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A new Google project proposes to put 180 satellites in orbit to provide worldwide internet access.

The competition heats up: A new Google project proposes to put 180 satellites in orbit to provide worldwide internet access.

The details remain vague, but if this is true, and we have every reason to consider it likely, the demand for launch services just went up significantly, especially since the report says that these Google satellites will orbit “at lower altitudes than traditional satellites.” If that is the case they will have to be replaced more frequently.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Rod

    The satellites will need to be replaced OR refueled more often. This is a business opportunity for an orbital servicing vehicle. Perhaps a Dragon V2 vehicles loaded with fuel tanks that will rendezvous with several satellites, refuel and go on to the next–I would suppose that there would be more than one satellite in the same orbital plane. Somebody should do a business plan.

  • Pzatchok

    The satellites are going to be very very low.

    So low in fact that they will never have a stable or permanent orbit.

    They will be disposable in fact.. Think of it as a high powered WiFi network.

    Standard satellites could provide network access but since they are placed so high in permanent orbits the lag time would be ridiculous.

    By bringing the network closer to the target you remove 90% of the lag time.

    It will be free but it will not be 3G fast. And the ads to pay for it will make the new users cry.

    Seriously. They plan on paying for this by selling ad space. More pop-ups. Directed to whom?
    The first world users who are already paying their way onto the internet?
    Or do they hope to sell things to people in central Africa and upper Mongolia? I’m not sure exactly how many cooking pots and yurts they can sell by internet? Imagine the shipping costs for those things alone. 1000 mile shipping into the outback of Australia.
    OHHH. Now I know were they plan to use drones to ship stuff.

  • Pzatchok

    Sorry I was totally wrong.

    I was thinking of something entirely different.

    But the service life of one of their satellites is expected to be around 10 years.
    I guess you don’t need much more considering the advancement in technology in that time. They will want to upgrade the system by then.

  • ken anthony

    Expect balloons to compete.

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