking to Starlink for profits.  No doubt it helps if you can launch your own satellites, maybe even having them ride along while you get paid to launch stuff for paying customers.  But this sounds like a pretty risky venture, paid for with borrowed money.  If it wasn’t risky, it wouldn’t be Elon, right?

 

 

From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Mike Hammett
Sent: Sunday, June 2, 2019 12:04 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX Says Its 60 Starlink Satellites Are All Phoning Home (and Fading Out) | Space

 

I would suspect they are going to have hundreds of earth stations as opposed to one or two earth stations that legacy platforms have. Up to the bird, maybe across one or two birds, and back down to the fiber-fed earth stations. I've seen the numbers, but I forgot the numbers. It's real bandwidth at each one.

From: "Tim Withrow via AF" <af@af.afmug.com>
To: af@af.afmug.com
Cc: "Tim Withrow" <timwith...@aol.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2019 4:43:01 PM
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX Says Its 60 Starlink Satellites Are All Phoning Home (and Fading Out) | Space

What kind of bandwidth  capacity could each satellite have  at any given point?
What is the usable bandwidth of their system?  Who makes a radio that big to carry/transmit such  capacity or is it an
aggregate of small radio's?

 

On Saturday, June 1, 2019 Bill Prince <af@af.afmug.com> wrote:

Naturally, we're all thinking about what effect this will have in rural America, but I am also wondering if this would have some effect on China's "great firewall"?

 

bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
 

On 6/1/2019 1:47 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:

I think one factor advocacy groups and govt critters need to keep in mind is that instead of robust competition, what could occur is “disruptive” pricing, having the effect of discouraging or bankrupting the competition.  And now some new entrant is the only game in town.  And if it turns out to be unreliable, or not to  have enough capacity,  or their speeds are actually best effort, or their satellites start dropping out of the sky, or whatever, people can’t switch back to their old provider.  Like being dissatisfied with online stores and assuming you can always switch back to the old brick and mortar store, from Uber and Lyft back to taxis and limos.  Sorry, they don’t exist anymore.

 

This is unlikely to happen in big cities, I doubt Comcast will go bankrupt because of Starlink.  But to just assume there will be lots of choices out in the middle of nowhere driving the price down without any of them turning off the lights, seems a little naïve.

 

And to assume big megacorps like SpaceX, Amazon, Googe,  Facebook, etc. would never price below cost to be “disruptive” also seems naïve.

 

 

From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Bill Prince
Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2019 3:20 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX Says Its 60 Starlink Satellites Are All Phoning Home (and Fading Out) | Space

 

Sure. But after the clouds, geostationary still needs to go another 23,000 miles. LEO only has to go a few hundred.

 

bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
  

On 6/1/2019 10:47 AM, Mathew Howard wrote:

Clouds are generally a lot lower than a couple hundred miles... 

 

On Sat, Jun 1, 2019, 10:58 AM Bill Prince <part15...@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe at geostationary distances, but these are only a few hundred miles up.

bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>

On 6/1/2019 8:56 AM, Matt Hoppes wrote:
> Don't those bands have significant attenuation issues with like...
> clouds?
>
> On 6/1/19 10:55 AM, Bill Prince wrote:
>> According to Wikipedia, they will be on Ku, Ka, and V bands.
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation)
>>
>> bp
>> <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
>>
>> On 6/1/2019 7:46 AM, Jaime Solorza wrote:
>>> Wonder what frequencies they will use?
>>>
>>> https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-phone-home-dimming.html
>>>
>>>
>>

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