I think one of the main advantages of the space internet is it will further take over the control of internet access. Regional rulers have to face a harder time on controlling internet. This will be a huge power to hold. And I guess it may reshape the world economically and politically. Any other thoughts regarding this?
The only way that affordable internet access is possible in any country is with explicit and complicit action from the government. You can't get everyone online if the government is run by a group of people who actively don't want it to happen. For example, if a government wants to stop its citizens accessing the web all they need to is make the necessary equipment illegal. When the price of being found with a satellite modem is 30 years in prison most people are going to forego internet access.
The sad thing is there are governments that not only have that sort of power but willingly use it.
For a counterexample, check the history of satellite TV in countries with media access laws [1, 2]. There is a lot of political room between 'western media is illegal' and 'we have a network of informants and will put your family in a forced labor camp'.
Originally popularized by the Scythe Ninja back in gosh, what, 2004 or so? It was a super effective design, main refinements over time have been more and more "slices" and direct contact heatpipes. Nobody afaik has beaten efficiency of the tower heatpipe design to date.
did you read the patent? it says: "Priority date Aug 30, 1999" and the first sentence of the description is: "[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/386,103, filed on Aug. 30, 1999."
150ms is an incredible number, and the volume of satellites required will also increase bandwidth. This seems like a good situation to be in all around. I hope he succeeds at this work.
SpaceX has suggested around 20 ms latency with 4000 satellites offering near-gigabit speeds. Nothing but promises and a billion Google bucks right now, but I'm also hoping he succeeds. That'd be amazing.
The fun part of his is that its supposed to fund his Mars ventures and be SpaceX's experience for putting a similar network around Mars.
If it pans out, even in 2-3x his expected timeframe, I'll be the happiest geek alive.
> The fun part of his is that its supposed to fund his Mars ventures and be SpaceX's experience for putting a similar network around Mars.
It would be both incredibly cool and valuable to show up with all of the orbital infrastructure already in place (communications/positioning) waiting for us.
Mbps is capacity. Think of a water system of pipes...how many gallons of water can be put through per second. Latency is how long it takes to turn on the water.
So, high latency and high mbps = wait a second for image to start to load, once it does, image loads really fast.
Low latency and low mbps = image begins to load immediately but takes forever for the whole thing to appear.
One problem with existing satellite internet (or phone) is that the signal has to travel to and from a satellite thousands of miles above the equator causing a ~500ms (half second) delay or lag which is noticeable in voice or video calls, ssh sessions, games and even browsing the web. You'll press a key and it will take half a second for it to register, or say something and not be heard right away.
Getting this down to ~100ms puts it in the range of terrestrial communication and will make things much less noticeable.
Well, simply put, there's more to a good user experience than having some high Mbps. For example, if your latency is high then loading a web page with fifty small pictures will take longer than one really big picture.
On your phone, when chatting with someone, the connection will be really choppy.
Think of it as having a car that can go really fast in a straight line, but it takes a really long time to make any left or right turns.
Looks like they use Ka band [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O3b_%28satellite%29 ]. Wonder what were the factors of not choosing the Ku band. As far as I know Ku band is more cost effective and less susceptible to rain fade and such.
will this number of satellites really have enough bandwidth to serve 3 billion people? And how will the satellites 750 miles from earth be upgraded in the future as bandwidth demand increases?
