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| Science & Technology |
| SpaceX gets nod to put 12,000 satellites in orbit |
| 2018-11-18 |
| [DAWN] SpaceX got the green light this week from US authorities to put a constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites into orbit in order to boost cheap, wireless internet access by the 2020s. The SpaceX network would vastly multiply the number of satellites around Earth. Since the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched in 1957, humanity has sent just over 8,000 objects into space, according to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Office for Outer Space Affairs. Between one quarter and one half of those are believed to still be operational. On Thursday the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it had authorized SpaceX to launch 7,518 satellites, adding to 4,425 satellites it has already approved. None of the satellites has launched yet. Elon Musk’s company has six years to put half in orbit, and nine years to complete the satellite network, according to FCC rules. SpaceX wants most of the satellites to fly in low Earth orbit, about 208 to 215 miles (335 to 346 kilometres) high. That would put them below the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometres) above Earth. SpaceX’s interest in such a low orbit is to shorten the communication time between internet users on Earth and space-faring satellites, speeding up surfing speeds. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Because there's not enough junk in orbit already? |
| Posted by: Jeatch Hupomotch5208 2018-11-18 08:06 |
#4 and his mole emerged.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2018 |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-11-18 02:54 |
| #3 Asked by another Twitter user if he was referring to the company’s latest design, released in September, or other changes, Musk responded, “Radical change,” without elaboration. The latest version of the BFR, unveiled by Musk at a Sept. 17 event at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, featured a number of design tweaks to the vehicle’s “spaceship” upper stage. Those changes included using the same version of the company’s Raptor engine under development as on the lower booster stage, increasing volume of the spaceship’s cabin and changing the vehicle’s tail fin design. At the time, Musk said those changes would be among the last for the BFR, as the company prepares to begin testing of the spaceship with “hopper” test flights as soon as late 2019 at SpaceX’s future South Texas launch site. “I feel like this is the final iteration in terms of broad architectural decisions” for BFR, he said at the September event. Musk’s comments come 10 days after he said the company was planning to modify a Falcon 9 second stage to perform tests related to the BFR. “Falcon 9 second stage will be upgraded to be like a mini-BFR Ship,” he announced on Twitter. That design, he said, would allow SpaceX to test technologies like the vehicle’s heat shield and control surfaces during reentry from orbit that can’t otherwise be tested. The company didn’t disclose additional details about those efforts since, including whether this would be a one-off test or a potential operational, reusable upper stage. Musk had indicated earlier in the year that the company was collecting data on how to recover the Falcon 9’s upper stage. “I’m actually quite confident that we’ll be able to achieve full reusability of the upper stage,” he said during a May press conference. Musk, in his latest tweets, said no major changes to the Falcon 9 were now on the table. “Yes, no upgrades planned for F9,” he wrote. “Minor tweaks to improve reliability only, provided NASA & USAF are supportive.” |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-11-18 02:46 |
| #2 Musk hints at further changes in BFR design Two months after he unveiled a revised design for SpaceX’s next-generation launch system, Elon Musk suggested that the company is making more changes to the design. In a series of tweets Nov. 17, Musk said that SpaceX was no longer pursuing an upgrade to its existing Falcon 9 vehicle that would make the vehicle’s second stage reusable. The company’s focus, he said, would instead be on speeding up work on SpaceX’s heavy-lift reusable launch vehicle formally known as Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR. “Accelerating BFR instead,” Musk said. “New design is very exciting! Delightfully counter-intuitive.” |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-11-18 02:46 |
| #1 The troubling bit is every time Musk tweets all his rockets are going to be designed built and used differently and he recently purged the top staff of his sat building shop in Redmond because "ex-Microsoft executives just can't respond, build change and test fast enough." Maybe he should have put his sat plant in Beverton Oregon and hired ex-Linux and ex-Intel executives? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-11-18 02:40 |